W.B. Hopke Awarded New Wet Utilities Project at Sidwell Friends Upper School in Washington DC

In 2016, Washington Home & Community Hospices phased out its nursing home and rehabilitation programs and transferred their hospices services to Capital Caring Health in NW DC. This opened the door to renovation, construction and expansion of the property to become Sidwell Friends Upper School, home to children from grades 9-12.

It will be the largest building on campus at 130,000 square feet. A key feature to the upper school will be a system of geothermal wells, 120 wells in fact, that will be drilled 600 feet deep around the building where the earth below ground will be used to heat and cool the school. This property acquisition marks the final stage which reunites all three campus divisions – the lower, middle and upper schools at 3720 Upton St in NW, Washington, DC.

The wet utilities project was awarded to subcontractor W.B. Hopke in July 2024 and will be their first project award with general contractor MCN Build.

W.B. Hopke estimator, Dillon McCoy, who was instrumental in securing the project said, “Hopke’s work will be to provide the installation of water, sanitary, storm and drainage to Sidwell Friends Upper School. The majority of work will begin in either Quarter 1 or Quarter 2 in 2025. The project is due to conclude in 2026 and we are looking forward to getting started with general contractor, MCN Build on this project.”

The project manager for the upper school project is Svetla Todorova.

Their role will be to install 1150 LF of 4″ – 8″ water pipe that is connected to DC water on 37th street, with the majority of pipe falling within the property line of the school. The sanitary main will include 540 LF of 8′ pipe, installed 9 foot deep. Storm includes 130 LF of 6″ – 24″ PVC the majority of which will go underneath the proposed parking lot and within the property line. Sanitary will include one precast sanitary grease interceptor. Finally, there will be three large bioretention areas, each averaging 2000 square feet at a depth of 6 feet.

More information about the Sidwell Friends Upper School project will be provided as the project progresses.

W.B. Hopke is a fourth generation, family-run construction business focused on building high quality utility infrastructure and lifelong careers. Hopke is located in Alexandria, VA and works throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. With almost 70 years of experience, Hopke prides itself on repeat customers across all kinds of market segments – schools, churches, data centers, distribution facilities, multi-family, mixed use, residential subdivisions, senior living, self-storage, heavy highway, retail, commercial office, automotive, stream restoration, and parks.

Contact W.B. Hopke about a career in utility installation and site work at 703-971-0404 or info@wbhopke.com.

References

“A New Upper School for Sidwell Friends,” Sidwell Friends, https://www.sidwell.edu/about/new-upper-school, Accessed November 2024.

“The New Upper School,” Together We Shine, Sidwell Friends School, https://shine.sidwell.edu/the-new-upper-school/, Accessed November 2024.