Placer County broke ground recently on a nearly 200,000-sq-ft Adult Correctional Facility at the Bill Santucci Justice Center in Roseville. Photo: Courtesy of HDR Placer County Breaks Ground on New Jail The Placer County Board of Supervisors joined public safety officials and contractors in a ceremony to commemorate beginning Phase 1 construction, a $98-million project. While Placer’s population growth has currently slowed with the recession, the county’s population is expected to grow in the future, increasing the need for jail beds. Additionally, the current economic condition has resulted in a significant decrease in construction costs. Also, the Conditional Use Permit granted by
The Irvington Tunnel, a crucial 78-year old component of the Hetch Hetchy Water System, will now have a sibling. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently approved the New Irvington Tunnel Project to construct a new 3.5-mi-long tunnel parallel to the existing tunnel between the Sunol Valley south of Highway I-680 and Fremont, California. Bid advertisement for the New Irvington Tunnel Project was originally scheduled for this week, with bids opening on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 with a contract award scheduled for early April 2010. Because of some needed time to complete revisions to the contract documents, the SFPUC says it
The city of Sacramento’s Department of Transportation has met its deadline to secure $20 million in federal stimulus money. The funds will be put toward the $60 million cost of constructing new railroad tracks at the downtown depot. Photo: Courtesy City of Sacramento Track Project at Sacramento Depot Gets Funding Moving and realigning the railroad tracks 500 ft north will clear the way for the housing, shops, museums and entertainment venues at the railyards being developed by Thomas Enterprises and for future expansion of the depot into a world class regional multi-modal transportation center. “Last March, we learned the biggest
Walnut Village, a new, full-service retirement community in Anaheim, received a 2009 SAGE Award in the inaugural “On the Boards” Project of the Year category from the 50+ Housing Council, a special interest council of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. Photo: Courtesy of Front Porch Development Co. Anaheim�s Walnut Village Receives NAHB Award Retirement communities were nominated for the award and judged on the basis of innovative design, concept or sensitivity to meeting their intended market. The architect for the project was Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects from Portland, Ore., and the general contractor was DPR Construction out of
The BART Board of Directors recently gave the go-ahead for a train-to-plane connection project between the Coliseum BART Station and the Oakland Airport. Photo: Courtesy of BART BART-Oakland Airport People Mover Project Gets Go-Ahead The board also voted seven to one to award Flatiron/Parsons Joint Venture the contract to design and build the 3.2-mi automated people mover. The board also voted seven to one to award Doppelmayr Cable Car Inc. the contract to operate and maintain the connector once built. “Oakland International congratulates BART and the many other agencies involved in awarding contracts for construction of the long-awaited Oakland Airport
Following the Associated General Contractors report presented to the California Air Resources Board last week, the board, in response, announced an informal grace period for fleets that have not yet reported their off-road vehicles. The AGC of California says that fleets that self-report will not face enforcement action if they report all of their vehicles prior to Jan. 1, 2010 (for large and medium fleets) and March 1, 2010 (for small fleets). The CARB says that the off-road regulation required reporting of all off-road diesel vehicles by Aug. 1, 2009. It says that although the deadlines for all fleets are past,
The value of new construction starts climbed 12% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $447.6 billion, it was reported by McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos. The upward push came from double-digit gains for nonresidential building and nonbuilding construction (public works and electric utilities). At the same time, residential building in October was unchanged from its September pace. Through the first ten months of 2009, total construction on an unadjusted basis came in at $350.1 billion, down 29% from the same period a year ago. The October statistics lifted the Dodge Index to 95 (2000=100), up
Every one of California�s 28 largest metropolitan areas saw a decrease in construction employment between October 2008 and October 2009, according to a new analysis of metropolitan area employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. The association says that state regulators need to rethink plans to force contractors to replace existing equipment as shrinking demand for construction wiped out 136,000 construction jobs statewide. “Collapsing demand for construction services throughout the state is devastating workers and forcing contractors to idle billions of dollars worth of equipment,” says the association’s chief economist Ken Simonson. “Requiring contractors to spend
The Richmond Civic Center Revitalization project recently opened with a media tour and speeches by local officials. Y.K. Cheung Photography The Richmond Civic Center Revitalization project recently opened with a media tour and speeches by local officials. The project also recently won the Best of California’s Top Overall Project for 2009 in the Northern California region. It also took home the Best of California award in the Government/Public category. The awards program is hosted by McGraw-Hill Construction and California Construction Magazine. After almost six years of design and construction, approximately 300 city of Richmond employees recently returned to work at
Gregs G. Thomopulos, P.E., Chairman & CEO of Stanley Consultants of Houston, was elected president of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers for a two-year term. FIDIC represents globally the consulting engineering industry. Thomopulos has been on the organization’s executive committee for six years. His election marks the first time in 20 years that a U.S. citizen holds the position, which only three other Americans have held in FIDIC’s nearly 100-year history. Dynamic Lighting Solutions in Pearland announced Robert C. Horswood joined the company as utility sales representative, Eastern Division. He graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s
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