Storage Units Athens — Self-Storage Facility Civil Engineering in Athens, TX
Athens · Henderson County · Texas
Commercial & Retail Development
Self-storage civil engineering built around the fire truck turning radius
JRH Engineering provided complete civil engineering design for a self-storage facility in Athens, Texas, requiring a new fire line and TxDOT coordination. The development goal was to fit the maximum number of rentable storage units on the property. JRH designed the fire line, then worked backwards from the fire truck turning radius to optimize building placement — fitting more units in the same footprint without sacrificing fire code compliance.
AT A GLANCE
Site civil design
Full civil design for a self-storage facility including building layout, grading, paving, and access
Fire line designed to serve the full facility from the TxDOT infrastructure connection
Building placement optimized around the fire truck turning radius — working backwards from the turning requirement to maximize the number of buildings and units that fit within the footprint
TxDOT coordination for fire line connection and site access
Permitting and agency coordination
City of Athens fire code compliance achieved through a turning radius-optimized building layout
TxDOT coordination for access and fire line connection completed concurrently with city review
Complete submission package on first submittal
The Challenge — fire code constraints that quietly cost unit count
Self-storage facilities live on unit count — more units per acre means more revenue. Fire code requirements for truck access and turning radii impose constraints on building placement that, if treated as hard boundaries rather than design inputs, result in fewer units than the site can actually support.
JRH’s Approach — start with the swept path, not the buildings
Rather than laying out buildings and then checking whether fire trucks could turn, JRH started with the turning radius and designed buildings around it. Working backwards from the fire truck swept path, JRH identified the exact minimum clearances required and placed buildings at those minimums — fitting more units into the same footprint than a conventional layout would have produced, while fully satisfying fire code compliance.
The Results
01
Unit count maximized by designing the building layout around the fire truck turning radius rather than around it
02
Fire code compliance achieved — turning radius requirements met at every point in the facility
03
TxDOT and City of Athens approvals completed concurrently
04
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the main engineering challenge on the Athens self-storage project?
The development goal was to fit the maximum number of rentable storage units on the property, but fire code requirements for truck turning radii could easily reduce the number of units that fit if not addressed early in the design.
How did JRH Engineering maximize unit count at the Athens facility?
JRH worked backwards from the fire truck's turning radius requirement, placing buildings at the exact minimum clearances required, fitting more units into the same footprint than a conventional layout would allow.
What were the results of the Athens self-storage project?
JRH maximized rentable unit count by designing around the turning radius requirement rather than after the fact, achieved full fire code compliance, and completed TxDOT and City of Athens approvals concurrently.