Reno Contracting’s Efficient Sustainable Practices (ESP) division was selected to provide energy and water conservation services to the County of San Diego under its energy and water sustainability program. In conjunction with the County of San Diego Department of General Services, Reno ESP will guide and support the county in its pursuit to lower energy and operational costs, drive down greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reduce water consumption, according to Walt Fegley, president of Reno Contracting, San Diego.Fegley says Reno ESP designed a strategic leadership relationship with Brummitt Energy Associates and Environmental Building Strategies. The wider team of specialty subconsultants

Webcor Builders named Jes Pedersen, the current executive vice president and chief business officer, as the company’s new president and chief executive officer, replacing longtime executive Andy Ball. Pedersen has served for years as a Webcor’s senior executive, who has led the transition of a company working only in the private sector to a now more diverse company with major projects in the public and federal marketplace.“On behalf of all of Webcor, I want to recognize, appreciate and give a special thanks to Andy Ball for all he has done for Webcor,” said Pedersen in a statement. “We are grateful

The design-builder team of Hensel Phelps and Fentress Architects recently joined U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, acting Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael P. Huerta, Mayor Edwin M. Lee and airport director John L. Martin in officially breaking ground for San Francisco International Airport’s new air traffic control tower. Rendering courtesy of SFO HNTB designed the tower. Image courtesy of SFO HNTB was the designer of the new tower. Related Links: Watch the YouTube video of the new control tower design and construction. The new control tower will be located between Terminals 1 and 2, east of the existing tower. It will

A team of 66 employees of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. teamed up with Clark Construction and three subcontractor partners recently to raise over $5,000 for military members and their families in the annual 10-K World Famous Mud Run at the Camp Pendleton Base north of Oceanside. The Clark/McCarthy team captured fourth place out of 293 in the Mixed Division, placed number 14 out of 70 in the Female Division, and ran away with three of the top five spots in the Corporate Division, including a fourth place overall. The Clark/McCarthy team also had the highest number of participants of any

A key green element to the just-opened 13-floor, $190-million San Francisco Public Utilities Commission headquarters is its water management system, called the Living Machine. According to the project’s designers, KMD Architects & Stevens Architects, the building will consume 60% less water than similarly sized buildings. The advanced gray-water and black-water system was developed by Worrell Water Technologies, Charlottesville, Va. The SFPUC headquarters at 525 Golden Gate is one of the first urban office buildings to use the system, satisfying 100% of the water demand for the building’s low-flow toilets and urinals. The Living Machine system, along with faucet sensors, on-demand

Crews from the Southland Tutor Perini JV met underground recently at the completion of one of four tunnel headings that comprise the New Irvington Tunnel project, a 3.5-mi component of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s $4.6 billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) to repair, replace, and seismically upgrade the Hetch Hetchy Water System’s aging pipelines, reservoirs and dams.  Related Links: View the 'Hole Through' YouTube Video WSIP includes more than 80 projects spanning seven counties from the Called a “hole-through” in tunneling terminology, the road header teams from the Irvington Portal in Fremont and the Vargas Shaft 4,500 ft away

Image courtesy of UC Berkeley PEER Center Shake up BridgePBEE improves study of soil, structure interaction during simulated earthquake. Related Links: Download BridgePBEE BridgePBEE examples Bridge analysis software to model the interaction of soil, foundation and structure in simulated earthquakes weighs a host of variables to achieve results. Making such a complex process user-friendly is a challenge.BridgePBEE, a graphical pre- and post-processor performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) analysis tool, aspires to do just that. The beta version is available for free download from the University of California, Berkeley's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center.The PC-based tool lets engineers conduct PBEE analysis

On June 15, the same day the California Dept. of Transportation used a live public webinar to defend its safety testing of a new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge tower foundation, the newspaper that started the safety controversy, The Sacramento Bee, refused to retract a story to which Caltrans objected.

On the same day the California Department of Transportation used a live public Webinar to defend its safety testing of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge tower foundation, the newspaper that started a safety controversy, The Sacramento Bee, refused Caltrans’ request to retract its most recent story. Related Links: Questions Arise About Builder's Work on Bay Bridge Foundation Caltrans Calls on Newspaper To Retract Critical Bay Bridge Story Caltrans’ acting director Malcolm Dougherty sent a letter June 7 to Joyce Terhaar, executive editor of the Bee, requesting an immediate retraction of a May 27 story (“Records Raise Doubts on Bay

A new pilot program system designed to target an increase in water savings and crop output has captured the interest of several agencies and regional water districts. The system serves a portion of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District (SSJID) in California’s Central Valley near Ripon. Local growers using the system utilize a combination of mobile technology and “airline-ticketing-style” online tools to schedule individualized water deliveries, according to Danny Craig, a spokesman for Stantec, the project’s consulting engineer and construction manager. Stantec provided mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)