christopher is pleased to announce St. Lawrence Catholic Church has been selected as a winner in the Small Commercial category of the 2019 Fairfax County Land Conservation Award Program. The program recognizes projects that have made outstanding efforts in employing responsible land disturbance techniques and good construction practices to protect the properties and resources of Fairfax County. christopher is proud to be the Catholic Diocese of Arlington’s civil engineering and surveying firm of choice on this impactful project.
To address their growing congregation, St. Lawrence wished to expand their lobby and build an addition to both sides of the front entrance, giving them a larger narthex (church lobby entrance). christopher’s team began by providing comprehensive surveying services to include as-builts, boundary and topographic surveys, horizontal and vertical controls and construction stakeout. The civil engineering team was responsible for preliminary engineering, the final site plan and county coordination. They also provided stormwater management/best management practices (SWM/BMP) for the new landscaping at the front and sides of the building.
Land conservation efforts made by the project team included augmenting the standard erosion control measures since much of the site was developed and paved. Traditional practice would require removal of existing paved surfaces to install standard measures, however christopher developed several innovative modified measures to function in the paved areas. A modified super silt fence was utilized to allow trenchless installation.
To enhance water treatment above and beyond the county and state requirements, christopher designed the SWM facility to provide treatment for some offsite paved areas that were previously untreated. Our team was able to locate the facility away from the main redevelopment area and show and prove equivalent SWM results, therefore protecting many of the mature existing trees by the redeveloped area.
The awards ceremony was held on Friday, January 23, 2020, at the Fairfax County Government Center. John Levtov and Maria Cantos of christopher attended to accept the award. Congressman Gerald E. Connolly and Supervisor Kathy Smith of Fairfax County were also in attendance. Congratulations to the entire project team on this award and their environmental efforts that better the community.
