Hopke Nears Completion with the APAH and CUMC Ballston Station Apartment Project in Arlington, Virginia

Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and Central United Methodist Church’s new building and multi-use redevelopment of the church property in Ballston Station continues towards completion.

Located at 4201 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, CUMC’s new building replaces the existing church with an eight-story, mixed-use building with 97,478 SF for the church and 219,033 SF of residential condos. It includes 144 committed affordable homes, CUMC’s new sanctuary space, and community amenities including a commercial kitchen for onsite food distribution, a meeting hall, classrooms and an early childhood education space to accommodate approximately 90 children. The sanctuary will feature live-streaming technology allowing more options for worship and community use of the space.

The project which began on May 27, 2022, and scheduled for completion in mid-2023, is approximately 80-85% complete. The scope of work awarded to W.B. Hopke by general contractor, Davis Construction, included water, sewer and drainage installations in the heart of Ballston in Arlington, VA. It required an extensive 380 LF water installation, with a 180 LF relocated 12″ main, challenging storm work on Fairfax Drive, 1 water meter vault, 360 LF storm sewer installation, 14 doghouse manholes and inlets and an 80 LF sanitary lateral.

Mike Fiebert, project manager for Hopke, shared some details about the project. “What made this project so challenging is the footprint, materials scheduling and location of the project,” said Mike. “The location is in a very busy and trafficked area and the space was very tight, so coordination with vendors was key to the projects’ success. It required careful coordination with traffic control across 4 active travel lanes and an active bus stop. We also had to maintain access to a nearby bank. We could not deliver all materials at one time. We had to time the delivery of our materials to coincide with other contractors and the space we had available onsite. We stored the project materials at a Manassas, VA location and brought in only what we needed at a time. Then as soon as the material was installed, we had ready another load behind it. Timing was crucial.”

Another challenge to the Hopke team was with existing utilities in and around the older buildings. A cut utility line could affect an entire block of buildings and offices. Hopke had the plans and cut sheets from the GC and engineers, and that helped to determine where utilities were buried, but because some lines were so old, the County doesn’t have accurate records of their depth or location. Because of the sensitive nature of the excavating, Hopke could not bring in heavy equipment, so much of the work to find existing utilities was done by hand.

Fiebert continued, “The extensive water line relocation required the installation of a new 12-inch, approximately 200-foot line located at the corner of Fairfax Drive and Stafford Street that eventually had to be tied into an existing line and active line. The new line was tested and capped at each end. Once in place and approved, we had to schedule times with the County to actually go live as it was tied into the existing active water lines and building.”

The water meter vault installation was another aspect of the project, separate from the waterline. Hopke had to install the vault just off the main road. The precast concrete box was pre-piped then hooked-up in the ground and connected to all utilities from the outside.

W.B. Hopke Co. would like to thank project manager Mike Feibert, estimator Charlie McClellan, superintendent Manuel Bonilla, and foreman Roberto Gonzales and his crew for doing such an outstanding job on this project.

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

References

Central UMC, https://www.cumcballston.org/building-project, accessed January 19, 2022

Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH), https://apah.org/communities/ballston-station/, accessed January 19, 2022

ARLnNow, https://www.arlnow.com/2021/12/10/apah-breaks-ground-on-ballston-affordable-housing-development/, accessed January 19, 2022