Best Civil Works/Infrastructure Project Photo courtesy Shimmick Construction Big Tujunga Dam project faced challenges aplenty. Photo courtesy of Shimmick Construction The seismic retrofit project was built by Shimmick Construction. The $88-million Big Tujunga Dam project was a seismic retrofit to an existing variable radius thin-arch dam.For approximately 30 years the reservoir's operating level had been restricted by order of the California Dept. of Water Resources' Division of Safety of Dams to an elevation that resulted in reducing its storage capacity by 75%.In 2008 the Los Angeles County Flood Control District elected to incorporate a complete structural and hydraulic rehabilitation of

Best Transportation Project Photo courtesy of T.Y. Lin T.Y. Lin was the lead engineer on the project. With the construction of Petco Park, the San Diego Padres' downtown home, the need arose for a grade-separated pedestrian crossing of six railroad tracks and Harbor Drive, a four-lane major arterial.Construction manager/lead engineer T.Y. Lin International says the $27-million, 354-ft-long Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge is a graceful, single-cable self-anchored suspension bridge with a single inclined pylon and a curved deck suspended only along the inside edge.The bridge's main span is 354 ft long. The 131-ft tall pylon is inclined at a 60-degree angle

Award of Merit Higher Education/Research Photo courtesy of Lend Lease Lend Lease was the general contractor on the project. The $77-million project consisted of a construction management-at-risk delivery of a LEED-Gold academic multi-use building and an extensive sitework infrastructure package on CCSF's Ocean Avenue campus. The 110,000-sq-ft, three-story building includes classrooms, specialized laboratories, offices, study space and student development facilities. It features several sustainable design elements and collaborative construction initiatives.Supported by a massive geothermal exchange system, a new central utility plant was constructed in the building's basement and is capable of delivering demand-based chilled and hot water for five buildings.

Award of Merit Office Photo courtesy of ZGF Architects The project converted an old valve manufacturing facility into open offices. The 75,000-sq-ft Clif Bar & Co. headquarters transformed a World War II valve manufacturing facility into a workplace tailored for the outdoor enthusiasts who run Clif Bar, a leading maker of organic nutrition foods and snacks.The project is on track to receive LEED-Platinum certification and features an open office working environment, research and development kitchen, employee wellness area, onsite child care, theater space and a cafe. According to design firm ZGF Architects, the space functions as a medium to tell

After recently earning a LEED for New Construction platinum certification, DPR’s San Diego office can now claim to be the first and only net-zero energy and LEED platinum certified commercial office in the city in its size. The company-owned regional headquarters is a 24,000-sq-ft building located in University City.To be eligible for a net-zero rating, a building must be capable of producing at least as much energy from renewable sources within a year to compensate for what it draws from the grid. Over the last year, DPR’s San Diego office generated nearly 12,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) more than it consumed with

“It’s certainly a unique delivery method – a Public-Private Partnership utilizing Performance-Based Infrastructure design/build,” says Chip Hastie, vice president at Clark Construction Group-California, Costa Mesa. “That really has shaped many of the design decisions and, ultimately, the end product, which is a facility that can be operated with optimal efficiency and reliability.” The facility is the 545,000-sq-ft Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach, a $490-million project that will replace the city’s existing – and long outdated – main court building. Construction began in earnest in June.When completed in August 2013, the complex will cover two city blocks and feature

A huge segment of the $4.6-billion Hetch Hetchy Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) is about to head in a downhill direction. The San Joaquin Pipeline System (SJPS), part of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s WSIP to repair, replace and seismically upgrade the aging Hetch Hetchy Water System, has reached several major milestones over the last several months.According to officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), notices to proceed were issued this quarter for the eastern segment contract, which involves the construction of a new pipeline from the Oakdale Portal to a new connection point 6.7 miles from the

Seven major projects in California got off to celebratory starts in the past two weeks, signaling a willingness of municipalities, school districts, government agencies and residential developers to start spending on construction again. The biggest of the seven is the $600-million OC Bridges program, funded and overseen by the Orange County Transportation Authority. The project’s goal is to improve traffic flow and safety at seven crossings along the busy Burlington North Santa Fe rail line in Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia by building a series of bridges – both underpasses and overpasses – to separate car traffic from trains.Construction will be

All on the job agree: The most challenging and striking design feature of the $185-million central library replacement under construction in San Diego is its steel lattice dome. The shape, which will top the eighth-floor reading room of the nine-story library, is designed to be a symbol for the city as well as a working part of the building's shading system, says Rob Wellington Quigley, the local design architect for the project. A modern interpretation of the classic shape, the dome is designed to function on both an emotional and practical level, says Quigley. “The dome is not glass, but

The $452-million Lodi Energy Center (LEC) natural gas power plant project is progressing well and is on track for completion in June 2012, according to sources at the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), a joint‐action agency serving public power entities in Northern and Central California. The project, which is under construction on 4.4 acres of land in Lodi, will generate 280 megawatts of power once complete.“We’ve experienced a few challenges with suppliers, but we are working around those,” said Ed Warner, project manager, NCPA. “We are 50 percent done with construction and over 70 percent complete with the overall project,