Heavy blasting work will delay travel along U.S. Route 26 near Mount Hood this week as part of a $20 million safety improvement project for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Salem-based K&E Excavating is performing demolition and excavation to cut rock slopes that in the past have triggered serious crashes west of Government Camp. Crews started blasting near the popular Mirror Lake trailhead last week and will continue eastward this week, said Kimberly Dinwiddie, an ODOT spokeswoman. New slopes will be cut farther away from the road, she said.

“The contractor is using excavation methods to remove as much of the rock as possible without doing the blasting,” she said.

K&E Excavating started work after July 4, and the project is expected to continue through 2016. Crews will widen the shoulder on both sides of the highway, build a retaining wall to protect the historic Pioneer Bridle trail, install medians on a 1.6-mile stretch east of the Mirror Lake curves and complete other paving work.

The site’s soil conditions were studied extensively in preparation for the project, Dinwiddie said, and it was determined that soil in some locations could be removed without blasting.

All removed rock, vegetation and dirt will be crushed and reused to rebuild a pair of dormant quarries in the forest, Dinwiddie said.

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Building a passenger rail line through a zoo was something new to Lease Crutcher Lewis. That’s why the construction manager-general contractor for the Elephant Lands project at the Oregon Zoo partnered with Salem-based R&R General Contractors, which had expertise in light rail projects around Portland and on the West Coast.

“It’s a complex and unique train system out there,” said Andrew Dykeman, Lease Crutcher Lewis’ project manager for Elephant Lands. “We knew that when we were going after the rail (work), and looked for others in the industry who had train and rail construction experience.”

Work is just beginning on the $1.6 million rail portion of the $57 million Elephant Lands project; 2,200 feet of track will be installed in a loop through a forested area into Washington Park. The biggest challenge came from building the elevated track with all manual labor, said Jesse Rodriguez, president of R&R, which is a certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.

“Typically, for heavy industrial rail, you have heavy industrial equipment,” he said. “They don’t make equipment for this type of rail construction. We had to go traditional with old-style air compressors, hammers and jacks.”

The new railway will feature all-new track, switches and ties, along with a roundabout trestle that will allow trains to either make a U-turn or continue to Washington Park. Rail passengers will be able to board at an elevated platform, see parts of the wildlife exhibits and make a big loop, or head out to the park, Rodriguez said.

“We had to accommodate the trestle and the grades of the track,” he said. “The train house is higher in elevation than the trestle.”

The complex alignment was designed by KPFF Consulting Engineers, Dykeman said.

Track construction is set to finish Oct. 31, with operations beginning Nov. 4, Rodriguez said.

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As The Molasky Group of Companies planned for Sky3 Place – a 15-story building with 195 apartments above ground-floor retail space in Southwest Portland – the team discovered that typical framing materials wouldn’t be feasible.

“Our conclusion was it didn’t make sense to build either a stick-built (structure) or high-rise because steel prices were too high,” said Peter Wenner, vice president of the Las Vegas-based developer.

The Molasky Group found a solution: a prefabricated metal-panel framing system that allows for accelerated construction and reduced costs. That opened a door for Puyallup, Wash.-based Absher Construction Co., which has a long history working with Innovative Green Building System LLC of Kent, Wash. Its internationally patented system is set to frame the $42 million Sky3 Place building at 1101 S.W. Jefferson St.

Now Absher Construction, which has used IGBS in the Seattle area, is bringing it into Portland.

“We looked at who’s built with this system before and there were only a couple of contractors who have done this,” Wenner said.

Blaine Wolfe, a project executive for Absher Construction, said that before it began using IGBS it had to find the right system, create a reliable supply chain and grasp how to navigate the licensing process.

“Understanding all the patents and royalties is important,” he said. “Otherwise, you can step in the wrong direction.”

Once Absher Construction hammered out the details of using IGBS, crews put the system to work.

“We were offered an opportunity five years ago to construct an eight-story project above grade,” he said. “We just jumped in with both feet and just figured it out.”

The system can be built twice as fast as a post-tension concrete slab and metal-framed building, said Sean Robinson, Absher Construction’s superintendent for Sky3 Place.

“It’s a pretty simple system,” he said. “We’re basically erecting a panel that’s pre-done and lifting it off the truck.”

The system proved 20 percent to 25 percent cheaper than post-tension concrete would have cost for a similar-size structure, Wenner said. Cost savings come through material costs and labor costs because most of the work is done off-site, he said.

Such savings could convince more project owners to use IGBS or one of several other lightweight-gauge steel systems available in the marketplace. Absher Construction is now targeting commercial and residential projects that are between eight and 18 stories, Wolfe said.

“We’ve actually seen a number of projects in the Portland and Seattle areas that are targeting above five-over-two wood structures to a true high-rise structure,” he said. “This is a product that sits right in between.”

The city is still reviewing building plans for Sky3 Place, which was designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects and received unanimous approval from the Portland Design Commission in March. Demolition and excavation has begun, but new construction has not.

Portland’s Bureau of Development Services will look at the building system over the next several weeks, said Amit Kumar, the bureau’s senior structural engineer.

“As long as they’re designed properly, I don’t think there are structural concerns,” he said.

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With $14.2 million worth of summer construction projects completed late last month on a very tight schedule, Portland Public Schools is now focusing on its next steps stemming from the $482 million bond measure approved by voters in 2012.

Five firms – P&C Construction, Payne Construction, Baldwin General Contracting, 2KG Contractors and Cedar Mill Construction Co. – completed roof replacements, seismic upgrades and ADA accessibility improvements at 12 PPS elementary or middle schools before students returned on Tuesday. Some crews worked six or seven days a week, said Jim Owens, the district’s senior director for the Office of School Modernization.

“When kids came back, it was like nothing happened,” he said. “I would characterize it as a great success.”

One project now beginning is preparation of the vacant Marshall High School for occupancy, Owens said. The school will become a temporary home – first for Franklin High students starting next spring when a modernization of their school begins. After that two-year project finishes, Grant High students will move into Marshall in 2017 for two years while their school is modernized. Other high school modernizations are planned as part of an expected 2016 bond measure, so Marshall could become a temporary home well into the future, Owens said.

Marshall has been closed since 2006, and $4 million worth of work will take place to bring it up to speed, Owens said. Skanska USA Building will improve classrooms, install new flooring and lighting, and perform roof repairs. The school, built in the 1950s, also will gain an upgraded fire-life safety system to meet current code. The athletic field will have its natural turf replaced with artificial turf via a partnership with Nike.

“It’s an opportunity that is unique to Portland Public Schools that we have a large facility that can accommodate those students,” he said. “We are getting it ready for when Franklin work starts next spring.”

The $71 million Roosevelt High School modernization project, also being paid for with 2012 bond money, will not require students to vacate during construction, Owens said. Lease Crutcher Lewis is the construction manager-general contractor for that project, which will be scheduled so that potential conflicts with students are avoided.

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Perry Gliessman, director of technology and advanced computing at Oregon Health & Science University, thinks the institution’s new data center at its Hillsboro campus could become a prototype.

At least that is the idea, said Gliessman, who designed the dome-shaped structure in about eight months. OHSU got an international patent and will market and license the design, which could suit others building on a small footprint or trying to reduce energy costs.

“We think it is the model of the future,” he said. “We would like to see it replicated out there, particularly for people who don’t have a lot of acreage.”

The geodesic dome design, popularized by Buckminster Fuller in the 1950s, met several criteria for OHSU, which is projecting significant growth in its advanced computing and genetic storage needs, said Gliessman, who runs the university’s primary data center in downtown Portland.

“I basically looked at the issues we had and looked for ways to future-proof the building and give it a long life span,” he said. “I knew there must be a better way to do this.”

While the building has some exhaust fans to account for rare times when outside air temperatures exceed 90 degrees, few other noncomputing devices consume energy inside. In fact, the unmanned building’s power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio is projected to be 1.13 – one of the lowest for data centers in the U.S.

PUE ratios identify data centers’ energy consumption by non-information technology machines in relation to consumption by IT machines. A PUE of 1.7, typical for a data center, means that for every kilowatt of power needed to run computers and data storage, an additional 0.7 kilowatt of power is needed to run other systems, such as fans or air conditioning units. It is not uncommon for data centers to have a PUE of 2.0 – equivalent to one kilowatt of mechanical power for every one kilowatt of computing power, Gliessman said.

“We won’t know how low we can go until we power up more equipment,” he said. “There’s no doubt we’ll meet the metric and we might even exceed it.”

Most notably, the dome shape maximizes surface area, allowing for air intake and exhaust systems to both cool and heat the building’s 10 server racks. The structure has no duct work for heating and cooling, Gliessman said. Instead, the 18,000-square-foot building has air-intake louvers around its circumference that bring in outside air. Cooler air will circulate among the 10 data center racks, and hotter air will rise toward the ceiling.

“I needed vertical space for the hot air plume to rise to the top,” he said. “That’s why we don’t need (many) exhaust fans. Air rises to the top.”

What the data center lacks in above-ground mechanical systems, it makes up for in underground electrical wiring. Installation of approximately 4½ miles of underground conduits became the $22 million project’s biggest construction challenge, said Trevor Wyckoff, project manager for Skanska USA Building. Skanska finished work in July.

“You have all this lineal footage of conduit in three different layers four feet deep and it all has to come within a half inch of fitting,” Wyckoff said. “It absolutely had to be precise.”

Skanska used Building Information Modeling and GPS technology to make sure all the conduits were layered correctly. The contractor also prefabricated all of its conduit racks off-site to save time, Wyckoff said. Once the measurements were exact and the racks were assembled, they were put into the ground and set in place, he said.

Data Center West

Owner: Oregon Health & Science University

Contractor: Skanska USA Building

Construction cost: $22 million, including equipment

Architect/engineer: IDC Architects

Construction start date: May 2013

Construction completion date: July 2014

Designer: Perry Gliessman, OHSU

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The Baggage and Carriage Building, in its 128 years, has accommodated uses ranging from a parking garage for horses and buggies to the first home for The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Under a new plan developed by Pine Street Market LLC, the building at 133 S.W. Pine St. in downtown Portland will be repurposed into creative office and restaurant space, said Jean-Pierre Veillet, president, founder and creative director of Siteworks, the project’s design-build contractor. The project, including seismic and restoration work, will cost $4.95 million; Pine Street Market LLC in June bought the 28,500-square-foot building for $1.75 million, he said.

The project team is due to receive $1 million in historic tax credits, Veillet said, noting that Siteworks has had discussions with the National Park Service and created a historic restoration plan for the building.

“All the brick walls and wood walls – all the materials on site – will be repurposed,” he said. “We’ll use the materials from the building to go back into the building.”

In the building’s center, an existing skylight that illuminated the space before electricity will be preserved, Veillet said. The original exterior staircase will remain as well. To improve energy efficiency, Siteworks will add a hydronic heating system.

Seismic work also will be a significant part of the project, Veillet said. Each floor and the roof will be reinforced with plywood, concrete and rebar. Grummel Engineering is the project’s engineer.

“More and more as people get nostalgic for these old buildings, they also are thinking about making them safe,” he said.

Siteworks is preparing to seek design review approval on Friday, and planning to begin construction in January.

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To repair eight deteriorating chimneys atop the historic Pioneer Courthouse in downtown Portland, Pioneer Waterproofing had to dig up some suitable materials.

National Trust for Historic Preservation standards required that the materials match those on the 139-year-old building. That was a problem because the Washington quarry that had produced the chimneys’ sandstone didn’t have any more available, said Michael Crawford, owner of Pioneer Waterproofing.

The courthouse, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, has received restoration work in several phases; Crawford is hoping this will be the last of it for a while.

“They had tried to repair those (chimneys) before, but the stone continued to deteriorate … (and) continued to crack,” he said. “It just got to a point where it’s better to replace the stone because it’s gotten so bad.”

Pioneer Waterproofing benefited from Crawford’s connection with Toronto-based Old World Stone, which had in Nova Scotia a supply of sandstone that matched the courthouse’s stone.

Approximately 75 tons of stone will be trucked in from Canada and then hoisted and put into place atop the courthouse starting in September. The stone weighs 145 pounds per cubic foot, with side stones weighing 400 pounds apiece and cap pieces for the chimney decks weighing upwards of 2,000 pounds each, Crawford said.

“Historic jobs tend to be unique and they bring different challenges,” he said. “I don’t know if I will ever do another one like it.”

Pioneer Waterproofing also is replacing defective mortar joints and patching areas from the second floor to the ground floor on the building’s north and east sides. Other sides were repaired during previous phases. The firm is hoping to finish its work by January.

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When Portland-based Electrical Construction Co. studied its workplace accident data in November 2013, a disturbing trend emerged. Roughly 45 percent of the accidents involved apprentice workers or materials handlers, who comprised only 20 percent of the company’s workforce.

Meanwhile, data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health shows that workers ages 24 and younger are twice as likely as older workers to suffer on-the-job accidents. Construction firms, responsible for ensuring their employees’ safety on job sites, are struggling to find ways to keep their youngest and most inexperienced workers safe.

“They’re thrilled to have a job, they’re eager to please and they have less life experience,” said Dede Montgomery, chairwoman of the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition, a Tualatin-based nonprofit that advocates for workers’ safety and health. “If they don’t get safety training, we could have some problems.”

Young workers also often are afraid to ask questions and switch jobs more frequently, Montgomery said. Those factors can increase the risk of an accident.

EC Co. is facing the issue head-on. Its findings spurred action, said Mark Hopkins, the firm’s environmental, health and safety manager.

“We had a higher percentage of injury to apprentices and young materials handlers to the rest of the workforce,” he said. “As a result, we decided to focus in on those guys.”

EC Co. created its Apprentice Awareness Program last year. Older, experienced journeyman electricians give direct instructions to mostly younger apprentices and materials handlers who basically do as they’re told, said Mark Hopkins, environmental, health and safety manager for EC Co.

A struggle, however, has resulted from differences between young apprentices who prefer experiential lessons and journeyman workers who teach in the same top-down style they were taught.

“Kids don’t want to be taught that way,” Hopkins said. “They don’t want to hear it. They want to experience something on their own. The problem is that every one of those failures is an injury.”

Andersen Construction also partners younger workers with older, more experienced ones; however, not every contractor can do that, said Kim Gamble, Andersen’s safety and health director.

“There are so many hazards and changing conditions,” she said. “You can’t train them on everything before they show up.”

While younger workers typically do not operate heavy equipment, they are surrounded by it, creating many safety hazards, Gamble said.

“They’re out there standing next to a construction crane and working on ladders and they know very little about it,” she said.

The company ensures that every new hire goes through orientation on its sites, and requires every subcontractor every Monday morning to form a weekly plan that outlines main steps, hazards that will be faced, and how workers will protect themselves and each other, Gamble said. The meetings help orient younger workers and those returning from long absences, she said.

Despite those efforts, Andersen recently suffered a pair of accidents resulting in minor injuries. In both cases, workers were returning to a job site after a long absence, Gamble said.

“It’s always a battle to get all the subcontractors to buy into that process,” she said. “But once we do, we are increasing our safety and productivity.”

The key for contractors, Montgomery said, is to create a forum that gives young workers the ability to ask questions and speak up when concerns about a job site arise. That could mean one-on-one discussions with the site foreman or an experienced co-worker on-site, or regular safety meetings. The process needs to be give-and-take, open to questions and part of the workplace culture, she said.

“Every workplace is going to be a little bit different about how they are set up,” she said.

Improving safety is critical for EC Co., Hopkins said. The firm is still looking to bridge the gap between older and younger workers, and improve communication.

“We’re still trying to find that right connection,” he said. “There is a real generational difference.”

EC Co., since implementing its Apprentice Awareness Program about nine months ago, has seen the number of incidents suffered by targeted groups occur at roughly the same rate. However, Hopkins said the company is doubling down to lower the number of workplace accidents.

Electronic outreach

The has used technology to create resources able to help improve safety for all workers – younger ones in particular, Oregon OSHA spokeswoman Melanie Mesaros said. Several different mobile applications, podcasts and slideshows generally are more accessible to a younger audience, she said.

show how to use a portable ladder and lift safely. Another app, due for launch in September, will calculate a safe falling distance when using a shock-absorbing lanyard.

The agency also has employed a college student, Austin Coburn, to produce a series of .

“The video series that we created was definitely intended to reach a young worker audience,” Mesaros said. “We know it’s important to stay current, so we have been developing apps and other tools in the field.”

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Portland-based Colas Construction, a minority-owned firm, is getting its foot in another doorway via a deal to build a high-profile grocery store and adjacent commercial building in Northeast Portland.

That agreement between Natural Grocers, the Portland Development Commission and Majestic Realty, announced by the city Thursday, will bring the Lakewood, Colo.-based grocer to a site previously pegged for a Trader Joe’s store.

For Colas Construction, which had been selected as the builder for the Trader Joe’s store, the agreement represents a huge opportunity to grow and for minority-contracting firms to take on more such projects in the future, said Andrew Colas, the firm’s president and co-owner.

“There are a lot of barriers in the construction industry,” he said. “If you don’t have a portfolio for a certain type of work, it’s difficult to get that type of job. We haven’t built a grocery store before, but every company needs that first opportunity.”

Since Trader Joe’s announced in February that it was pulling out of the project, Colas Construction had worked with Majestic Realty to identify cost estimates for potential alternatives. Then Natural Grocers, which has four other stores in the Portland area, signed a letter of intent to open a store at the site – Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alberta Street.

The road to Majestic Realty’s deal with the contractor began via Colas’ longtime friendship with Adam Milne. He owns Old Town Pizza, which is located near the 1.79-acre property that Majestic Realty purchased from the PDC in November.

Majestic Realty officials reached out to local business owners around the property, and Milne recommended that they speak with Colas. That meeting, however, was just the first step, Colas said.

“I’ve met with countless developers, but at the end of the day they prefer to work with someone who has done those types of projects before,” he said. “There are countless barriers to getting that first job.”

The connection led to a lunchtime meeting with Edward Roski, Majestic Realty’s president and chairman who also is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Lakers franchises. The meeting brought out a deep connection between the two business owners, Colas said.

“He was not looking for a company that had built 10 other grocery stores,” he said. “He was intrigued because he was the same age as I was when he took over his father’s business. Both of us were second-generation companies. He wanted a family-owned business (to build the project).”

While Colas Construction has self-performed bigger projects than the estimated $8 million Natural Grocers project, including the $14 million IronCrest Estates project in Gresham and the June Key Delta Community Center project in North Portland, this will be the company’s most highly visible project to date, Colas said. His hope is that it will spur growth.

“There’s certain barriers you have to overcome as a small growing business,” he said. “We want to grow so we can continue to hire a diverse workforce.”

Majestic Realty ultimately chose Colas Construction, PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman said, because it knew the contractor could do the work.

“Considering Majestic is a large real estate development company, they had the opportunity to choose any contractor they wanted,” he said. “Colas was chosen based on who they are, what they do and how they do it. They weren’t given this. They earned it.”

Community leaders who previously expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the PDC’s sale of the 1.79-acre lot to Majestic Realty in November, were always on board with the project being built by a minority-owned firm.

“Northeast leaders were very excited about (the agreement),” said Dana Haynes spokesman for Mayor Charlie Hales. “They believe it will promote jobs in the area and are excited that it’s Colas Construction that will be doing the work.”

The design process will include development of a community benefits agreement, which will guide minority contracting goals and how they are met through the development process, Haynes said.

�ճ����Portland Housing Bureau also announced a series of workshops featuring discussions about how to create an affordable housing strategy for the area. The city plans to invest $20 million in affordable housing in North and Northeast Portland over the next five years. The first workshop will be held Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Highland Christian Center in Northeast Portland.

Construction of the Natural Grocers-anchored development will begin by February 2015, Colas said.

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An old Portland building that formerly served as a parole office for Multnomah County is being converted into a mixed retail and office space.

Clackamas-based T.J. Nisbet Construction is renovating the 18,000-square-foot building at the corner of Southwest 12th Avenue and Stark Street. It will be called Spencer Court because it will connect through a hallway with the adjacent Mark Spencer Hotel, said Alix Nathan, the project’s developer and owner of the hotel.

The building’s old-growth wood structure was damaged by fire in the 1940s and later covered. In the renovation, crews will remove old drop ceilings and drywall, and expose framing and beams.

“Where the fire did the damage, we sandblasted the wood and restored the old look,” Nathan said.

The unreinforced building also is being seismically reinforced with steel and opened to the street with a glass facade.

“It’s going to be a glass box almost with concrete pilings between the glass,” said Tom Nisbet, owner and president of T.J. Nisbet Construction. “We’re taking an unreinforced, concrete and wood-framed building and giving it a complete renovation with a full seismic upgrade.”

Skylab Architecture designed the project, which will wrap up by the end of the year, Nathan said.

Retail tenants will include sushi restaurant Bamboo Izakaya, handbag retailer Timbuk2 and Kure Juice Bar, Nathan said. Emerge Interactive, a digital marketing agency, will occupy 8,500 square feet of office space upstairs.

In a later phase, the building will gain a rooftop deck and an event space, Nathan said.

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