Bexar County ESD 12 is a combination Fire & Rescue department that covers about 90 square miles of southeast Bexar County including the town of Saint Hedwig. With only two stations, Bexar County ESD 12 was in dire need of a larger facility. Station 192, currently staffed by volunteers, sits on three acres off of Highway 87. The original station included a two bay, metal building, separate single-bay garages, and a portable office trailer.

In March of 2021, the project was bid out by general contractors and awarded to Marksmen GC in April. Unfortunately, construction would not start until February of 2022. A variety of issues contributed to the delay, most notably that the civil engineer had failed to submit the plans for permitting at the time of bid. Scope/budget misalignments were prevalent throughout the drawings, and the floor plan that was bid was not the floor plan the Owner thought it was receiving. Our Pre-Construction team worked with the design team and owner to find solutions that brought the best value to the project. $75,000 of value engineering options were accepted, about 2.5% of the original budget.

The single largest savings came from reducing the total number of grade beams. Structural engineers had originally design 16’ center grade beams on both the apparatus bay and the living quarters. Industry partners point out that this was over-engineered for the living quarters. Reducing the number of grade beams and the width/depth of the beams brought $20,000 in construction savings.

The existing infrastructure of the site and the design of the station presented some challenges to the budget in the form of the water main. The riser room was originally designed to be on the backside of the building, furthest away from the fire main. The length of fire line required was more than 200 ft. Moving the location of the riser room reduced the overall length by 80 ft. and realized $7,000 in construction savings.

The project started with the demolition the three existing (permanent) buildings that would be ultimately be consolidated into a single 9,700 SF, four-bay metal building. The new station includes eight bunkrooms, a day room, kitchen, office, storage, fitness center, and outdoor patio. The apparatus bay includes a decontamination room, EMS storage, and washroom.

The construction team experienced a number of setbacks and challenges from CPS, including setting the pole out of range of the building which required moving the original location of the racks to avoid setting a second pole.

Despite the issues encountered throughout pre-construction and costruction, the Marksmen team always sought out solutions that provided the best possible outcome for all stakeholders.

The new station expands the reach and efficiency of ESD 12 by providing a single-building fire station with room for future expansion.

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