Higley served as Construction Manager at Risk for the Devereaux Tiger Forest project at the Detroit Zoo. This $3.1 Million project included expanding the existing Habitat yard from approximately 10,000 SF to nearly 40,000 SF. The yard features a 250’ long and 18’ deep shotcrete moat wall, shotcrete caves, waterfall, streams, and pools, heat mats, containment fencing, and is heavily planted.

The project also included new View Stations with over 70’ of glass encounter underneath two timber structures with vegetated roofs. One View Shelters features a custom fabricated Land Rover interactive where guests can sit in the Land Rover seats, while a Tiger sits on the Hood on the other side of the glass. The project also included a new 2,200 SF day yard, and minor renovations to the existing Tiger Holding Building, such as new shift doors in the day yard, new shift and keeper doors into the expanded habitat yard, painting existing Tiger dens, and updates to the Food Prep area.

• The Zoo remained open during construction of this exhibit, with minimization of disruption to guests and visitors.
• Higley revised the design of the 18’ deep moat wall from a cast-in-place wall to a soldier pile and lagging wall. This alternative reduced the duration of the wall installation from 12 weeks down to 3 weeks, it reduced the cost of the moat by reducing excavation and eliminating re-work of utilities and pavements, and eliminated the cost and animal impact to an adjacent red panda habitat.
• During construction, the original concrete subcontractor had to be removed from the project for non-conformance. AMHigley successfully replaced this subcontractor without impact to the project budget or schedule.
• Higley coordinated with several DZS-direct subcontractors including a local shotcrete company performing themework, and a local fencing company performing the main habitat containment fence.