U.S. EMBASSY EXPANSION
Athens, Greece
C&C Consulting Engineers recently completed the site design for an annex at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece. This project, which will cover one city block adjacent to the existing chancery, will include a 54,000 square-foot office building, a 220-car parking garage, a Marine Service General Quarters, a fuel depot, and various security posts and perimeter structures.
This important expansion will be protected from unfriendly actions through a complex system of active and passive security devices. These devices include perimeter walls designed for blasts, access controlled to two controlled access centers, vehicle routing to and through the site that discourages high-speed approaches, and an emergency access corridor over paver-block-reinforced lawn areas. To assure control under even the most adverse conditions, the project will include an on-site fire suppression system, utility services with meters and backflow preventers at the property lines, and locking manhole covers on all storm and sanitary structures.
Our involvement included responsibility for site grading, drainage, utility construction, and coordination with the City of Athens, which plans to construct a public park on a portion of the property. The work was done to the exacting standards of the U.S. Department of State. One of the more exacting challenges of the project was the design of grading and utility penetrations associated with the blast walls surrounding the site. Surface grading was developed to assure storm drainage away from the wall on both sides, and extra care had to be taken to control the difference in elevation of the ground on the two sides of the wall to assure security in the event of an attack by terrorists. Similarly, drainage lines were planned so that storm water can only flow away from the interior space; not into it. On gas and water lines, valves were used to control unwanted substance transport into the interior. Even the grading of the entrance drives was designed to preclude flows of possibly flammable liquids or other contaminants past the two sallyport entrances that control access to the new embassy annex.
Client: U.S. State Department
