Octagon Barn Restoration and Roadway Improvements

The Land Conservancy and San Luis Obispo County worked together to restore and revitalize the historic Octagon Barn that was on the verge of collapse. The restoration focused on transforming the existing structure and facilities into a functional event center with storage, restrooms, museum facilities, and a staging ground for a future connection to the Bob Jones Trail. The roadway improvements included widening South Higuera Street (a heavily trafficked thoroughfare) to accommodate a center turn lane, a parking lot, and site grading for placement of additional amenities.

Cannon was selected to provide construction management services for the implementation of site grading, installation of drainage improvements, relocation of utilities, and installation of site concrete and asphalt paving, requiring careful clearing and purposeful enhancement of sensitive habitat. A distinct construction method on the project included a cracking and seating process to help reduce the movement of underlaying pavement. The existing concrete roadway slab was broken using a drop hammer. Seating was then done with a heavily weighted rubber-tire roller. The resulting cracked and seated concrete layer functioned as an aggregate base course. This process is frequently used when old concrete pavements are being converted to a flexible pavement system using hot mix asphalt.

Located at the south end of San Luis Obispo, the Octagon Barn is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its rare, eight-sided shape. Built in 1906 for dairy farming, this beloved and interesting landmark sits at the cusp of rural and residential/commercial properties.