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Construction industry organizations applauded President Barack Obama�s proposed $50-billion, six-year surface transportation plan, which was laid out this week. �The president clearly appreciates that the infrastructure-focused portions of the stimulus were effective in boosting employment and helping rebuild America�s aging infrastructure,� says Stephen E. Sandherr, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of America. �And while the most effective sequel to the stimulus is passing a fully-funded, six-year surface transportation bill, countless thousands of construction workers will have a better chance of retaining their jobs thanks to this proposal than they otherwise would once the stimulus runs its course.� Sandherr says

At a workshop in El Monte last week, the California Air Resources Board says it will abandon its original estimates of off-road diesel emissions, conceding that its off-road rule is not needed to meet ambitious goals for the off-road equipment in the construction and certain other industries. According to new estimates that the agency staff developed over the summer, the CARB says off-road fleets of diesel equipment will exceed the state�s emission goals for many years to come, based on the current and near future state of the construction economy. Mike Kennedy, general counsel for the Associated General Contractors of

If Kaiser Permanente’s new Anaheim Medical Center looks familiar, it might be because the facility has twin siblings also under construction in California. Cannon Design of Los Angeles adapted the Kaiser Permanente template to fit the needs of the Anaheim community. The Anaheim facility features a healing garden. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" The $500-million facility is a Kaiser template hospital. “A template is our methodology for delivering a project faster so we don’t start from scratch every time,” says Joe Stasney, Kaiser project director. “We have a template base that serves as the foundation for the design of

It would have been easy for Dreyfuss & Blackford, project architects for the $110-million California Independent System Operator headquarters in Folsom, to go big and tall. The new Cal ISO headquarters complex is located in Folsom Dreyfuss & Blackford’s Cal ISO comcept employs clean and modern design elements Related Links: UC Merced poised to add fourth major building on campus Created by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cal ISO is all about power: It runs the state’s electricity transmission grid. What better way to communicate power than a headquarters with big, monolithic facades and imposing vertical heights? But Gus Fischer,

Students at the fledgling University of California, Merced, will soon have another facility in which to learn and grow – the $47-million Social Sciences and Management Building. STUDIOS Architecture designed the Social Science and Management Building Related Links: Central Valley Market Report Construction on the 101,500-sq-ft building began in September 2008, and when completed in May 2011, it will bring the number of major buildings at the 5-year-old campus to four. The new facility will house the E&J Gallo School of Management and much of the university’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. Sundt Construction of Sacramento was selected

While many housing projects are sitting on the table waiting for the economy to pick up, Mercy Housing California is serving up a buffet of new developments around the state. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" “Things have slowed down the last couple years with the recession, but [work] is coming in and we are fully staffed and I think we will meet our goal this year,” says Rick Sprague, regional director of resource development for the San Francisco-based company, which develops, finances and operates affordable housing for low-income families, seniors and people with special needs. “There were some delays

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously approved the Environmental Impact Report for the project to replace the aging, 42-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge at the Port of Long Beach with a new, nearly $1 billion span. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" The Port of Long Beach, in partnership with Caltrans, will oversee the project to design and build a higher, wider bridge parallel to and just north of the existing Gerald Desmond Bridge. Once the new bridge is completed and open, the old structure will be taken down. The project will generate an average of 4,000 jobs per

FKP Architects’ senior associate and project designer, Mezio S. Zangirolami, AIA, LEED AP, was recently named among the Houston Business Journal’s 2010 “40 Under 40” honorees. The annual awards program identifies 40 leaders on the rise who excel in their industries, are respected business leaders and show leadership in their communities. Zangirolami graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. TEXO, the combined chapter of the North/East Texas Chapter of the Associated General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors North Texas, named Hank Mouser of Balfour Beatty Construction, its 2010 Safety Professional of the Year.

The Burbank City Council has approved development applications submitted by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority for construction of a $120-million Regional Intermodal Transportation Center (RITC) and associated improvements at Bob Hope Airport. The authority says it intends to put the project out to bid in late winter/early spring 2011. Airport spokesman Victor Gill says the authority has already contracted gkkworks to provide program management services for the RITC, and the Los Angeles firm of Anil Verma Associates is providing construction design services. Completion of the project is expected by December 2012. The RITC will allow air, rail, bus, and rental car