When it comes to protecting K-12 schools and students from earthquakes, tornados, or flooding, many school districts continue to resist mandating the inclusion of safe rooms or storm shelters in new and existing buildings. But that may be changing.
An Illinois law that took effect January 1 requires all new schools to have storm shelters. Illinois joined Alabama as the only states that mandate storm shelters or safe houses in new schools.
Oklahoma, ground zero for deadly tornados, has rejected such mandates for budgetary and political reasons. Governor Mary Fallin has backed a proposal to allow local governments to raise their debt limits if they want to use bonds to fund shelters. (Oklahoma City already requires shelters.) An advocacy group called Take Shelter has been trying to get a petition on the statewide ballot to raise $500 million through franchise taxes to put safe rooms in every school in the state.
Money is main reason why safe houses and storm shelters at schools aren’t more widely accepted. A 2013 article published in the Wall Street Journal estimated that it would cost $1 billion to install safe rooms in the 1,100 Oklahoma public schools that didn’t have them at the time.
Protecting buildings from catastrophic events can quickly erode a district’s general revenue funds. Krisztina Tokes and Mark Hovatter of the Los Angeles United School District have estimated that 21% of the $4.3 billion they said was needed annually for school construction would be allocated for earthquake upgrades.
Most AEC professionals would agree that preventive expenditures are a lot cheaper than rebuilding after a natural disaster hits: just ask anyone in the New York metropolitan area who suffered through Hurricane Sandy, which caused an estimated $50 billion in property damage in late 2012. With so much talk about the possible relationship between climate change and more catastrophic weather events, some ISDs are reconsidering the wisdom of waiting and seeing.
Construction of a safe room at a Wichita, Kan., school. Photo: FEMA
Last November, voters in Carl Junction, Mo., approved a $16.5 million bond issue that will help pay for three storm shelters in the school district.
By the end of its current construction bond financing in 2016, Wichita Public Schools will have safe rooms that can withstand an EF-5 tornado in every attendance center it operates, even though safe rooms aren’t mandatory in Kansas. Julie Hedrick, the district’s Facilities Division Director, says that a safe room can add up to $50/sf to the cost of new construction.
As for existing schools, Hedrick says it’s usually not cost effective to add a safe room as part of a renovation. But she says that, high school wrestling rooms—which usually don’t have windows and pad their walls and floors—have been upgraded to safe rooms relatively inexpensively.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Suffolk breaks ground on colorful charter school in Boston
Suffolk Education has broken ground and began renovations and construction of a new $39.6 million facility to house the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School. The Suffolk team is renovating an existing, three-story mill building and warehouse in the Hyde Park section of Boston, Massachusetts, and constructing a 20,000 square-foot addition.
| Aug 11, 2010
PBK, DLR Group among nation's largest K-12 school design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 K-12 School Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Turner Building Cost Index dips nearly 4% in second quarter 2009
Turner Construction Company announced that the second quarter 2009 Turner Building Cost Index, which measures nonresidential building construction costs in the U.S., has decreased 3.35% from the first quarter 2009 and is 8.92% lower than its peak in the second quarter of 2008. The Turner Building Cost Index number for second quarter 2009 is 837.
| Aug 11, 2010
AGC unveils comprehensive plan to revive the construction industry
The Associated General Contractors of America unveiled a new plan today designed to revive the nation’s construction industry. The plan, “Build Now for the Future: A Blueprint for Economic Growth,” is designed to reverse predictions that construction activity will continue to shrink through 2010, crippling broader economic growth.
| Aug 11, 2010
Section Eight Design wins 2009 Open Architecture Challenge for classroom design
Victor, Idaho-based Section Eight Design beat out seven other finalists to win the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom, spearheaded by the Open Architecture Network. Section Eight partnered with Teton Valley Community School (TVCS) in Victor to design the classroom of the future. Currently based out of a remodeled house, students at Teton Valley Community School are now one step closer to getting a real classroom.
| Aug 11, 2010
PCL Construction, HITT Contracting among nation's largest commercial building contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 50 Commercial Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Webcor, Hunt Construction lead the way in mixed-use construction, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 30 Mixed-Use Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Report: Fraud levels fall for construction industry, but companies still losing $6.4 million on average
The global construction, engineering and infrastructure industry saw a significant decline in fraud activity with companies losing an average of $6.4 million over the last three years, according to the latest edition of the Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report, released today at the Association of Corporate Counsel’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Boston. This new figure represents less than half of last year’s amount of $14.2 million.
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, HDR top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 100 largest institutional building design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Institutional Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants