Engineering affordable housing in the Twin Cities

At Barr, we believe it is essential to support the communities in which we live and work. One way we give back is through volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. For more than two decades, employees across Barr’s offices—along with their families and friends—have donated their time and talents to this nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to affordable homeownership.

For the past three years, Josh Phillips and Nathan Campeau have been working with the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity on a residential development project in Chaska, Minnesota. Nearly half of Barr’s engineering services for this project have been provided pro bono.

A Barr team led by Josh and Nathan, along with Sambatek, Inc. as a subconsultant, provided civil engineering services including surveying, geotechnical analysis, design, permitting support, and construction oversight of the grading, utilities, and street construction for the development of the site. Tapping into our stormwater-management knowledge, the Barr team also designed a series of swales and basins to manage stormwater and mitigate some localized flooding issues on adjacent properties.

The majority of Barr’s planning work for the project wrapped up in 2020 as the project transitioned from site and infrastructure work to home construction. Habitat for Humanity just completed construction of the first twin home at the site in 2021 and will continue to build a total of four twin homes with eight residences over the next few years. In October, a team of Barr volunteers led by Kallie Doeden will help build one of these new homes.

More information about this development is available here. Barr looks forward to continuing to partner with Habitat for Humanity in the years to come.

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