Salt Brine, Maintenance and Salt Dome Facility, Baltimore City, MD

Mimar Ponte Mellor provided architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical design and construction administration services for the Salt Barn, Maintenance facility and Salt Brine Making Installation for the City of Baltimore Department of Transportation.

The project involved the design of a prefabricated wooden salt barn with concrete walls and slab, and interior and exterior lighting. It also included design of a salt brine making installation with storage tanks plus equipment for loading salt brine tank trucks.  Scope included a new concrete floor slab, equipment and tank pads, new electrical service to the site with distribution panels, new electrical lighting, new heating and ventilation systems, new plumbing, new coiling doors and new fiberglass personnel doors.

The Salt Facility is based around a pre-engineered salt barn. MPM completed architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical services for the facility design. MPM had to prepare two distinct contract sets of drawings and specifications, the first for the Brine Facility and Building Improvements and the second for the Salt Facility and Site improvements. In addition, MPM provided interior renovation design services for the existing Maintenance Facility.

The Brine making process is based around the Basis of Design product: Accubrine Automated Brine Maker by Cargill. The brine making process is designed for the interior of the existing building in lieu of an all exterior process.

For the Salt Barn, electrical design included interior and exterior lighting plus power for the barn. The Brine facility electrical design included interior and exterior lighting, power for the brine production equipment and power distribution for the entire site. The mechanical design included water service for the building, water piping for the brine production equipment, gas piping, exhaust ventilation and gas heating systems.

Construction Administration

MPM provided construction administration services for both facilities which included attending the pre-bid and pre-construction meetings, preparing the amendments as required, responding to RFI’s (up to 30), reviewing of shop drawings (up to 40), attending progress meetings (up to 12), performing site visits (up to 4), preparing punch lists, performing final inspections, and prepare record drawings from contractor prepared redlines.

Feasibility Study

MPM provided a feasibility study for the design of a temporary maintenance facility and for the design of a permanent maintenance and salt dome facility for the disciplines of HVAC mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection. Both the temporary and permanent facilities included a 6000 SF maintenance building with office areas, a multipurpose room (break room, kitchen, conference and training), a carpenter shop, locker rooms, and toilet and shower facilities. The project included a 1000 SF wood shed junk storage building, a salt dome (at the permanent facility) and a security shed, trash containers and parking and vehicle storage. Design of the permanent facility included LEED silver standards.