It�s Thursday afternoon. The coffee needs warming; documents, drawings and text books are piled around the office; sticky notes surround the computer; and Gary R. Searer is at his desk studying five unique projects. Gary Searer inspects a building as part of his job as a structural engineer for Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates. Searer sorts through yet another assignment at his desk in Burbank. �This is a typical day for me,� says Searer, a structural engineer at the Burbank branch of Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates, Inc. �I don�t just have one big project that I am working on. I am
Jim LaMantia, who describes himself as a former �hothead,� now works to keep the peace on construction sites throughout St. Louis as the executive director of PRIDE of St. Louis Inc., a group representing owners, contractors and the building trades. When LaMantia started in the construction industry in 1968 as an ironworker he says there was a lot of hostility between the unions and management and also between the diff erent unions. �There were jurisdictional fi ghts everywhere,� LaMantia says.PRIDE, founded in 1972 as what is thought to be the first labor-management group in the country, stands for Productivity and
Numerous big highway projects around the state are helping to keep things moving as the construction industry continues to dig out of the recession. And while most of these projects are being funded by traditional tax and bond measures, many are being infused with funds from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. �The impact of the stimulus has been huge,� says Earl Seaverg, Caltrans program manager for the recovery act. �It�s been able to help us fund and move stalled projects to construction that would have otherwise remained on the shelf due to the downturn in the economy.� Caltrans
John Wayne Airport�s massive improvement project � a $543-million effort representing one of the largest public works programs in Orange County history -- is scheduled for completion by December 2011. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. is overseeing all three elements of the project, including construction of a 282,000-sq-ft, three-level terminal (Terminal C); construction of a 725,000-sq-ft replacement parking structure (Parking Structure C); and a 14,600-sq-ft central utility plant. The first significant improvement project at the airport in 20 years will help the airport handle a scheduled passenger increase from its present 9 million annually to 10.8
For Southern California drivers wondering what’s up with the worse-than-usual congestion on the San Bernardino (Interstate 10) Freeway, here’s a bit of good news: It could be a lot worse. Work on the I-10 , one of the several high-profile freeway projects under way in Southern California, began early last year and will be complete in spring 2011. The project includes the complete resurfacing of the I-10, in both directions, between the I-5 and I-605. Yes, the California Department of Transportation’s $165 million I-10/San Bernardino Freeway Restoration project involves dozens of lane and ramp closures on the stretch of road
The construction market is a tricky thing, especially in the current economy. But a look inside California Construction Magazine’s annual list of the Top Project Starts for 2010 can reveal some exciting and interesting insights into work going on across the state. McCarthy Building Cos. and HMC Architects are working on the Kaiser Permanente Fontana replacement hospital project. The new Temecula Civic Center is being built by Edge Construction. Related Links: California Construction 2010 Top Project Starts “The market right now is generally very mixed,” says David Hobstetter, principal with San Francisco-based KMD Architects. “The housing and commercial office markets
When motorists take to San Francisco�s new $1-billion Presidio Parkway in late 2013, they won�t see some of the massive foundation piles placed deep into ground below. But they will feel the support of some of the largest cast-in-drilled-hole piles currently in use. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" �The biggest challenge on this job from the beginning was a requirement to use 12-ft-diameter piles and [insert them with] very limited vibration because of historic buildings in the Presidio,� says Peter Faust, project manager for San Francisco-based Malcolm Drilling Co. �This meant we couldn�t use a pile driver with an
When motorists take to San Francisco’s new $1-billion Presidio Parkway in late 2013, they won’t see some of the massive foundation piles placed deep into ground below. But they will feel the support of some of the largest cast-in-drilled-hole piles currently in use. Ghilotti Bros. is currently working on phase two sitework at Doyle Drive. Malcolm Drilling readies the piles. “The biggest challenge on this job from the beginning was a requirement to use 12-ft-diameter piles and [insert them with] very limited vibration because of historic buildings in the Presidio,” says Peter Faust, project manager for San Francisco-based Malcolm Drilling
Building a mixed-use development in the heart of Encino – generally considered “inland” by Southern California’s coastal residents – wouldn’t ordinarily seem like an undertaking for which you’d need a wet suit. Albert Group Architects of Santa Monica is the designer of the Encino Legado project, while Fassberg Contracting Group of Encino is serving as general contractor. Project engineers solved the water problem by installing a mat foundation system involving concrete walls about 2 ft thicker than in standard foundations, sandwiching a thick waterproof membrane. But nature does have its little surprises. The ongoing Encino Legado development --a $45 million
If the recent sixth-annual Safety Expo: Statewide Safety Training & Construction Management event proved one thing, it’s that construction industry representatives in California crave information. Various classes and demonstrations at the Expo focused on scaffold awareness, safety and new products. As they say during tough times, the better prepared employees and firms will reap benefits down the line. The 140 sessions presented at this expo ranged from forklift certification classes to basic CPR training and from a nine-part series of new green building workshops to Cal/OSHA updates. Presented by the Construction Industry Education Foundation (CIEF) in partnership with the Sacramento