School Storm Shelters Now Required in Illinois

A new Illinois law requires that all new school buildings constructed in Illinois include a storm shelter. 

House Bill 2513 makes it mandatory that Illinois public school buildings meet minimum requirements for a storm shelter set forth by the International Code Council and the National Storm Shelter Association. This amends the School Code and provides that, after the effective date of the amendatory Act, all new school building construction governed by the "Health/Life Safety Code for Public Schools" must include in its design and construction a storm shelter that meets the minimum requirements of the ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters (ICC-500), published jointly by the International Code Council and the National Storm Shelter Association.This provides that nothing in this language precludes the design engineers, architects, or school district from applying a higher life safety standard than the ICC-500 for storm shelters. 

ATMI Precast has been involved in the design and construction of these storm shelters in the school market. This type of precast building construction typically includes 12” thick insulated wall panels with multiple shear connection plates, additional reinforcement within the panels, additional base plate connections to the foundations, and long span double TT construction of the roof. This type of roof construction typically includes a cast-in-place topping. 

ATMI Precast is happy to work with your team to design and implement a precast building system that meets these requirements for your next school project.