Skanska USA completes central utility plant to power state Capitol, offices

The project is seeking LEED gold certification for the seven-story tall facility

Skanska completes state utility plant

Skanska USA has completed construction on the central utility plant for the state Capitol and 22 state office buildings.

The utility plant was designed by Sacramento fi rm Nacht and Lewis.

The 78,000-sq-ft facility operates on 90% less water than its predecessor and is expected to help the state reduce energy costs, cut water usage and provide better reliability to state buildings.

The seven-story-tall plant took less than two years to build.

The central plant is expected to achieve LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council next year.

Since its groundbreaking, the central plant project was responsible for putting between 75 to 375 full-time construction employees to work every day.

Besides Skanska, the project team included: Sacramento-based Nacht and Lewis Architects, San Francisco-based Flack and Kurtz and Lawson Mechanical and Redwood City Electric. Consultants on the project were Capitol Engineering Consultants, Inc., Lionakis Beaumont Design Group and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.

The new facility includes cooling towers to release heat pulled from state buildings and reuse the water that goes through the plant. The more technologically advanced central plant uses more than 95% less water than the old plant and can operate off the electrical grid during an emergency. Solar panels will also be installed on the new facility to power the energy needs of the office space within it.

Swinerton breaks ground on NASA project at Ames Research Center

Swinerton Builders has begun construction on a $20-million, 50,000-sq-ft, steel-frame Sustainability Base building at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View.

Sustainability Base will be a research facility for studying sustainability on Earth and is designed to achieve LEED platinum certification.

Green features of Sustainability Base will include complete heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems utilizing ground source heat pumps; solar hot-water systems; and an advanced lighting system.

In addition to the structure, the project also includes site preparation, utilities, installation of 72 geothermal wells, parking, California native landscaping, hardscaping and the development of a stormwater management system.

In order to achieve sustainability, the building will have zero net energy consumption and use 90% less potable water than conventionally built buildings. Once complete, Sustainability Base is expected to be the greenest and highest-performing building in the federal government’s portfolio.

AECOM of San Francisco is the architect of record with William McDonough & Associates, also of San Francisco, as design architect.

Construction of the building is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.

KMA Architecture, Straub Construction begin design-build project at Camp Pendleton

San Diego-based KMA Architecture & Engineering and Fallbrook-based Straub Construction have begun work on a design-build Infantry Training Center and Grounds Maintenance Building at Camp Pendleton.

Construction of the project, which is seeking LEED certification, is expected to be completed by fall 2010.

The $10-million project will incorporate sustainable features including photovoltaic panels on roofs to offset building energy costs by 12.5 percent and water efficient landscaping with drought-tolerant native plant species to reduce irrigation requirements by 50 percent. Overall water-use reduction will be achieved with low-flow fixtures and a stormwater system that captures and treats stormwater runoff from 90 percent of the average annual rainfall. The project is designed to meet LEED gold certification standards.

The project will be built in two phases. The first phase of construction will include the removal of the existing maintenance building and construction of the main parking lot and the new Grounds Maintenance Building.

The second phase will include the construction of a rear parking lot and the new Infantry Training Center, which houses three entities that will have separate entries. Once the building is occupied, a pedestrian walkway and small parking lot will be constructed.

The project team includes: Berg Engineering, civil engineer; DS Engineering, mechanical engineer; MPE Consulting, electrical engineer; and SMR Consulting Group, structural engineer. Additionally, K. Killman Design is the interior designer, and Crescere Design is the landscaper.

McCarthy completes parking garage for Grossmont College

McCarthy Building Cos. has completed construction on a 402,503-sq-ft, three-level parking structure and adjacent 3,200-sq-ft Public Safety Office at Grossmont College in El Cajon.

San Diego-based Gafcon served as construction manager and Los Angeles-based International Parking Design was the architect for the $25-million project.

International Parking Design was the architect for the $25-million Grossmont College project.

The parking structure, which accommodates 1,431 vehicles, features sections of teal-colored metal trellises, stucco, and prominent sections of brick veneer on the external façade. Two pedestrian bridges connect Grossmont College’s main campus to the parking structure.

The project team had to overcome unexpected challenges when building the project. For example, two corners of the building’s foundation had to be re-engineered to avoid a previously undetected underground gas line.

Additionally, another project challenge was dealing with unstable ground that existed along the east side of the structure, which abuts a natural canyon area. Close to 6,000 cu yds of soil had be excavated and replaced with over 2,000 cu yds of slurry to ensure uniformity of the foundation footprint.

Jacobs receives hospital contract from city and county of San Francisco

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a contract from the city and county of San Francisco to provide construction management services for the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Rebuild Program.

The rebuild was approved by San Francisco voters in November 2008. They authorized the city and county to finance the project with $887.4 million in general obligation bonds.

The San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Rebuild Program will replace the existing hospital building with a facility that complies with the state’s seismic safety requirements. In compliance with state law, the new facility will ensure that San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center can continue to provide emergency, trauma and inpatient services to the public in the event of a major seismic event. The construction period is from summer 2009 through 2014, with the new hospital open and operational by winter 2015.

Located in the Mission District, SFGH provides comprehensive medical care, from primary care to emergency and disaster response, to the city and county residents of San Francisco. In 2000, the San Francisco Department of Public Health commissioned a seismic evaluation study of the main hospital building, and determined that the structure does not meet the state’s mandated seismic safety standards. The Department of Public Health elected to construct a new acute care hospital on the current campus.

Bernards starts construction on Harley Ellis Devereaux-designed child development center

San Fernando-based Bernards has started construction on a Harley Ellis Devereaux-designed child development center at Santa Ana College.

The $8.6-million, 18,200-sq-ft project will accommodate nearly 200 infants, toddlers and preschool children as well as students from the college’s Early Child Development Program.

The center will feature eight children’s classrooms, lecture rooms and an administration building.

The project is scheduled for completion in late 2010.

If you have an item for the Contracts, Groundbreakings and Completions section, please call or e-mail Joe Florkowski. He can be reached by phone at (626) 932-6171 or by e-mail at joe_florkowski@mcgraw-hill.com