Commercial Modular Construction Aids Texas Municipalities

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Bill Barron

san_antonio_public_works_assembly_area_2013-05-02-50D-IMG_3114Texas is ranked second in population growth in the United States which is putting significant stress on many municipalities.  While large cities like Houston, San Antonio, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area have grown significantly, many of the smaller cities and counties have also shown considerable growth.  In both of these urban and rural areas Ramtech has been a significant contributor for over 30 years in helping to facilitate their growth by providing both relocatable and permanent modular buildings. Continue reading →

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Ramtech Completes Modular Building Project for Aldine ISD

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Sabrina Queen

Ramtech has now completed the four new modular cafeteria buildings originally ordered in February of this year for the Houston-area Aldine Independent School District.  Together totaling 41,216 square feet, two modular buildings were installed at the District’s Nimitz and MacArthur High Schools for use as interim facilities while the renovation of each school’s existing cafeterias are taking place.  Ramtech began the manufacturing phase of the $1.9 million modular construction project prior to the end of February and started the site activities during the first part of March.  Since the buildings were completed, Aldine ISD began providing food service to their students prior to the end of the school year and will continue to do so through-out their summer program. Continue reading →

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2013 Texas Legislative Session Impacts Charter Schools

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Gary White

In the recently completed legislative session, the 83rd Texas Legislature passed bills that will dramatically affect the public school system and the way we currently educate our students. Most notably were bills that provided for an increase in the State’s charter school system, reduced the amount of standardized testing, expanded vocational training opportunities for high school graduates, and restored $3.9 billion that was cut two years ago to the state’s school funding budget. Ramtech has been following all of these changes very closely, to see what their impact will be on both relocatable and permanent modular construction.  Continue reading →

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Modular Construction Steps up to Provide Immediate Aid in Disaster Relief Efforts

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Gary White

A massive fertilizer plant explosion and a succession of devastating tornadoes have recently damaged numerous residential, commercial, and public facilities in the Texas communities of West, Granbury, and Cleburne as well as the city of Moore, Oklahoma.  Entire neighborhoods including the local public schools have been severely affected, and in many cases totally destroyed. In every area, the issues associated with the rebuilding efforts will present many long term challenges.  Demolishing and clearing out the debris, determining where the reconstruction funds will come from, providing new design documents, permitting each new structure, and then completing the construction of new facilities will probably take from 3 to 5 years.  A major question then becomes, what do these cities and schools do in the interim?  Continue reading →

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Ramtech Completes Permanent Modular Office Facility for Gulf Marine Fabricators

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Gary White

In March of 2011, Ramtech finished the work on a new 15 module 13,600 square foot modular building for Gulf Marine Fabricators of Aransas Pass, TX, a division of Gulf Island Fabrication of Houma, LA.  The prefabricated building replaced four small temporary facilities that were removed in order to meet Gulf Marine’s contract requirement to provide for an administrative office and engineering support center for Chevron USA during the manufacturing phase of Chevron’s Big Foot deep water offshore platform. Now in the second year of the three year development project, Ramtech recently had an opportunity to visit the Gulf Marine site to check on the building and photograph it for an upcoming project profile and case study.  Continue reading →

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Commercial Modular Construction Supports the Growth of Texas Colleges

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Gary White

Over the last decade the growth in public and private universities, community colleges, and trade schools throughout Texas and the southwest has been significant. This growth has put stress not only on every schools classroom buildings, but also their dormitories and support facilities.   In order to support this growth, many colleges and universities have relied on commercial modular construction to provide additions to their campuses that are less expensive, faster, and of higher quality than most site constructed facilities.  In some cases these projects were for temporary use when permanent construction was taking place, while in other instances the school relied on permanent modular construction to provide long term solutions. Continue reading →

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Ramtech Expands Modular Building Lease Fleet

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Ramtech Building Systems

Ramtech publicly announced this week that we will be expanding our lease fleet inventory of portable classrooms, and will develop other modular building products for sale and lease, in order to meet the projected demand for school and government facilities in the fast-growing cities and counties located within the Eagle Ford Shale Play and Permian Basin areas. This will enable us to provide a wide range of modular building options including our industry-standard portable double classrooms and a complete line of multiple modular classroom and classroom wings that are available to meet both temporary or long-term use requirements. Ranging in size from 4 to 16 classrooms, these  standard floor plan designs start at under $40 per square foot and can also be customized to meet a number of specific applications. In addition to our expansive product offerings, we can also provide the client with no cost project planning and budgeting, fast building installations, and procurement availability through co-ops including the Texas BuyBoard, TIPS/TAPS, and HGACBuy. The 20-county Eagle Ford Shale area now accounts for over $61 billion in economic activity and is estimated to support more than 116,000 full-time jobs. In addition, more than $1.01 billion has been provided to local governments for schools, hospitals, emergency services, and other government agencies. We expect to have the additional product inventory of portable classrooms off-line and available for delivery throughout the summer.

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University of North Texas Selects Ramtech’s Modular Buildings for Major Construction Project

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Gary White

Ramtech continued to build on our recent success in the college market by securing a new $3.5 million contract to provide three new modular buildings to be located on the main campus of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.  The modular building portion of the three facilities totals 37,778 square feet, all of which will be used for the relocation of three of the University’s programs currently housed in the Stovall and Scoular Halls. Both of these Halls are being demolished to make way for a new $130 million University Union which will begin construction in June of this year. With an enrollment of over 35,000 students, UNT’s current union was built in the 1960s and was designed for a campus population of 17,000. The University expects the new union to play an important role in enrollment recruitment and retention, along with providing faculty and staff with a facility capable of hosting conferences, professional seminars and events that can enhance the academic reputation of the college.  Continue reading →

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Ramtech Wins MBI Awards of Distinction for KIPP Modular Buildings

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Linc Moss

Ramtech received a first place award in the Temporary Education over 10,000 Square Feet category at the Modular Building Institute’s 30th annual convention and tradeshow held this month at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. The award was for the recently completed 24,500 square foot modular school campus for charter school operator KIPP Delta Public Schools in Blytheville, Arkansas.  Ramtech took just 120 days to complete a new campus that included 16 elementary school classrooms, 8 middle school classrooms, a food service-cafeteria, and an administration building.  The key to the rapid completion of the project was the use of Ramtech’s modular building system which saved KIPP both time and money when compared to traditional site construction.  Continue reading →

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First Baptist Frisco Shares Some Thoughts on Their New Modular Buildings

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Gary White

As we continue to develop projects for other churches and faith-based institutions, we recently went back to visit our friends at First Baptist Church in Frisco, Texas to check on how their new modular church buildings were working out. Ramtech provided the new facilities in order to meet the demand for additional space due to the Church’s rapidly growing congregation. Totaling 23,386 square feet, the project features a 6,750 square foot student worship center designed to accommodate a 13 foot high vaulted ceiling with exposed architectural ductwork and 12 classrooms.  The other two modular buildings include an 8,060 square foot 14 classroom adult education facility with fellowship area, and a 8,576 square foot building with six classrooms and 14 private offices with adjacent administrative support areas for the ministry staff. The church has been very pleased with the buildings and plans to relocate them in the future when they move to a larger campus. We sat down with Steve Stege, Executive Pastor at FBC Frisco to hear his thoughts on modular construction and their experience in working with Ramtech.

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Gary White is Vice President of Sales & Estimating at Ramtech Building Systems, Inc.  He has been in the commercial modular industry for 33 years and is responsible for the management of all sales and estimating efforts across each of Ramtech’s key market segments: Education, Government, Medical, and Commercial.

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