Last Month, Ramtech’s Vice President of Engineering Roland Brown, was notified that he was reappointed as the Presiding Officer of the Texas Industrialized Building Code Council. Since the council was formed in 1984, Roland has been the only representative from the commercial modular building industry to hold the presiding officer position. He was reelected unanimously by the other ten members on the council, which functions as an advisory board for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on issues related to the regulation of the industrialized housing and commercial building industries. (more…)
Module Set Using Slab-on-Grade Permanent Modular Construction for a Multi-Use Office Building at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Ramtech has begun the installation of the 26 non-combustible steel-framed modular sections that will make up the two-story multi-use office building we’re constructing for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, NM. The module setting process began for the 22,680 square foot permanent modular building after we were required to spend several weeks performing an extensive sub-surface investigation. This was done to locate both the known and unknown utilities and the remnants of a previous structure prior to developing the foundation for the building. (more…)
The value engineering of a modular building – including the layout itself – provides for a systematic way of looking at a project in order to substitute materials and methods with lower cost alternatives that don’t sacrifice the function or quality of the facility. Since our inception, Ramtech has continually practiced the concept of value engineering in order to meet both our customers expectations while also meeting their budgets. (more…)
Cottonwood Shores (TX) Police Headquarters Built Using Permanent Modular Construction
Ramtech recently completed the installation of a permanent modular building for use as a police department headquarters for the City of Cottonwood Shores, TX. The 2,184 square foot facility provides additional space and room for growth for the city’s current five-officer police department. The building replaced an aging 720 square foot facility that was declared too structurally unsound to be repaired or added on to. (more…)
A modular section being lifted into place during the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital. Image via CNN
For years natural and man-made disasters have resulted in the widespread use of relocatable modular buildings to meet short and extended use replacement facility needs. This allows schools, government agencies, healthcare providers and commercial businesses to open and get back to operating quickly without significant delays. A case in point was an entire middle and high school campus that Ramtech built for West ISD after the massive fertilizer plant explosion destroyed two of the district’s schools in April of 2013.
Now, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, modular construction has once again been brought to the forefront, with high profile projects that have helped to provide urgent care medical facilities in China and other hot spots around the globe. However the impact that modular construction has made may be changing attitudes well after the crises eases, as this article from our friends at Architizer.com point out in the ‘8 Ways COVID-19 Will Change Architecture’. It includes a strong argument for an increase in the use of modular construction.
Read about eight of these new approaches including, modular construction, that may have long lasting impacts on the way cities are designed following the COVID-19 outbreak here.