PCL to build UCLA Life Sciences project

PCL Construction Services’ Glendale office was awarded the construction of the UCLA Life Sciences Building project. 

The $122.9 million facility consists of two wings with laboratories, offices, scholarly activity space, and building support spaces on five floors plus a basement vivarium.

The 175,000-sq-ft structure will be supported by a cast-in-place concrete frame with flat-slab floor decks.

This building will be the new home of the Biological Sciences Department. It is anticipated this lab building will attain University of California LEED-equivalent certification. This will be PCL’s fourth project in four years with UCLA. The architect for the campus’s newest laboratory building is Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

T.Y. Lin/CH2M Hill complete design, construction of Benicia-Martinez Bridge

The joint-venture team of T.Y. Lin International/CH2M HILL reported that it has completed design and construction support services for the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge. The new high-level long-span bridge will provide traffic congestion relief to the 100,000 daily vehicles that cross Interstate 680.

Joining the team as principals on the $1 billion, much-delayed project is the owner, Caltrans; general contractor, Kiewit Pacific; construction engineer, Parsons; and post-tensioning supplier, Schwager Davis.

In addition, the bridge is a designated “lifeline structure,” which has been designed to remain open to emergency traffic following a major seismic event.

Spanning the Carquinez Straits between Contra Costa and Solano counties, the new toll bridge is 7,400 ft in total length and encompasses 22 spans, including 12 over water. The T.Y. Lin International/CH2M HILL team says it worked closely with Caltrans and Kiewit Pacific to successfully complete the many design innovations of the new prestressed concrete segmental box girder bridge.

DBM completes slope stabilization for Sprinter Mainline in California

Seattle-based DBM Contactors Inc. completed emergency landslide repair for the Sprinter Mainline in Oceanside. The slide occurred during earth moving to build a retaining wall at the base of a steep slope adjacent to the new Sprinter Mainline. The slope stabilization project required installing four rows of permanent anchors, with each row containing 43 anchors ranging in length from 90 ft to 115 ft along a span of 350 ft.

The lowest row of anchors was in very close proximity to the utilities on the site requiring diligent care and some modifications of the work.

The project site was very limited by its close proximity to an active rail line and the presence of threatened wildlife species in the area. The two-month completion schedule was set due to both environmental permitting and the rail operating schedule. 

The Sprinter Mainline is owned by North County Transit District.  The general contractor was West Coast Rail Constructors - a joint venture of FCI Constructors and Fluor.

Opus West plans new LEED office project in Brisbane

Opus West Corp. is moving forward with plans for a Class A, LEED-certified office project within the Opus Center Sierra Point office and R&D campus. Located along Highway 101 in Brisbane, Opus West will develop two office buildings totaling 448,200 sq ft, which, combined with Opus West’s completed projects in the premier office park, totals 1.5 million sq ft. 

The new development will include two buildings. One building is 10 stories at 250,000 sq ft and the second facility is comprised of eight stories at nearly 200,000 sq ft.

Both buildings will feature such environmental elements as a cool roof, bike racks and showers, high performance glazing, strict lighting criteria nine (to abide by night sky pollution standards), water efficient landscaping (50% water reduction) and water use reductions (20% reduction). 

Other environmental elements include enhanced building commissioning and refrigerant management, construction waste management (50% reduction), recycled content of building materials (10%), low emitting materials (adhesives, paints, carpet, etc.), and – to round out the program – green housekeeping/maintenance and educational signage.

To date, Opus West has developed 75 acres of the 120-acre Sierra Point campus. Construction of the two new office buildings is set to commence in early 2008. Opus Architects & Engineers and Hoover Associates are the architects for the project and Opus West Construction Corp. will serve as the contractor.

Harley Ellis Devereaux-designed campus food court opens

California State University, Northridge’s Arbor Grill & Court has opened. Designed by Los Angeles-based Harley Ellis Devereaux, the facility houses a mercantile, the Arbor Grill, and the Freudian Sip coffeehouse. Outside the building is the Arbor Court, a courtyard that provides students with an environment for eating, studying and socializing.

The architect says the design encourages the use of its natural setting, with almost all seating located in the outdoor courtyard. The landscape was designed to break down the massing of seating for variety and privacy.

The new structure is a tall glass pavilion constructed within a metaphoric grove of steel trees. These “trees” support both the exterior canopy of trellising and the roof of the pavilion. Tall walls of shaded glass allow the exterior landscape to extend through the pavilion. The geometry of the “trees” reinforces and resolves the geometries of the adjacent buildings.

Sukut starts construction of New Model Colony development in Ontario

Santa Ana-based Sukut Construction Inc. has started construction on New Model Colony, an entirely new community encompassing 13 sq mi within the city of Ontario.

Sukut won the $96 million contract to build the roads and underground infrastructure on the 4,000-acre first phase of New Model Colony.

Sukut will be building six arterial roads totaling 13 mi. That equates to 4.8 million sq ft of pavement, or 200,000 tons of asphalt, enough to pave one lane from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Sukut will excavate 900,000 cu yds of dirt. In football terms, that’s enough dirt to bury the field under a 385-ft mountain – the height of a 32-story building.

Sukut also will lay 240,000 lineal ft of water, sewer and storm pipe; install 532 street lights and 23 traffic signals.

Sukut will use approximately 150 employees and 12 large excavating machines.

The land on from which New Model Colony will rise is primarily dairy farms and pasture. The job involves clearing the path of the arterials; installing sewer, water, reclaimed water and storm water pipelines; adding conduits for gas, electric, fiber optic and cable utilities; and finishing with curbs, gutters, asphalt, street lights and traffic signals.