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ETTL News & Views |
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ETTL News & Views |
| Contents • I-49• Doug's Corner • Shuffler & UT Tyler • Environment • Avalon Ldfl • US-69 • Crawfish • Happy End• NTC-College • ETTL Web Site |
By the dawn's early floodlight ... |
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| ETTL Provides Construction Materials Testing Services As Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC) Undergoes Major Expansion |
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| We found ourself, at 6 A.M. of a recent morning, out in the countryside on the NTCC campus, some several miles from Mount Pleasant, watching a skilled crew spread and level newly delivered concrete in a series of large forms. Together they will become part of a huge training pad for use by police officers-in-training, helping them learn the art of defensive driving as well as how to rightly handle squad cars on wet pavements. When complete, the pad will measure 180,000 sq ft (600 x 300 ft), and have built-in sprinkler heads so its surface can be wetted automatically.
It was a few minutes before sunrise (see top photo). We asked Ms. Lois Smith, the College's Construction Projects Coordinator, who was standing with us, where the concrete finishing team came from. "Kilmer & Associates, of Greenville, Texas," she replied. "They get up here when it is real dark!" "And the concrete?" "It's brought in by Transit Mix, mostly from Mount Pleasant. And the prime contractor, for this phase of our building program, is WRL General Contractors. They're out of Flint, Texas, down near Tyler." Lois told us the expansion program has been divided into two phases. "The first phase (we're in it now) includes construction of a Health Science Center, an Industrial Technology Regional Center, a Criminal Justice Center - including this driving pad - and a Pittsburg Outreach Center. We're well along on the construction of the first three of those facilities. Your technician, Charles Bruner, has been taking nuclear densities of subgrades and select fill , and testing the concrete for the slabs. All three have slab foundations. In fact, the Criminal Justice Building is all-concrete: slab, walls and roof. When Phase 2 gets under way, hopefully within the next two years, it'll include an Agricultural Center and a Health & Physical Education Center. We're practically doubling the size of the College. Our architect is Thacker Davis, out of Longview." |
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| While we were talking, Charles Bruner, who works out of ETTL's Longview laboratory, was busy nearby, taking a wheelbarrow load of freshly delivered concrete to test it for air content (left-hand pic) and slump (center), as
well as to prepare cylinders (right) for subsequent compression testing in the Longview lab. The sun came up while he was working, and the day
grew progressively lighter. We had photographed the entrance to the College the day before, and had noticed a relatively small Texas A&M sign (see photo near top of page). We asked Lois if NTCC is connected with Texas A&M. "We're independent entities," she said. "But we make classroom space available to Texas A&M teachers; so local students working to take A&M degrees won't have to drive all the way to Texarkana to go to class." She explained that Northeast Texas Community College offers freshman and sophomore courses in arts and sciences, and has articulation agreements with various universities to provide four-year programs leading to degrees in education and other fields. "We also have technical programs that can lead to two-year associate degrees or certificates. And we have a wide degree of other offerings. It's a good place to start taking an education that leads to a four-year degree, or higher; or to choose from a really wide variety of individual course offerings. And lots in between. Like in the Criminal Justice area. You can start Criminal Justice studies at NTCC with the aim of moving on to a four-year institution; or you can get various two-year Associate degrees in Criminal Justice right here; or you can take our 16-week Police Academy training program; or you can train to get certified as a Texas Peace Officer; and there's many other possibilities besides." We asked Lois how long the College has existed. "We opened our doors in the fall of 1985. We're located out here in the country to be near each of the three counties we especially serve: Camp, Morris and Titus. So we're fittingly close to Pittsburg, Daingerfield and Mount Pleasant, the county seats." At 7:30, we said good-bye and drove around to the academic area of NTCC, which was just beginning to show signs of early-morning life. The campus, as the result of its expansion program, will be some 600 acres in size. Our interest had been aroused by the driving pad, and we wanted take a look at the partially completed Criminal Justice (CJ) Building. As the pictures below show, we found it to be an unusually shaped structure of moderate size (some 7000 square feet). While we were snapping a few photos, a pickup truck pulling a supply trailer drove up and parked. A work crew of four men emerged and prepared to head into the unfinished building. They turned out to an installation team from Action Target, Inc., of Provo, Utah (near Salt Lake City). Their task was to set up a small arms firing range in the new CJ Building, including installing acoustic tile and other sound-deadening equipment, so classroom activities could be held elsewhere in the building despite the noises of the range. "We've installed a lot of these systems around the country," the crew chief told us, "and this will be a really comprehensive one - with all the whistles and bells! - moving targets, dust collector, ventilation system, bullet back stop. You name it, and they'll have it!" |
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| To complete ETTL's current services for NTCC, the concrete for the parking areas of the three above-mentioned Phase 1 buildings, which now are moving toward the final stages of completion, is being tested by technicians from ETTL's fully equipped Texarkana facility. |
For more information about ETTL's CMT services, see our web site's CMT (or CME) section,
or contact Mark Miller, C.T.E., who manages ETTL's Tyler and Longview CMT field operations,
or Donny Rhea, manager of ETTL's office-laboratory in Texarkana, Arkansas.
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News & Views |
ETTL Engineers & Consultants Inc. 1717 East Erwin, Tyler, TX 75702 903-595-4421 • FAX 903-595-6113 E-Mail: ettlinc@ettlinc.com |
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