The Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), an independent consumer advocacy division within the California Public Utilities Commission, last week recommended that shareholders of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., not ratepayers, should fund the vast majority of the utility’s natural gas pipeline safety upgrade costs due to the company’s mismanagement of its pipeline safety programs. In August 2011, PG&E submitted a plan that it estimates will cost $2.2 billion for high-priority pipeline testing, repairs, and renovations over the next few years. PG&E has asked the CPUC for the authority to charge its customers $768.8 million for phase 1, which would fund
AGC of California 2011 President Gerry DiIoli commended two students for being named 2011 President‘s Scholarship recipients. Josh Payne and Sy Harrell, both slated to graduate Chico State in 2013 with degrees in construction management, were honored at AGC’s state board of directors meeting on Jan. 27 in Sacramento. AGC of Californi9a 2011 AGC of California President Gerry DiIoli introduced the 2011 President's Scholarship recipients, Sy Harrell (left) and Josh Payne (right), both of Chico State. Each year the AGC Associates Council works with many of the individual districts as well as the Construction Education Foundation to raise $5,000 for
For Anaheim-based design-assist specialty contractor KHS&S, achieving the benefits of integrated project delivery requires technology to give design and construction teams access to project data integrated across the software used by members of the team in real time, all the time. photo COURTESY OF KHS&S/SCENARIO IPD 3D Through Scenarios interface, design-build team members can access live project data, manage 3D models at the object level and identify clashes. PHOTO COURTESY OF KHS&S A Scenario project under way. KHS&S's answer is Scenario VPD, a virtual project delivery collaboration software and system. KHS&S partnered with Scenario, a software developer, in 2008 to
Denise de Ville has joined HOK as vice president and director of corporate commercial business development, based in San Francisco. HOK says De Ville will expand its corporate and commercial portfolio, which includes headquarters for Adobe, Apple, AMD, Biogen Idec, California State Teachers' Retirement System, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Symantec and USAA, and commercial developments for Hines; Wilson Meany Sullivan; McCarthy Cook; Boston Properties; Sares-Regis; and David Taylor Interests. Before joining HOK, she led business development for AECOM Western U.S., Ellerbe Becket and DES A+E. Vic Sibilla has been appointed director of JBA Consulting Engineers' Orange County office. He will manage
The new $438-million Central Utility Plant at Los Angeles International Airport was recently topped out and is currently on schedule to be completed by summer 2014. Rendering courtesy of LAX A rendering of the new Central Utility Plant at LAX The design-build project is being built by Clark/McCarthy, A Joint Venture. Gruen Associates of Los Angeles is the architect and Arup of Los Angeles is the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural and commissioning engineer. Additional project partners include Capital Engineering Consultants, Rancho Cordova, mechanical consultant; Greenform, Los Angeles, sustainability consultant; and PID Engineering, San Diego, cogeneration consultant.According to the JV, in
The federal government is reimbursing California for $182 million the state has already spent on Caltrans’ construction of the Devil’s Slide project along Route 1 between Pacifica and Montara. Altogether, the Obama Administration has released nearly $1.6 billion via the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program to reimburse 30 states, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and federal land management agencies for repairs to roads and bridges caused by “storms, flooding, hurricanes and other natural and catastrophic disasters.”The funding was approved by the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012.California is also getting a reimbursement for two other
The Orange County Great Park Corp. unveiled its next construction phase – the $21.5-million 2012 Western Sector Park Development Plan Capital Improvement Project, which will include soccer fields, a community garden and a new visitor’s center pavilion. Rendering courtesy of Orange County Great Park Corp. A rendering of the new visitor's center. The bid package for the capital improvement project, which is designed by WRNS, was released for public bid Jan. 12, and construction is expected to begin in March. Bids for 2012 Western Sector Park Development Plan Capitol Improvement Project are due Feb. 24.The corporation will then analyze the
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has selected the city of Richmond as the site for its second campus. The Richmond Field Station is owned by the University of California and was one of six final sites under consideration by the LBNL. Rendering courtesy of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab The second campus site at Richmond The main LBNL campus, the first of the University of California’s Department of Energy laboratories, will remain at its current site in the Berkeley hills above Strawberry Canyon. The new Richmond campus will bring onto one site several existing labs that are now scattered throughout the
New construction starts in December fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $410 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. Nonresidential building in December held steady with the prior month, and residential building was able to show modest improvement. However, the nonbuilding construction sector lost momentum in December, as electric utilities retreated from the record pace witnessed earlier in the year. For all of 2011, total construction starts slipped 2% to $421.4 billion, following the slight 1% gain reported for 2010.After the steep declines reported during the 2007-2009 period, when activity dropped a combined 38%, the overall volume of new
The California Public Utility Commission’s Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) released its incident investigation report in which it alleged that Pacific Gas & Electric violated the Public Utilities Code, several federal and state pipeline safety regulations and failed to follow accepted industry standards. On Sept. 9, 2010, a 30-in diameter natural gas transmission pipeline, owned and operated by PG&E, ruptured and ignited in a San Bruno neighborhood, resulting in eight deaths, 58 injuries and the destruction of 38 homes. Since then, there have been reports by the National Transportation Safety Board and an independent review panel that take the
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