It’s not every day that our project teams get to directly interface and collaborate with such major consumer brands as Toyota, Tesla and Samsung, but that’s exactly what our teammates did while building the Austin Community College District’s (ACC) Applied Technology Expansion project at ACC Round Rock.

In a sweeping, multi-phased and multi-building slate of renovations, expansions and tenant upfits, our project team helped ACC Round Rock greatly expand its capacity for technical education in some of today’s most highly sought after industries and trades, including automotive and semiconductor manufacturing, electric vehicle battery manufacturing and maintenance, welding, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and home building.

What’s more, the project signaled a lightyears-forward leap in our Central Texas team’s capabilities as builders of technologically advanced and logistically complex projects, all while working under accelerated deadlines for new academic terms and helping ACC Round Rock make the most of voter-approved bond funds.

These facilities will together educate entire generations of skilled technicians and trade workers, literally building the future of industry by providing a steady flow of skilled workers, and our teams are proud to take part.

Driving Automotive Advancement

Two landmark facilities of the Applied Technology Expansion are driving the automotive industry into the future, with a particular focus on battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturing and maintenance with partners like Toyota and Tesla.

The Toyota Technician Training and Education Network (T-TEN) space features diagnostic laboratories, vehicle bays to full Toyota manufacturing specifications and the necessary infrastructure for technicians in training to learn the ins and outs of current and future generations of BEVs and their power systems.

For Tesla, our team built out and outfitted a similarly full-spec manufacturing and diagnostic facility, an expansion of Tesla’s START technician and manufacturing training program that already operates at ACC’s Riverside campus in Austin, TX, where Tesla is also headquartered.

Tesla’s space also includes two full classrooms for further education, but the truly exciting part of the BEV manufacturer’s new training space is the simulated manufacturing line featuring robotic arms for which our team installed all necessary infrastructure.

“Working alongside ACC to provide spaces for partners like Toyota and Tesla has been a nearly unprecedented opportunity for our large projects team,” says Senior Project Manager Belinda Graham. “It shows just what our team is capable of: installing incredibly complex systems outside of our traditional building industries and to exacting specifications, and all within a collaborative and multi-phased project.”

In addition to the two manufacturer-specific facilities, our team also built out a general automotive maintenance education space aimed at preparing students for mechanical industry work for any garage or manufacturer.

Talking Tech

Another exciting and unprecedented phase of the project entailed building out an advanced microchip manufacturing lab for ACC’s training partnership with Samsung Austin Semiconductor.

Microchips, also called semiconductor chips, make possible virtually all advanced technology around us, not least of all the current explosion in data center construction and data handling capabilities that continue to drive the information economy.

Manufacturing them, whether at classroom or industry scale, is a process of exacting specifications.

So is building the facilities to manufacture them.

“These semiconductor manufacturing spaces go above and beyond even the healthcare cleanroom standards our Texas teammates have met before,” Belinda says. “Although a ‘mock’ clean room, the space includes a gowning room and advanced air showers that remove every spec of particulate from a person before they enter, preventing critical equipment malfunctions and chip contamination, teaching students what exactly what real clean room manufacturing will be like. It’s a huge leap forward in our team’s technological capabilities and absolutely vital to ACC’s industry education and Samsung partnership.”

In addition to collaborating closely with representatives of these industry partnerships, Belinda and our entire project team maintained an intensely collaborative relationship with Dr. Laura Marmolejo, ACC Dean of Advanced Manufacturing, who has worked closely with  Tesla while implementing and operating the ACC Riverside partnership.

“This is a full-circle moment for me, as I built a Tesla manufacturing facility with a previous employer, which also involved advanced cleanrooms like our Samsung space here, but this is otherwise a first for our Central Texas teammates,” Belinda adds.

Teaching Trades

Even the comparatively “low-tech” aspects of the Applied Technology Expansion are an exciting advancement for trade education in Texas, and may very well train HVAC and other industry workers who could even contribute to future Balfour Beatty projects.

To build ACC’s Heating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration Technology (HART) program space, our team procured and installed several full-sized air handler units for students to repair, rebuild and learn the trade, in addition to other lab spaces and classrooms much like the other facilities.

Another part of the ACC’s Applied Technology program teaches wood-frame residential construction on real off-campus jobsites. For this program, Balfour Beatty relocated and later removed the existing fall protection system, ultimately replacing it with a larger, more modern and permanent system that teaches students real-world safety skills and supports the simultaneous construction of four homes.

This work expanded our team’s expertise in large-scale fall protection while also allowing us to share our Zero Harm® safety values with future homebuilders—and a new generation of our own potential teammates and allies in commercial construction.

“We don’t build wood-frame homes, but we do lead the industry in our safety practices and care for people,” Belinda says. “Other than classroom education spaces, our work for that program entailed building an advanced fall protection simulation system, giving future homebuilders a safe and simulated environment to learn basic harness safety and become harness certified.”

In one final bit of deep community impact, the student-build homes   are auctioned off at an affordable cost. ACC then reinvests the proceeds in the program, furthering homeownership in a rapidly growing Round Rock community and ensuring the future of the program.

The Best is Yet to Come

While this project has been an exciting leap forward, Belinda is quick to add that our Central Texas teammates are now more than equipped to maintain stride. In working with ACC’s partners like Toyota, Tesla and Samsung,, every layer of her project leadership has experienced a trial by fire in the most complex procurement, material delivery and partner coordination of their career.

“Our team has advanced by leaps and bounds with lessons learned here,” Belinda says. “For some, like Assistant Project Manager Casen Novak, it’s accelerated the next phase of their development as industry leaders and true Relentless Allies, ready to take on the next exciting challenge in this thriving market.”