Caltrans’ acting director Malcolm Dougherty this week sent a letter to California’s congressional delegation, urging them to reauthorize transportation funding before the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30, or the state would face shutting down thousands of local transportation projects valued at $23 billion. The current surface transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), expired in 2009. Congress has extended the act seven times. The federal government currently provides about $3.4 billion per year for transportation projects across the state, according to Caltrans.“Thousands of active state and local projects
California’s first true public-private partnership wastewater treatment plant in Santa Paula, Ventura County, will accept a P3 innovation award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships in an awards banquet in Tampa Oct. 4. The project was put together in 2008 by the city of Santa Paula and a joint venture Santa Paula Water LLC, which is comprised of PERC Water Corp., Costa Mesa, and Alinda Capital Partners, Greenwich, Conn. Layton Construction, Irvine, was the prime subcontractor and PACE Engineering, Redding, was the engineer of record.Santa Paula’s original wastewater treatment facility, built in 1939, was out of compliance and needed
One of the last un-built parcels of land in Old Pasadena – a surface parking lot – will soon serve as the site of a mixed-use development called One Green Street. The city last week approved the project, which is scheduled to break ground in January. Bernards CM is providing pre-construction services at present and a general contractor will be named in the next few months, according to a spokesman.Gonzalez Goodale Architects is the designer and M&D Properties is the owner.Located at the corner of South Fair Oaks and West Green Street, the three-story, 45,000-square-foot development will consist of a
The American Institute of Architects, California Council, recently announced the new recipients of the Academy for Emerging Professionals (AEP) Awards. The Emerging Professionals are the segment of the AIACC membership that establishes connections, and advocates for architecture school graduates, aspiring and recently-licensed architects, as well as individuals that mentor this important group. According to the AIACC, the Academy for Emerging Professionals “aspires to unite and disseminate information regarding the practice of architecture, firm culture, mentoring, and stimulate ongoing local, state and national discussions.”Four awards were announced:Firm Mentorship Award – Darden Architects, Inc., Fresno. This award is given to an AIACC
The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s planning and design partner on the San Francisco to San Jose section, Caltrain, recently released preliminary findings of a corridor capacity study, which outlined ways to accommodate both systems. Roelof van Ark, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the authority will work with its Bay Area planning partners and stakeholders, including Caltrain and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), to evaluate the results of the study, it’s assumptions for train operations and proposed infrastructure improvements. Concepts have been suggested to phase high-speed train service including use of existing Caltrain right-of-way, use of existing infrastructure where
Nearly 2,000 industry professionals attended the sixth annual California Construction Expo this month at the Pasadena Convention Center. With a theme of “California Moving Forward,” the event proved to be yet another successful gathering of contractors, designers, construction professionals, suppliers, and construction workers who had the opportunity to meet and network with host agencies including the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles World Airports, Port of Long Beach, Department of General Services and AGC of California. Agency officials were on hand to answer questions about upcoming projects, and small business contractors were encouraged to
A report by the Urban Land Institute’s Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use indicated that the goals of building an entertainment and sports complex and intermodal transit facilities at Sacramento’s Railyards redevelopment site are “achievable and desirable,” according to city officials. Specifically, the report indicates that the intermodal transit facilities and sports complex can be accommodated in the southern section of the Sacramento Railyards in a "symbiotic way that creates public space, provides connectivity and achieves synergies with surrounding districts,” according to the interdisciplinary panel of urban planning and development experts assembled by the ULI Rose Center.The panel confirmed
Western Council of Construction Consumers is hosting its third-annual Alternative Project Delivery Summit, set for Sept. 14 at the Ziggurat Auditorium of the Department of General Services Building in West Sacramento. The full-day conference features:A panel session and case studies on design-build, moderated by Tim Murchison, vice president, URS Corp. Panel members include Mark Cirksena, regional manager, DPR Construction; Mike Corrick, president, Nacht & Lewis Architects; Mike Meredith, project director, CDCR CHCF Stockton; and Ellen Warner, partner, David S. Taylor Interests, Inc.A CM At Risk panel and case studies, moderated by Ken Harms, vice president, Gilbane Building Co. The panel
An appeal filed to overturn a decision to hire a public-private partnership to build the second phase of San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway replacement project was dismissed this week by the state’s court of appeal, first district, in Alameda. The Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) filed the appeal earlier this year after a superior court judge dropped PECG’s temporary restraining order and Caltrans announced the winning P3 consortium.PECG has been fighting the P3 concept for the Presidio Parkway project since it was announced last summer. In 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on a state senate bill to test
HNTB last week unveiled new designs and models of the proposed San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara. Costing an estimated $987 million, the new 68,500-seat stadium will “create the sense of something special,” says architect Fernando Vasquez of HNTB, the project’s designer. HNTB says the new stadium project is designed with many sustainable elements and will be expandable to host premier events such as the Super Bowl. The stadium is also being designed to accommodate Major League Soccer and World Cup eventsVasquez adds that the design includes tributes to California architecture and themes, including seat colors representing three different
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