The Oregon building industry has seen vast changes over the past five years as the state looks to become a regional example of excellence in sustainability.  With more green buildings coming online every year, experts say materials producers, designers and contractors need to up their game to meet the growing demand for higher performing buildings.

“We have more tenants living and working in deeper, green buildings, acclimating to that lifestyle and work environment,” said Steve Clem, vice president of pre-construction at Skanska USA.  “These tenants will not only appreciate, but perhaps demand higher-performing buildings.”

To that end, here are four trends that local companies might want to examine during the next year if they’re looking to move into leading roles in green building.

Transparency and Tenant Engagement

In the future, it won’t be enough to hang a LEED plaque on the wall and call it green.  Owner demand for results from high-performing structures will require design professionals to stay engaged even after tenants have moved in.

“Engineers and owners realize the value of having the design team hang on a little longer to make the performance dial in to what was anticipated,” said Johanna Brickman, manager, of the Sustainable Built Environment Program for Oregon BEST. “There is push from industry to create a performance-based standard within LEED. We want to have the plaque on the wall, but we also want something viable.”

Companies will employ new systems and meters in projects to see how water, electricity and gas are being used on a real-time basis, going so far as having meters in every unit of a multifamily or office project.  But metering can only do so much to keep a high-performing building in fighting shape.

“Systems and equipment will only get us so far towards true efficiency,” said Patrick Wilde, vice president at Gerding Edlen Development. “The last big step is user habit. Once we understand how these parts and pieces are trending, how can we help influence tenant behavior?”

Companies like Gerding Edlen are attempting to work with public utilities to better track, and therefore influence, tenant habits. While it will be awhile before engineers can view meter usage on an apartment level, political negotiations around better monitoring of tenant energy behaviors will continue.

Residential solar shines on despite stalled renewables sector

While the global financial crisis and U.S. political blowback on climate change have stalled development of renewable energy, one area continues to grow – residential solar. Wind, commercial solar and other energy sectors have suffered due to the cancellation of Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit, but  the residential market is holding its own due to new leasing programs that allow customers to have solar without high upfront costs. Introduced in 2011, solar leasing programs represented half of all solar installations in Portland for that year.

“The advent of leased versus owned systems followed on the heels of the Solarize Portland initiatives,” said Glenn Montgomery, president of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association (OSEIA). “Those two innovations spurred growth in the residential sector. Prices have gone down so there is some balance, and the residential market continues to be strong.”

While solar leasing programs thrive in Portland General Electric’s territory, the company is not the only utility in Oregon. To keep residential solar growing, solar companies must work with small electric co-ops and municipal utilities outside PGE territory. Those smaller utilities are located in communities that already have cheap power from the Bonneville Dam, so there’s little incentive to develop renewable energy programs. Solar’s challenge in Oregon in the next year will be working to create grassroots movements around solar development in those communities.

Better buildings through chemistry

The city of Portland, the state of Oregon and overseas markets are requiring tougher monitoring of the chemicals that go into building materials. Companies must not only use sustainable products, but must be ready to defend them.

“Increased chemical tracking and reporting are driving company behaviors,” said Robert Grott, executive director of the Northwest Environmental Business Council. “Companies, especially those working in overseas markets, are dealing with not just chemical reporting, but ingredient disclosure. Where does this stuff come from? Is it painted? Does it contain conflict minerals? Ingredients are becoming a big driver.”

Companies are also being asked to prove what they’re doing, with supply-chain audits becoming the norm. Even in the face of further regulation, there is also opportunity for new products to be developed, and for those products to be competitive in an increasingly strict sustainable building materials market.

Crowd Sourcing and Public Private Partnerships

As public incentives for renewable energy dry up and project financing becomes more challenging, businesses will need to find new and innovative ways to get sustainable projects off the ground. The city of Portland recently issued a request for proposals for a solar project that will allow people to purchase a share of ownership. The goal of the project is to offer the perks of solar ownership without large upfront costs, which will allow the developer to create a larger solar array. The idea of crowd-sourcing a project has the potential to help struggling sectors such as commercial solar.

“It makes a large project more realistic when 200 people are buying shares instead of just one,” OSEIA’s Montgomery said. “I think this crowd-sourcing model has tremendous potential to help out the commercial market.”

Beyond new models of finance, public-private partnerships will continue to be crucial in making Oregon a leader in sustainability. Gov. John Kitzhaber’s recently released energy plan contains several ideas for ways businesses and the government can pool resources to move forward a more sustainable future even though resources are limited.

“We need to leverage small public dollars to create an environment for private sector investment,” said John Audley, deputy director of the Renewable Northwest Project. “I’m looking forward to those conversations. That is the Oregon way.”

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Working quickly to restore a vital connection between the coast and Oregon’s interior, the U.S. 101 Siuslaw River Bridge project team was able to improve the safety and technology of a historic bridge without sacrificing its historic facade.

Completed in 1936 under direction by then-state engineer Conde McCullough, the bridge was upgraded with modern safety and functionality technologies, including new equipment and computer controls, an HVAC system to protect equipment from humidity, and lighting to improve the bridge operator’s view of vehicles and pedestrians. Erosion on the structure’s art deco-style columns was remedied by looking at old design plans from McCullough himself, according to Evan Stuart of Hamilton Construction.

“We took the designs from the 1930s and added capitals to all the columns that didn’t have them,” Stuart said. “It doesn’t match exactly what McCullough designed, but we tried to think how he would have designed it. We looked at other bridges where he did add capitals so it looked like it was designed by him.”

Crews had to work quickly on the bridge, which is one of very few routes for emergency vehicles to get to and from the coastal town of Florence. Meetings between the city and the project team led to the development of staging areas for emergency vehicles to get around construction in the case of an incident. The city also moved some equipment onto the construction site so they could respond even more quickly to an emergency.

This was the first major upgrade on the bridge since its construction.

The post U.S. 101 Siuslaw River Bridge submitted by Hamilton Construction Co. appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Facing challenges related to expedited design work, Buy America requirements and the need to elevate an unimproved roadway 14 feet above existing grade, the team behind Southwest Moody Avenue delivered a vital transportation project on schedule and within budget.

Project team + Stats

Location: Portland
Cost: Between $50.1 million and $100 million
Start date: May 2010
Completion date: October 2011
Owner/Developer: City of Portland
Engineer: Harper Houf Peterson Righellis
General contractor: Stacy & Witbeck

» See all the TopProjects 2012 winners

Once a two-lane roadway with a single-track streetcar line and partial bike and pedestrian facilities, Southwest Moody Avenue today is a modern roadway with three traffic lanes, dual streetcar tracks, sidewalks and a cycle track. The roadway also now is letting the new Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail bridge be constructed in the area.

Working on a tight schedule because of federal funding rules, the design team broke construction into two phases and addressed complex site conditions by using low-density cellular concrete, a method that requires a high degree of coordination between team members.

The design team also had to locate an American-made girder rail, a piece manufactured only in Europe, to meet the Buy America requirement. A manufacturer in Pennsylvania agreed to become the source for U.S.-made streetcar rail and produced the product just six months after the start of construction. Today, the road is open to all modes of transportation and provides an essential connection from downtown to the South Waterfront.

The post TopProject: Southwest Moody Avenue submitted by Harper Houf Peterson Righellis appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Constructing pipelines and shafts to control combined sewer overflows is no simple matter, especially when doing so through a former landfill.

Working their way through fragments of glass, brick, wood, wire and sheet metal, in addition to unexpected boulders and even automobile chassis, project team members for the Balch Consolidation Conduit Shaft and Pipelines produced a project that exceeded expectations.

Completed ahead of schedule, under budget and within specifications, the 30-month project required installation of 8,000 feet of 84-inch and 54-inch diameter pipes via micro-tunneling at depths of 20 to 75 feet to carry sewage and stormwater runoff from the Balch Drainage Basin to the West Side Big Pipe, which collects combined sewage from the west side of the Willamette River and takes it to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The contractor utilized a new technology called cutter soil mixing to manage project risks while reducing costs and schedule conflicts, becoming the first in the state to do so. The city was able to meet a state Department of Environmental Quality-mandated order on time, and create a healthier river for generations to come.

The post TopProject: Balch Consolidation Conduit Shafts and Pipelines submitted by James W. Fowler Co. appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

After five years of construction, the Willamette River is a little cleaner thanks to the completion of the Portland East Side Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnel.

It was the largest construction contract ever awarded by the city of Portland. The 29,200-foot-long, 22-foot-diameter tunnel and associated mains, pipelines and diversion structures have significantly reduced the frequency and volume of combined sewer overflows into the Willamette River by providing extra storage and conveyance to a pump station on Swan Island.

It wasn’t easy, however, according to Bill Mariucci, project director with Kiewit. Geotechnical conditions and the necessary removal of more than 1 million cubic yards of tunnel spoils via barges made this no ordinary tunnel dig. Challenging ground conditions required the use of an advanced, pressurized-face slurry tunnel boring machine. The tunnel was lined with more than 48,000 pieces of precast concrete bolted into place behind the tunneling machine.

“It was a large-diameter tunnel constructed in complex geology,” Mariucci said. “Fans, gravel, boulders and cobblestones were all present during the dig, located well beneath the groundwater table.”

Aside from the impressive big dig, the contractors also partnered with more than 200 local subcontractors, suppliers and professional service firms during construction. And contracts totaling $31 million were awarded to local minority-owned, women-owned and emerging small businesses.

“We were able to identify many opportunities on the job, from site work to assisting with operations associated with the tunneling, to small structures we had to construct for the tunnel,” Mariucci said.

Despite challenges, the technically innovative project was completed on time and holds the record as the longest micro-tunnel drive completed in the U.S.

The post TopProject: Portland East Side Combined Sewer Overflow Tunnel Submitted by: Kiewit-Bilfinger Berger appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

To keep planes moving in the winter months, Portland International Airport used deicing chemicals on its ramps and runways to melt ice.

But to keep those chemicals out of the Columbia River, the project team for deicing treatment facility enhancements had to create a new, 12,000-square-foot on-site facility to process stormwater runoff from the airport’s ramps and runways.

The project includes several pump stations and storage tanks to increase storage capacity for both concentrate and dilute runoff.  A state-of-the art anaerobic processing facility treats stormwater before discharging it under a Marine Drive dike into the Columbia River. Monitoring equipment detects the concentration of chemicals and diverts runoff to appropriate processing areas, reducing harm to fish in the river.

The project team had to drill and install a discharge pipe during a narrow “fish window” between November and February without creating turbidity and under the scrutiny of several regulatory agencies. Building Information Modeling was used to avoid interference with active airport operations during the complex project – the longest dual pipe insertion ever completed.

The new system has doubled the port’s capacity for housing and treating runoff and protected the Columbia River watershed.

The post TopProject: Portland Airport Deicing Treatment Facility submitted by JE Dunn Construction appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The award-winning design of the new Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer replaced a deteriorating sewer pipeline beneath the 415-acre Oswego Lake.

Working around quiet, residential streets in an affluent suburb, the lake-down contract involved the installation of more than 7,300 feet of previously fused, large-diameter, high-density polyethylene pipe to connect the buoyant interceptor to the existing sewer system.

A small, 11-foot boat ramp and two public lake access sites were the only areas where crews could access the lake, requiring much coordination with neighbors and a “good neighbor agreement” to lessen impacts. By installing more than 30 individual temporary bypass pumping stations, the contractor successfully diverted flows around the work area with no impacts to neighbors.

In addition to having a modern new sewer line for the area, the city of Lake Oswego was able to take advantage of the lake draw-down conditions and the management skills of the contractor to add rehabilitation and replacement pipelines within the near-shore sewer system, including improvements for residential laterals. Completed in time for prime recreation season and under budget, this is the first known buoyant gravity sewer pipeline in the world.

The post TopProject: Lake Oswego Interceptor Sewer Lake-Down submitted by James W. Fowler Co. appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Working in some of the wettest and most turbulent conditions the Columbia River Gorge has seen in many years, the project team for the John Day Lock and Dam Gate and Sheave Replacement delivered a difficult gate removal with associated improvements on a demanding schedule.

Project team + Stats

Location: Columbia River
Cost: $18 million
Start date: October 2009
Completion date: March 2011
Owner/Developer: U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
Architect: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Engineer: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
General contractor: Advanced American Construction Inc.

» See all the TopProjects 2012 winners

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed the existing gate removed and a new, 2-million-pound gate transported and installed. To maintain the 7-day-a-week, 14-hours-a-day work schedule, crews built temporary enclosures for workers that were heated and ventilated to provide respite from the howling winds and pounding rains that dogged the project from the beginning, according to Kainan Bodenlos, project manager with Advanced American Construction. Steel structures were also heated to keep welding moving. A dozen large cranes necessary to move giant pieces of concrete and steel were often held up for days because of wind, requiring crews to work on smaller jobs until the weather subsided.

“When they are working so many hours, you try to keep your guys as comfortable as possible so they don’t burn out,” Bodenlos said. “We went the extra mile on that because we knew guys would be pushing it and fatigue would set in. Where there’s minimal risk for a mishap if you’re working 40 hours a week, 60 hours a week multiplies that.”

While the gate was being installed, commerce on the river slowed to a standstill as barges were unable to pass. The project team met often with representatives from industries bringing in goods along the Columbia to update everyone on project progress.  The complex work of removing the gate and fabricating and installing the new gate was executed in only 14 weeks – allowing river commerce to continue.

The post TopProject: John Day Lock and Dam Gate and Sheave Replacement submitted by Advanced American Construction Inc. appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The project team for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Interstate 5 Vertical Clearance Improvements project had two years to raise 11 bridges over I-5 to improve vehicle clearance for oversize loads, with bridges being raised from 6 inches to 18 inches.

Also, associated road approaches were raised to match new elevations, and everything had to be done while maintaining through traffic along the busy I-5 corridor as well as not interfering with emergency vehicles.

To complete the work, bridges were externally supported, and then cut loose from their foundations and jacked up using jacking and support systems designed by the contractor. Associated roadways were then constructed to match, and foundations were repaired. In places where bridges provided the only access from I-5 to houses and businesses, only 20-minute delays by construction crews were allowed. The original 11 bridges were all raised in a single construction season, and the job was finished in half of the time allowed.

The post TopProject: Interstate 5 Vertical Clearance Improvements submitted by Wildish Standard Paving Co. appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Crews behind the Broadway Bridge Portland Streetcar Loop successfully removed turn-of-the-century streetcar tracks while making necessary improvements to bring a new streetcar system over the Willamette with minimal impacts to the traveling public.

The 100-year-old Broadway Bridge was closed for 60 days while crews removed tracks, replaced bridge decking and installed new streetcar tracks. The complicated work schedule on the bascule span of the bridge included staging work so the bridge could be lifted every four days to let ships reach an upriver grain elevator. Because of the bridge’s unique lift mechanism, weight had to be balanced within a few thousand pounds in preparation for each lift.

Innovative, suspended scaffolding modified by Hamilton was also used during the project to protect the river from construction debris while helping keep construction separate from vehicle, bike and pedestrian traffic.

While a 16 percent DBE goal was established for the project, Hamilton committed 24 percent to DBE subcontracts, and ended up exceeding that amount, attaining 29.26 percent. All work was successfully completed within the 60-day window, including elements added during the closure period.

The post TopProject: Broadway Bridge Portland Streetcar Loop submitted by Hamilton Construction appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.