As Mayor Ed Lee praised the nonprofit developers responsible for the ground breaking earlier this month of the Rene Cazenave Apartments in San Francisco, the realization that the state’s redevelopment agency funding has gone away for projects like this became a little less painful to the affordable housing supporters in attendance. Rendering courtesy of BRIDGE Housing Rene Cazenave Apartments, San Francisco The 120 affordable housing units coming from the new project are the product of co-developers Community Housing Partnership and BRIDGE Housing Corp., which together and individually have been active in getting affordable projects off the ground in the city.
Thanks to a state directive mandating the use of more renewable energy and a new federal priority on advancing renewable projects on public lands, solar power claimed the first five spots on this year's ENR California Top Starts ranking for projects that broke ground in 2011. Related Links: 2012 Top Project Starts Ranking Those five solar projects totaled $7.9 billion, a 52% jump over the combined value of the top five on last year's list (ENR California 4/11/11), which was dominated by high-profile transportation projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.This year's roster excludes a massive solar project
The California High-Speed Rail Authority released a revised business plan that is $30 billion cheaper by blending services with existing transportation infrastructure in both the North and the South rather than building a fully dedicated track system that was projected to cost $98.1 billion in the original draft plan. At an unveiling today in Fresno, Jim Hartnett, an authority board member, said that the $68.4-billion plan will make early investments in systems like Caltrain in the North that will lead to early benefits for those commuters who utilize that system.“By working in cooperation with regional and local transportation agencies on
With a budget topping $4 billion, the Los Angeles International Airport's multi-year modernization is among the largest public-works projects in the city's long history.
A peer review panel investigating the seismic safety inspection practices of a former Caltrans engineer concluded that the Bay Bridge east span foundation in question is safe and that it “meets or exceeds the state-of-practice and will result in a safe and reliable performance.” Photo courtesy of Caltrans The Bay Bridge Eastern Span in San Francisco Duane Wiles, a Caltrans safety technician in its Foundation Testing Branch, was fired in November for falsifying safety tests on other Caltrans projects. Wiles also tested the Bay Bridge’s Self-Anchored Suspension span T-1 foundation, which caused a regional uproar as well as calls for
Swinerton Builders recently completed the new toll operations building at the Bay Bridge for Caltrans’ Bay Area Toll Authority. Photo courtesy of Swinerton Builders The new Toll Operations Building at the Bay Bridge. The 22,000-sq-ft, steel-framed, two-story building is comprised of concrete on metal deck with pile foundations. The exterior features white metal panels and glass curtain wall, with a glass hand-railed walkway to the main entrance.The new toll operations building will continue to provide Caltrans administration, toll collection, and electronic monitoring of the toll operations, each of which required specially designed and constructed fire suppression, communication, and security systems.
Bomel Construction Co., Anaheim, and International Parking Design, Sherman Oaks, recently completed construction on a 1,200-stall, 500,000-sq-ft parking structure complex that serves the Thornton Hospital Cardiovascular Center at UC San Diego’s East Campus in La Jolla. Photo courtesy of Bomel Construction The new parking structure/soccer field at UCSD. The Bomel-IPD team developed a plan to build two adjoining structures, instead of the owner’s original plan to erect one, and overcame an assortment of pesky construction challenges to complete the $24 million project on time and within budget.The project’s pre-existing conditions included a sloping canyon site, unforgiving soil, a proposed adjacent
Photo Courtesy of Sunlink Corp. The 20-ft by 20-ft shake table at PEER is the largest multidirectional shaking table in the U.S. For the first time, a solar racking manufacturer tested its ballast-only roof-mounted racking system on U.C. Berkeley's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) shaking table in Richmond, Calif., and it appears to have passed with flying colors.The March 5 test "provided us with information on how our roof mounting system acted [when] not connected to a roof," said Mike Williams, senior vice president-engineering for SunLink, San Rafael, Calif. The product "acted like we thought it would," he added.SunLink
The Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 to approve the Sacramento Kings arena financing plan term sheet recently hammered out by Mayor Kevin Johnson, the owners (the Maloof family) and the National Basketball Association, paving the way for construction to possibly begin this year. Photo courtesy of AEG Financing has been approved for the Railyards arena project. According to the city council, the term sheet provides a framework for how the city will develop the $391-million Entertainment and Sports Complex at the Railyards site in conjunction with the Sacramento Kings, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and the ICON-Taylor group. The city will