How the New Walmart Campus Integrates a Growing Community

The future looks bright for the city of Bentonville, Ark., following the new Walmart Home Office campus opening in spring 2025. The 355-acre open campus was designed to meet Walmart’s vision to provide a sustainable, winning workplace that supports long-term environmental responsibility and embraces the region’s natural beauty. More importantly, the open campus was seamlessly integrated into the city to allow associates and residents equal access to the public areas through engineering innovation that reimagined the campus design concept from the ground up.

Walter P Moore has served as the lead civil engineering firm for the campus since 2019. More than 80 team members contributed their expertise to a range of sustainable design initiatives across the campus, including the following:

• Efficient site grading and precise utility design and installation.
• The Razorback Greenway Trail that serves as the backbone of the campus stormwater conveyance and water-quality treatment systems.
• Low-impact development (LID) drainage systems.
• A stormwater detention system with two separate lakes that cover more than 13 acres and provide reusable water for irrigation.
• A high-performance system to control the release of stormwater based upon downstream capacity.
• A highly efficient, multimodal transportation network in and around the campus.

To accommodate the 2.6 million square feet of office space and 1.6 million square feet of amenity space, there are 10 parking decks with more than 1,000 parking spaces each and a total of 298 EV charging stations located throughout the campus. 

“Northwest Arkansas is a rapidly growing community,” says Seth Roy, group director, home office campus design and construction for Walmart, Inc. ”The Walmart Home Office campus site design, in concert with a resilient infrastructure, creates the environment where Walmart associates and the local area can flourish.” 

Beginning in 2019, mass grading of the campus began while the underground major utility design and installation packages were developed in parallel. The mass grading took place during several months to prepare the site for utility installation. 

A major challenge was designing utilities around the shallow rock in many portions of the campus. This required an innovative approach to grading to ensure underground utility conflicts were avoided. 

”The grading of each zone was adjusted after the mass grading and as the development components started for each zone,” notes Manoj Adwaney, managing principal and director of civil engineering at Walter P Moore. “Micro drainage, or surface drainage, involved the fine-tuning of the sizes and location of drainage pipes in each zone as the surface grading was finalized.”

Due to the diversity of the structures on campus, which ranged from office buildings, parking decks and amenity buildings, the utility installation was complex. Hydronics, sanitary and storm sewer, electrical, potable and non-potable water systems, and fiberoptic cable and communication duct banks all were precisely woven throughout the entire campus to ensure optimum construction conditions and improve access for future maintenance.

”The numerous miles of pipe and duct bank were strategically placed throughout the campus to avoid conflicts and adapt to the changing grade within each zone,” adds Adwaney. 

The installation began with the major underground utilities due to the complexity of routing utilities within specific corridors. For example, hydronic utilities were designed first because they required consistent elevation to minimize piping pressure drops. 

Sanitary and storm sewer utilities were gravity-fed lines with varying slope requirements that limited flexibility in routing depth. Electrical, fiber-optic cable and communication utilities were constrained by a set amount of vertical or horizontal bends allowed between structures. Water and natural gas were laid last because they could be easily adjusted to maneuver through and around the other utilities. 

To avoid conflicts among the utilities, regular clash-detection meetings were held amongst the various design teams for the project. A software program-Navisworks Clash Detection-was used to enable the utility design team and zone design teams to compare utilities and detect the minimum clearance tolerances among the complex weave.

“Clash rules were established for minimum clearance required by the City of Bentonville and the Arkansas Department of Health; and best-management practices were set at certain distances per the specific utility,” explains Adwaney. 

All conflicts for the campus design were run as hard clashes to provide more accuracy when managing the operation. Any conflicts identified then were discussed during weekly design and zone team meetings. Because the conflicts were identified after a clash detection analysis was run in the software program, the design teams had the option to mark the clash as “New,” “Active,” “Reviewed,” “Approved” or “Resolved.”

Clash reports then were generated with a thumbnail view as well as a brief report about each conflict. To ensure all conflicts were addressed and resolved effectively, meetings were scheduled if the conflict was considered critical to the design or construction. 

Also, the project required relocation of the city’s sanitary and stormwater sewer collection system as well as replacement of existing water lines on the outskirts of campus to support upgrades to the systems. Coordination with the City of Bentonville, adjacent property owners and Walmart ensured that current and future utility needs were met effectively. 

The civil engineering design for the campus integrated a series of LID concepts to minimize the environmental impact of stormwater runoff across the campus and the surrounding areas. The design also incorporated the “Big Nature” concept-the idea that every landscape we inhabit, whether developed large or small, is part of a larger ecological system. The Big Nature design premise included a combination of local environments such as green spaces, courtyards, trails, more than 13 acres of lake reservoirs, and regionally sourced plants in concert with the LID concepts as a measure to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the campus. 

“Big Nature and the LID-based approach to managing stormwater runoff onsite minimizes impact on water quality, and both played a key role in the campus design,” says Gus Leutermann, senior associate and senior civil engineer at Walter P Moore. ”The specific elements of LID, including the integration of bioswales along major roadways and conveyance paths, prove effective in attenuating stormwater runoff and reduce infrastructure costs across the campus.” 

The bioswales serve as a natural pretreatment mechanism by providing stormwater storage, attenuating the peak flows and treating the developed flows on the campus before entering the storm sewer system. The bioswales enhance water quality and contribute to the sustainable campus-wide stormwater management strategy. 

In addition to the bioswales, the stormwater collection system conveys and discharges the pretreated stormwater runoff to the vegetated Razorback Greenway Trail central waterway. 

”The trail through the campus was planned as a hike and bike extension of the Razorback Trail, but it also serves as the backbone of the campus stormwater conveyance and water quality treatment systems,” adds Leutermann. 

The Razorback Greenway Trail includes local stone and native vegetation to manage water flow, and the Greenway naturally filters stormwater for reuse in the campus’ irrigation and maintenance systems. It also allows for the connection of multiple stormwater treatments that can activate, aerate, polish and deliver naturally treated and clean stormwater free of sediment, excess nutrients, contaminants and debris to the two lakes on campus as well as the public streams that serve as the outfalls from the lakes.

The North and South Lakes on the campus were engineered to temporarily store and manage stormwater. The lakes’ design allows for the controlled release of developed flow from the campus, prevents downstream flooding, and minimizes the impact on the Town Branch Creek and Osage Creek. The campus lakes’ wet bottoms and wetland planting provide the final step in the water-treatment train before any water is released into Town Branch Creek and Osage Creek. To ensure stormwater storage and release are properly controlled, the South Lake is equipped with a continuous monitoring and adaptive control (CMAC) system, which uses real-time data to manage the stormwater. The CMAC system helps increase overall capacity and minimize downstream flooding, reinforcing the campus’ commitment to resilient and sustainable infrastructure.

“By connecting this series of stormwater-treatment features, a water-treatment train was created upstream of the campus lakes to allow for a reduction of costly and maintenance intensive infrastructure, such as lake aeration, chemical and biological controls to regulate algae blooms, and dredging,” explains Leutermann.

Walter P Moore incorporated these sustainable water-management practices to ensure synergy between Walmart and the City of Bentonville. The purpose is to continually manage stormwater, reduce campus water usage and improve the quality of water leaving the campus. 

Pedestrian safety, walk-ability and bicycle access were central focuses of the campus’ mobility and traffic-planning effort. Multiple design solutions were implemented to seamlessly integrate the campus transportation network within the community’s existing transportation network while concurrently enhancing the aesthetic and functional qualities of the campus. 

“Prioritizing walkability and active transportation support Walmart’s goal of having at least 10 percent of campus employees commute by bicycle, promoting sustainable mobility and reducing carbon emissions,” says Jennifer Peek, managing principal and executive director of Walter P Moore’s Infrastructure Group. 

A network of bike and nature paths was extended to connect the Razorback Greenway Trail through the campus and linked to surrounding trail systems for seamless access to downtown Bentonville and beyond. 

To strengthen the important bond between the community and campus, multiple access points were created-and some were reengineered from their original design-to allow safe and easy access to the campus. These include several tunnels for the campus trail system as well as new roadways leading into and around the campus. 

”To improve pedestrian safety and eliminate vehicle pedestrian conflicts, a street parallel to the campus was raised 10 feet while another roadway on the campus was elevated by 7 feet to enable pedestrian tunnels in place of traditional intersections,” adds Peek. 

A key intersection northwest of campus also was redesigned to improve vehicular flow during rush hours. Capacity improved at the intersection by adding a through lane, right turn-only lane and converting to dual left-turn lanes. As a result, the average delay per vehicle was reduced by approximately 25 percent in the morning peak hour and by more than 50 percent in the evening peak hour, improving mobility and access for Walmart employees and the greater Bentonville community. 

To ensure efficient vehicle circulation, the design team installed advanced traffic technology components such as cameras to monitor intersections as well as a traffic signal timing network. Walter P Moore conducted a series of origin and destination studies to identify preferred travel routes and modes of transportation to and from the Walmart campus. The studies resulted in the timing of traffic signals for construction conditions as well as future conditions post-construction. Because the traffic studies predicted travel patterns, necessary modifications to the planned timings have been made in the field in concert with the City of Bentonville. 

Insight from these studies also helped with the design of the campus street network and the location of the 10 parking decks on campus. The parking decks were intentionally located around the perimeter of the campus to preserve internal areas for active transportation modes such as walking and biking. This layout ensures that all destinations within the campus are within a five-minute walk of a parking deck to support walkability, reduce vehicular congestion and enhance the overall pedestrian experience. 

By bringing Walmart’s campus vision to life, the project has spurred other economic development throughout the Bentonville area. 

For example, new office, retail and industrial projects have emerged within the city. The Alice L. Walton Foundation and Mercy in concert with Heartland Whole Health Institute and the Cleveland Clinic have affiliated in a joint effort on the Bentonville Healthcare Campus (BHCC) to help expand access to healthcare and wellness throughout Northwest Arkansas. The BHCC is expected to be completed in late 2028.

“Walmart’s longstanding intent was to build a world-class winning workplace which weaved together community, sustainability, technology and whole health to allow the associates, and Bentonville, to thrive,” says Roy. “We are better together. The sustainable nature of both the design and the execution of work on the New Home Office allows our associates to bring ‘save money and live better’ to life, right here in the heart of Bentonville.” 

The new Walmart Home Office campus has provided the spark needed to draw workers back into the office with its luxury amenities and innovative campus design, placing a high emphasis on sustainability. This was accomplished by ensuring the vision and goals set forth by Walmart were achieved to create a winning workplace within a New Home Office that serves as an integral, seamless part of the community.