Our Work

VMI Corps Training Facility

Lexington, VA

The Virginia Military Institute Corps Physical Training Facility is an $80 Million, 205,000 square foot addition to the VMI campus in Lexington, VA. In partnership with Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Century spent 20 months on this project, committing over 109,000 labor hours and 14,246 cubic yards of concrete. This structure houses a hydraulic banking Olympic track, indoor climbing wall, high ropes and physical obstacle course, challenge initiatives course (CIC) and underground parking garage. 

Century’s scope included caisson caps, columns, cast-in-place box piers, structural decks, slabs on grade and metal deck, topping slabs, 1,000 linear feet of retaining walls, site walls, planter walls, ramps, cast-in-place stairs, vehicular and pedestrian bridges, and structural beams spanning an active creek bed. The site contained a stream and floodplain for the city’s storm water runoff, making construction particularly challenging as the area was prone to severe flooding even during short periods of rain. A number of foundations required undercut excavations up to 18 feet in depth and more than 300 cubic yards of lean concrete backfill prior to installation.

A plenum was constructed below the banking track by installing a structural concrete slab only 4 feet below the track floor, using more than 700 cast in place piers and concrete radius walls to support the banking track corners. Century developed a hybrid formwork system consisting of lumber posts, Doka U-heads, Doka H20 beams and composite metal decking in lieu of plywood. The metal decking was left in place, eliminating the need to strip 100,000 square feet of plywood and effectively reducing crew work time in the confined space.