The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) awarded the second phase of the Third Street Light Rail project, also called the Central Subway, to Barnard Impregilo Healy joint venture, Bozeman, Mont. The partnership’s bid was $233,584,015, the lowest responsive and responsible bid of six total packages sent to the SFMTA earlier this month. The agency engineer’s estimated cost for the project was $225 million.The other opening bids were submitted by Shea Traylor JV ($257.8 million), Frontier-Kemper/Tutor Perini JV ($296.3 million), Obayashi Corp./Kenny Construction Co. JV ($274.5 million), Judlau + Shimmick JV ($266.8 million) and Dragados USA-Flatiron West JV ($234.8 million).SFMTA
After months of negotiations, the Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Harbor Commission and labor leaders joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in signing a five-year Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for Port of Los Angeles construction projects beginning this fall. According to port spokesman Phillip Sanfield, the PLA will serve as a blanket agreement between the Harbor Department and the laborers trade unions affiliated with the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council (LIUNA) working on the designated capital improvement projects. The PLA covers 95% of the port’s projected $1.5 billion five-year capital budget. Approximately 20,000 jobs are expected to be
The first phase of the County of San Diego Operations Center project in Kearny Mesa recently received a trio of honors – the “Outstanding Governmental Building of the Year” by the California Center for Sustainable Energy, the “2011 Energy Champion for New Construction” by San Diego Gas & Electric and LEED gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. According to Dan Stewart, RJC Architects’ project manager, phase 1A of the massive project consists of two 150,000-sq-ft, four-story office buildings and a parking structure.RJC says that it teamed with general contractor Lowe Enterprises and Suffolk-Roel Construction Co. on the project
BOWMAN Structure Tone, New York, named Ronald H. Bowman Jr. executive vice president of Structure Tone Mission Critical, a division of the company that provides expertise in the development, implementation and management of critical systems and facilities to clients. Bowman will have global responsibility for the division, which is supported by the firm’s technology management group, ST Tech Services. Prior to joining Structure Tone, Bowman was executive vice president for Tishman Technologies. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Modern Spaces, Long Island City, N.Y., hired Craig Axelrod as executive vice president of project marketing for the firm’s new Modern Spaces
SnapShot June 6, 2011 Submitted By: Ben Heckscher, Freelance Photographer, The Launch Box Blog, New York “Shooting in black and white, I felt, would allow me to focus on the shape and form of what has been photographed without being distracted by color,” says Heckscher. He took this shot of the Second Avenue Subway tunnel-boring machine near 92nd Street with a Canon PowerShot G11 camera at f2.8 and a Manfrotto monopad. Using a flash was prohibited so as not to disturb the sandhogs starting the machine's second drive. Photographer: Ben Heckscher
WALDRONJack Waldron, URS Corp.'s vice president of design-build for the West group in Santa Ana, was promoted to senior vice president and national director, transportation design-build projects. Waldron is responsible for leading the URS transportation design-build practice for all modes, including highways, bridges, rail transit, freight rail, airports and marine ports. Waldron began his career with URS in 1986 and served as its California transportation division manager until 2001. He was chief operating officer at T.Y. Lin for five years before rejoining URS. Tim Youngpeter has joined ARB Structures Inc. as business development manager. Youngpeter has more than 30 years
Kaiser Permanente announced three finalists in its hospital design competition: Aditazz, Palo Alto; Gresham, Smith and Partners, Columbus, Ohio; and Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch, San Francisco. KP says that some of the ideas presented for the firm’s “Small Hospital, Big Idea” competition included transparent roofs that produce energy and collect rainwater; interactive walls patients could use to Skype with family or physicians; and a pneumatic pharmacy distribution system that delivers medications to patients’ rooms. Each firm will receive compensation of up to $750,000 to flesh out their winning concepts over the next several months, KP says, with the final designs
Norwegian architect Sn�hetta released its preliminary design for the 225,000-sq-ft expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Image courtesy of Sn�hetta General contractor Webcor Builders will have to grapple with a compact urban site, currently a maze of alleyways, that is 335 ft long but only 98 ft wide. The project includes a public promenade with an entrance to the wing, which will sit behind the Mario Botta-designed original that opened on Third and Howard streets in 1995. A more detailed design, executed in partnership with SF’s EHDD Architecture, is scheduled for completion by the end of the
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently toured the under-construction UC Davis West Village student housing complex, claimed to be the largest zero net energy development in the country. Debuting this fall, the 130-acre mixed-use community will feature housing for 2,000 students. Its SunPower solar system will provide 4 megawatts of power, which will support 100% of the development’s electricity needs. The system is comprised of both rooftop solar power installations and solar canopies over parking areas. UC Davis West Village is the product of a public-private partnership between UC Davis and West Village Community Partnership, LLC, a joint venture led
Associated Builders and Contractors reports that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) for the first quarter of 2011 averaged 7.3 months, a 4% increase from 7.1 months during the fourth quarter of 2010, and up from 6.1 months, or an increase of 21%, from one year ago. According to ABC, CBI is a forward-looking indicator that measures the amount of construction work under contract to be completed in the future. “If construction materials prices are better behaved going forward, the recovery in commercial and heavy industrial construction may accelerate,” says Anirban Basu, ABC’s chief economist. “However, infrastructure-related construction is largely dependent
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