Story

Project Gold Manassas is a two story, 36-megawatt tilt-up construction data center located in Manassas, Virginia. The first challenge presented itself immediately on the project when we learned that this building would be the first data center built in the city of Manassas. Although it was a lengthy permit review, we were able to obtain a permit after educating the county on data centers, performing in depth noise studies, and providing examples of past projects to answer any concerns they had. The next phase of the project was a unique demolition project with a high degree of difficulty. Glen-Gery previously used the property as a brick factory with nine existing buildings totaling over 200,000 sf. When HITT arrived on site, we disconnected all utilities, including water, power, and a major gas line that supplied a nearly 700 ft long brick kiln. Demolition of all nine buildings, including hazard abatement, was completed over the course of roughly nine months. During the demolition phase, many unforeseen conditions were encountered with the most impactful being over 16,000 CY of leftover and buried bricks. All the bricks were crushed and reused as roadway fill for LEED purposes. This was a significant factor in enabling this building to target a LEED Gold rating. From there, HITT began grading and installing foundations for the new building. Due to the previous use of the property, a certified vapor mitigation system with vent piping to the roof was installed under the slab on grade. Most of this building, including data halls, are polished slab on grade with a stringent floor flatness rating. Using a laser screed to finish slabs to specified flatness and detailed polishing sequencing, we were able to polish the slabs at the beginning of the job and protect them throughout. Another aspect of this project that was a new challenge was the very high level of security needed at this building. Starting with the perimeter fencing, K12 rated fence was installed, which can stop a vehicle traveling up to 50 miles per hour. Hydraulic wedge barriers were installed at the entrance, and a visitor center featuring bulletproof walls and glass was built. In the main building, the front of house spaces also include bulletproof doors, walls, glass, and security turnstiles that are cast in the concrete. The utility power at this data center was also a big challenge and required a two-month road shutdown to get the electrical duct bank installed between existing utilities across Godwin Drive. To keep this data center running in even the worst utility outage circumstances, each of the nine 2-MW generators were fitted with a 15,000-gallon diesel tank. Each of the generator tanks required multiple fuel tankers to top them off. In total, over 20 trucks were required and fueling took about a month from start to finish. The project team persevered through the various unique challenges and met the project completion date.