TTL, Inc. has been recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies Alabama (ACEC Alabama) as its Engineering Excellence Awards Grand Award Winner for the Homewood Suites project in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The Alabama ACEC Awards were held on March 3, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama with TTL in attendance to receive the award.
TTL would like to recognize both Ryan Costanzo, REM, and Ken Bailey, PE, for their work on the project that began in May 2019 when TTL was contracted by Cohen Investments, Inc. to provide professional consulting services for the design and construction of a six-story Homewood Suites hotel. In all, TTL performed civil design, surveying, geotechnical engineering, environmental consulting, construction materials testing, and Special Inspections services.
The Homewood Suites site had significant challenges leading up to the property's development. It was part of a larger site that, throughout the decades, had been used as a recreational lake, a municipal landfill, and a farmer’s market. During the initial investigative efforts associated with these prior uses, TTL discovered there was leftover waste from the landfill that once occupied the site. This waste was removed and, to determine whether the waste had affected the site, TTL conducted an environmental investigation that found Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs), and Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Metals.
Upon detecting these materials that could be harmful to guests and visitors, the site was enrolled in the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Voluntary Cleanup Plan (VCP). Under the VCP, TTL developed a Site Cleanup Work Plan that incorporated the design of a remediation system to mitigate the intrusion of the vapor materials into the hotel structure.
This remediation design involved installing a methane mitigation system on the structure's entire footprint. Then, a built-up vapor barrier system was installed on the sub-slab and a mounted blower was attached to the piping and valve system to extract the harmful vapor materials from the ground and release them away from the building through a ventilation system.
TTL also installed methane monitoring devices on the first floor of the hotel to further monitor methane levels at the site.
With its new remedial system in place, ADEM issued a letter stating the environmental issues at the site had been addressed under the VCP put into place. This allowed Homewood Suites to open in March 2021.