University of California=Davis Health has begun the ambitious $3.75-billion California Tower project in Sacramento with the demolition of temporary buildings on the site of the future structure. Construction is set to begin next year on the 14-story hospital tower and five-story pavilion located on the eastern side of the existing UC Davis Medical Center. The project is slated for completion in 2030. The new tower will encompass 1 million sq ft—roughly doubling the square footage of the medical center. It will include operating rooms, an imaging center, an expanded pharmacy, additional burn care units and about 400 single-patient rooms.

Improving Fish Habitat

The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation has tapped Kleinschmidt Associates to provide environmental, engineering and permitting services as part of the Interim Steelhead Rearing Facility Project at its Rowdy Creek Hatchery in Smith River, Calif. The new facility will incorporate state-of-the-art recirculating aquaculture technology to treat and reuse the water supply in two 20-ft-dia rearing tanks. The project will allow the Nation to produce 25,000 juvenile steelhead trout for release into area streams and lakes.

New Home for Biz School

The $66.5-million Innovation and Instruction Building at California State University, Dominguez Hills, was recently completed and opened for classes. C.W. Driver Cos. partnered with HGA Architects & Engineers on the project.

The four-story, 107,600-sq-ft building is the new home of the College of Business Administration and Public Policy and features a 250-seat auditorium, 120-seat active-learning classroom and two 60-seat case study rooms.

New Program Will Boost Contracting Diversity in LA

The regional Contractor Development and Bonding Program has been established to assist small and diverse contractors in obtaining work on publicly funded construction projects.

The program is a joint effort by the city and county of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and is being administered by San Francisco-based Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services.

The goal of the program is to provide bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, education, training and other services to underrepresented businesses.