Driving Force:
Collaborating on a Prototype for a Waymo Trucking Hub.
Team cohesion is important on any project, but it’s an absolute necessity in the creation of a first-of-its-kind facility on an accelerated schedule. This was the demanding situation faced by the design team for an autonomous trucking hub in Lancaster, Texas – the first built in the U.S. for Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet that is expanding its fleet of self-driving trucks.
Developed by Prologis, the nine-acre site houses both office space and areas for industrial research and testing, and encompasses 10 truck maintenance bays, six EV charging stations, 36 workstations, and diesel fueling stations.
Faced with dual challenges of a prototype design and an accelerated schedule, project manager CBRE selected team members the firm had worked with successfully in the past: architect Corgan, construction firm Rudick, civil engineer Pacheco Koch, structural engineer Click Engineering and Syska Hennessy Group, which was responsible for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire alarm, and fire protection services.
“To create a new building type for our client, the team members all had to be in lockstep,” says Bob Stickney, the Syska principal in charge. “The internal collaboration between the design partners makes or breaks projects with tight timelines.”
“To create a new building type for our client, the team members all had to be in lockstep. The internal collaboration between the design partners makes or breaks projects with tight timelines.”
Will Hodges, who served as Syska’s project manager and mechanical lead, points out that Syska have worked with CBRE, Prologis, and Corgan on the Skybox Data Center account, and with Corgan on the CPS Energy headquarters in San Antonio. He notes: “Because of our past relationships with the other team members, we knew that we could talk through and figure out any issue.”
Such team cohesion made Syska’s job easier. Although the project was less complex than a traditional data center and it shared certain characteristics with light industrial facilities, it had some unusual features that presented engineering challenges. Will notes that these included the need for exhaust control for trucks running in the bays and for a safe, conditioned environment for people walking back and forth from the office areas to the bays.
Because the facility is used for programming and debugging, Syska also had to provide extensive cabling for the IT room and ensure high levels of resiliency. “Little traditional maintenance of vehicles takes place at the site, it’s primarily a technology facility to upgrade electronics for driverless trucks,” Bob explains.
Furthermore, as part of the team’s effort to achieve LEED Silver certification, Syska had to design configurations for the EV charging stations, lighting controls, and individual HVAC controls to strict specifications.
Finally, supply chain delays required reevaluation of systems and product choices. Some materials simply would not have arrived in time for the team to meet the construction schedule. “We had to be flexible in making these determinations without sacrificing quality,” Bob recalls.
Despite the challenges, the project was delivered on time and on budget. And now that the prototype is set, Waymo can more easily establish other autonomous trucking hubs. “We had the opportunity to meet with the client stakeholders to access all aspects of the project and put together all the parts and pieces. Thanks to a lot of hard work and productive collaboration with the other team members, we got it right for rollout, says Will.
Images courtesy of Rudick Construction Group