New campus on the Round Rock horizon

ACC's Round Rock campus is on schedule to open in the fall of 2010. Phase One of this new campus will feature five new buildings totaling more than 250,000 square feet in size. The campus will include a three-story Health Sciences building, a General Studies building, a Library, an Applied Technology building and a Central Utility Plant.

The new campus, being built on 84 acres of land, will encompass environmental technologies that will help make the buildings more efficient. These buildings, which consist of mainly brick, stone, concrete and steel materials, have all been locally supplied, thus reducing energy costs.

The campus also features elements of planning that allow environmentally friendly concepts to be incorporated at a later date. In the future, the Round Rock campus has the ability to install solar panels on the roofing and purchase wastewater to pump through their already installed purple piping that will allow for recycled irrigation throughout the campus.

The goal is for this campus to feel more like a college campus and a home base for students as opposed to just a building.

The Round Rock campus has enough land to accommodate for anticipate future growth, and plans to do it in a way in which any new additions to the campus will fit harmoniously with the layout.

"The scale of the project will surprise people," said ACC's project manager, Paul Mason who admits that for a Phase One project it really feels larger.

Like any large-scale project, the Round Rock Campus has experienced its share of problems. Paul Mason explains how excessive rain has hindered the progress of construction by delaying the drying process of the building walls.

"When we get rain events, it halts us from being able to get buildings dried in because you can't work on the roof, and you can't put cranes in the air and have people working out in that kind of slippery weather."

Rains have also affected the soil and caused several construction halts because the soil, which is primarily clay, turns into a mud field.

Regardless of the obstacles that rain has imposed on construction, Mason says the campus is still on schedule for a fall 2010 opening and that the construction schedule will be adjusted as needed. "If we need 6 to 8 weeks or 7 to 8 weeks to make up for lost days, then that's what we will do."