A weekly compilation of the largest winning bids in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Daily Journal of Commerce Project Center.

1.

Winner (contract awarded): Lincoln Construction of Puyallup, Washington

Amount: $4,707,171

Project: Leg – Restore Chamber Skylights (Olympia, Washington)

Owner: Washington Department of Enterprise Services

Cost estimate: $5,400,000 to $6,000,000

Project team: Architectural Resources Group, Catena Consulting Engineers, PAE Engineers

2.

Winner (intent to award): 2KG Contractors of Portland

Amount: $2,898,500

Project: GC for Park Services Complex Tenant Improvement Project (Bend)

Owner: Bend Park & Recreation District

Cost estimate: $3,150,000

Project team: Stemach Architecture, Solera MEP Design Services, Froelich Engineers, David Evans and Associates

3.

Winner (contract awarded): Andersen Construction of Seattle

Amount: $2,857,380

Project: RS Multiple Building Reroof (Buckley, Washington)

Owner: Washington Department of Enterprise Services

Cost estimate: $3,600,000 to $4,200,000

Project team: S.M. Stemper Architects, PBS Engineering and Environmental

4.

Winner (contract awarded): Gallant Construction of Banks

Amount: $1,895,564

Project: New T-Hangar, Turf Taxilane and Site Improvements (Hood River)

Owner: Port of Hood River

Cost estimate: $1,600,000 to $2,000,000

Project team: Precision Approach Engineering

5.

Winner (intent to award): Queen City Sheet Metal & Roofing of Tukwila, Washington

Amount: $1,538,966

Project: Magnuson Bldg 2 and 138 Roof and Structural Repair (Seattle)

Owner: City of Seattle

Cost estimate: not available

Project team: Osborn Architects Inc. (OAI), PSM Engineers

Do you want to be the winner of an upcoming Top Bidders project? Then join the 91视频 Project Center to find, track and bid on your next project. For a free tour, or more information on monthly and annual rates, contact Sharlene Richard at 503-802-7252 or srichard@djcOregon.com.

The post Pacific Northwest projects totaling $13.8 million in top bidders | Dec. 23, 2025 appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland-based David Evans and Associates has acquired Civil Works Engineers, a civil engineering consulting firm headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.

CWE employees have joined DEA’s office in Tustin, California. The staff of CWE specializes in transportation engineering, traffic engineering design, drainage engineering and civil site improvements. The acquisition expands DEA’s depth of transportation services in Southern California.

DEA has a staff of more than 900, including engineers, surveyors, hydrographers, planners, landscape architects and natural resources scientists. An employee-owned corporation, it has 30 offices nationwide.

The post DEA acquires California-based Civil Works Engineers appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

ENGINEERING

Lou Torres has joined David Evans and Associates Inc.’s Salem office as a senior communications and public involvement specialist. He recently retired from state service after 31 years. Torres worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation for the past 14 years as a senior public affairs specialist and a chief spokesman. Prior to working for the state, Torres spent 12 years as a reporter and editor for聽newspapers in Colorado, California聽and Oregon.

Please send your announcements for 91视频 People to djcpeople@djcOregon.com.

The post Torres joins David Evans and Associates appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

At the beginning of a new year, uncertainty abounds. Projects in essential markets for architecture and engineering firms are plagued by question marks.

But industry leaders remain hopeful for what 2021 might bring. With multiple vaccines approved, returns of employees to offices could become possible in the near future.

When the pandemic first hit the U.S. hard in March 2020, opportunities became disconcerting, said Kurt Haapala, a Mahlum Architects partner. The firm primarily handles public work for health care providers, universities and K-12 schools.

Instantly, projections for 2020 and 2021 just vanished, Haapala said. Also, clients were unable to give estimates on when stalled projects would resume.

With work shifting from an office to homes, productivity decreased, Haapala said. There were people who suddenly didn’t have anything to do, he added. Employee wellness became one of the firm’s top priorities. Staffers were able to take home their comfortable chairs, extra monitors, keyboards and anything else needed to make remote work easier.

Although most existing projects continued moving ahead, Haapala said, getting clients’ attention became challenging. The health care industry became a front line, and universities and colleges froze projects because of financial losses. K-12 school officials became preoccupied with figuring out remote learning.

Mahlum switched to a conservative financial mindset and reduced some benefit spending.

鈥淲e started to look at the end of the year as a break-even strategy,鈥� Haapala said. 鈥淲e weren’t looking at profits on projects but rather keep the ship afloat and get through the year.鈥�

The firm began to regularly update employees about its financial health.

鈥淚 think that bred confidence in the leadership and that we weren’t closing up shop,鈥� Haapala said.

Haapala doesn’t think Mahlum is out of the woods yet. The firm will continue to be conservative financially. It’s also creating an interruption plan to become nimbler if another pandemic or crisis dramatically shifts workflow.

Al Barkouli, chairman and CEO of David Evans and Associates Inc., said the company is keeping a constant eye on its key markets 鈥� housing, transportation and municipal. If local agencies’ funding were to drop significantly, industrial engineering companies could experience economic shortfalls, he said.

The challenge of guiding the company in a pandemic so far, Barkouli said, is staying adaptive.

Hacker knows all about making adjustments, said Sarah Hacker, a principal with the architecture firm. It’s continually focusing on fundamentals in order to maintain operations and keep employees employed, she said.

The architecture firm moved into a new space in District Office, in the Central Eastside Industrial District, on March 9, 2020. A week later, employees began working from home.

When developing policies, the firm has taken a person-by-person approach and tried to be really flexible, Hacker said. A lot of policies try to be one-size-fits-all, but that doesn’t work right now, she added.

Construction was able to finish in 2020 on projects that had reached a certain point, but timelines did need to shift, Hacker said. However, one of the firm’s biggest markets is office space, and many such projects either stopped indefinitely or paused. But Hacker said she’s starting to see more paused projects begin to ramp up.

Throughout remote work, Hacker said employees have been communicating in ways that they haven’t before. One problem, she added, is that it can be hard to read the room and see how people are feeling over Zoom and emails.

A big plus, however, has been an increase in equity, Hacker said. Previously, she explained, groups would stand around a whiteboard while usually just one person sketched ideas. But in the digital environment more people have been able to contribute ideas.

Employees are continuing work remotely, Hacker said, with an assumption that there will be a long transition period for them to return to the office. However, maintaining equity during the transition period could be challenging, she added, because people not in the office could feel disconnected or excluded. For example, attendees at a meeting could mostly be in person, but a few could be watching on a screen.

Once vaccines become more widely available, the industry could see another dramatic shift as workers return to offices.

鈥淚 think some different new normal will be emerging,鈥� Barkouli said.

The post Firms working to ensure financial, personal health appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is for an Interstate 84 bridge project in Troutdale.

The project will involve replacing the existing eastbound and westbound Interstate 84 bridge structures spanning Graham Road in Troutdale. Also, Graham Road will be widened to accommodate a three-lane, one-way section. Interstate 84 will be rebuilt where necessary to accommodate the changes, and the westbound exit ramp and eastbound entrance ramp also will be reconstructed as necessary.

Finally, a new sidewalk and bicycle path will be built on the east side of Graham Road.

The improvements along Graham Road will require modifications to two existing traffic signals on Frontage Road as well as the existing illumination system.

The project team includes engineering consultant David Evans and Associates, transportation engineering specialist DKS Associates, and geotechnical engineers Northwest Geotech Inc. and Foundation Engineering Inc.

The project’s estimated value is between $10 million and $20 million.

Bids for the project will be accepted until 9 a.m. on Nov. 15. To be eligible for an ODOT construction contract, a bidder must submit a prequalification application at least 10 calendar days before the bid closing date.

Construction is expected to begin late this year by late 2018 and is expected to take up to two years to complete.

For technical information, contact ODOT project manager Chris Aguon at 503-731-3197 or christopher.aguon@odot.state.or.us.

The post Bidding open for Troutdale bridge construction appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Talk about a passion project: University of Washington graduate research assistant Kristina Tsvetanova has logged more than 100 hours a week at the UW’s Structural Research Lab working on one project 鈥� one for which she will receive no academic credit (her thesis was about a totally different project).

鈥淪he’s put a phenomenal amount of work into this, and I have never told her, 鈥榊ou have to be here at this time, doing this,鈥� said her adviser, civil engineering professor John Stanton.

It’s likely because she’ll get something more valuable out of the experience.

鈥淪he’s completely engaged, and it’s because she’s excited about being a part of a real-world project that is going to be built,鈥� Stanton said.

Several of the bright minds working to take 鈥� a world first 鈥� aren’t earning a dime for their trouble. Three UW graduate students and nine undergrads are part of a global team assembled to tackle this . The team also includes an English design engineer and more than 30 U.S. subcontractors 鈥� including Portland-based David Evans & Associates and the Portland offices of KPFF Consulting Engineers and WSP. Another of the graduate assistants, Travis Thonstad, even helped author a scholarly article on design development of the project. (Thonstad now works professionally on the East Coast.)

鈥淚t was a global problem, so it required a global solution,鈥� said John Sleavin, deputy director of Sound Transit‘s $3.7 billion , which includes at Lake Washington. The 5,700-foot-long span now carries westbound and express lane traffic, and is the widest and fifth-longest floating bridge in the world.

Among the consulting engineers were experts in marine vessels, who were able to consider matters like trim, ballast and how high the bridge sits on the lake. Sleavin said there was in adding a railway to a structure that floats.

鈥淎 floating bridge, in the simplest terms, is a marine vessel that cannot go into port,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s basically a ship we’re putting this on.鈥�

There are six degrees of motion that affect a span like the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, and that engineers in this case had to account for. The hardest piece to get right is the approaches.

To allow the light-rail cars to ride smoothly onto and off of the bridge, U.K. engineer Andy Foan developed a new, highly-responsive track system dubbed the Curved Element Supported Rail (CESuRa).

UW students led by Stanton have worked closely for five years with Sound Transit officials and consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff, primarily involved with lab-testing various prototype materials, like the CESuRa system. Thonstad led testing of the system, starting in 2012, using a custom steel rig that mimics the movements of a train. After that, Thonstad assisted with full-scale testing at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colo.

The rail cars were tested at 55 mph. Playing the role of human passengers: barrels full of water.

鈥淭hey actually do a pretty good job representing how a human body reacts in those circumstances,鈥� Sleavin said. 鈥淎nd we obviously can’t use real passengers.鈥�

It’s fitting that students were so involved in an innovation to a bridge that was itself dreamed up by an engineering student. Though floating bridges are rare in the world, Oregon’s neighbor to the north is considered the global home of the floating bridge. They are an option when a body of water is too deep to effectively employ columns, as is the case with Lake Washington, which has an average depth of 108 feet and a deepest point of 214 feet. Floating bridges can work if the water is a relatively stable level and lacking strong currents and ice floes, as a young engineering student, Homer Hadley, reasoned about Lake Washington nearly 100 years ago.

Hadley’s plan was finally put to use in 1940 with the construction of the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge. The Murrow bridge’s companion span was named for Hadley upon its completion in 1989. Rail was envisioned to cross Lake Washington as far back as 1976, when a pact was signed to add high-capacity transit to the bridge. But it wasn’t until Seattle was squeezed by development in the mid-2000s that testing began. The Washington State Department of Transportation put together a panel including engineers of all stripes that identified 23 issues designers would have to account for in their final plans.

They anticipated problems with corrosion, wind, lightning, maintenance, attachments for the tracks to the bridge pontoons and structural impacts to the bridge, to name a few.

After the constantly changing lake levels, the next great challenge for the UW team was attaching rails to the bridge pontoons without use of bolts (a condition of the Federal Highway Administration was to not add holes to the bridge.) This meant traditional methods of building rail could not be considered.

After puzzling through various trials, Sound Transit’s engineers decided to use layers of various adhesives between the bridge decks and rails. But the adhesive solution has be able to withstand extreme vibration and shrinkage from the curing process.

When Sound Transit’s initial attachment solution appeared insufficiently flexible, former UW student Matthew Sisley wrote reports to Sound Transit. Using his notes, they changed course. Three years later, Tsvetanova is leading a team testing the final prototype, which has been informed by the earlier UW test results.

Though the students weren’t all paid or given school credit for their work, it was as real as can be, Stanton said. The students will have the same pride traveling over the bridge in a light-rail car as any other team member. Beyond that, firms that rely on Tsvetanova daily have taken note not just of her technical ability, but her ability to lead others by way of a clear and persuasive passion for the project, Stanton said.

鈥淚n fact, they’ve been leaning on me a lot, saying, 鈥榃hen is she going to graduate? I want to employ her.’鈥�

The post Student aid: University contributes to innovative design appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Transportation in the future is expected by many experts to look a lot different than it does today. Instead of driving a car or taking mass transit both to and from work, people will likely follow a service model of delivery, according to engineers and city planners.

鈥淵ou are going to get the idea of mobility as a service rather than something (such as a car) that you get around in the same time all the time,鈥� said Art Pearce, policy, planning and projects group manager for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. 鈥淲e will understand it as a service each time. It will be an individual choice.鈥�

A person might take transit to work and then use Uber or Lyft to get home. Add in car-sharing services such as Car2Go and the possibility of autonomous vehicles, and adjusting to that landscape becomes a major challenge for planners.

鈥淲e are struggling to develop new models,鈥� said Adrian Pearmine, DKS‘ national director for smart cities and connected vehicles. 鈥淲e have traditional land use models that are based on single-occupancy vehicles owned by the person driving it. We see that going away.鈥�

Trying to address today’s problem in ways that aren’t obsolete in the next decade causes major headaches for the people making budgetary decisions.

鈥淚t makes it difficult to look at major new roadways or things like that,鈥� Pearmine said. 鈥淏y the time they get planned, built and they cut the ribbon, we expect to be seeing less use by then.鈥�

A city, for example, could need a 15-story garage to take care of a current parking crunch, but half of those spots might sit empty in the future.

鈥淪ome of the things we advise is if you are going to build that structure today, build it in a way that it can be changed into a condo or office tower,鈥� said Jim Peters, a DKS principal.

Some cities are already experiencing problems not foreseen completely. San Francisco now has so many Uber and Lyft drivers that streets are even more congested than before the services existed. Drivers often drop off or pick up riders in the middle of streets because there aren’t enough curb cutouts to easily accommodate stops.

鈥淥ne of the things interesting about San Francisco is that they are farther along (in infrastructure development),鈥� Pearce said. 鈥淭hey show we have to develop a more efficient use of the roadway space.鈥�

Cities must be careful not to create new problems when they address existing ones, Pearce said. For example, Portland will have to figure out a way to create more drop-off zones while not cutting into cycling lanes or harming traffic flow, he said.

Plus, driverless vehicles could present even bigger challenges in the future.

鈥淭he cost of that trip with a driverless car is reduced 80 percent,鈥� Peters said. 鈥淎 (ride-sharing service) trip from Southeast Portland to the airport could be reduced to $4.鈥�

But while a driverless vehicle could present cost savings to the rider, it could make traffic issues even worse.

鈥淲hat we don’t want is that person using a (driverless) car to go to work, then sending the car home because it is free to park and then calling it back,鈥� Peters said. 鈥淭hen you have a lot of zero-occupancy cars traveling around the city.鈥�

On the other hand, driverless vehicles could be used to lessen the need for parking structures at transit centers, making public transit cheaper to build and easier to use.

鈥淚f we can do things with driverless shuttles that are running around neighborhoods and taking people to those (transit) stations, then the two complement each other,鈥� Pearmine said.

Fortunately for planners, they have time to find the best ways to implement such technologies. Fully automated cars driving down every city street is still decades away, according to Steven Shladover, California PATH program manager at the University of California, Berkeley. The professor has studied automation of transportation for 45 years.

鈥淭hey will probably try to introduce (prototypes) in public use within the next few years,鈥� he said 鈥淏ut only on sections of roads 鈥� they have very contained.鈥�

The first prototypes will initially have drivers. Even after drivers are removed from the cars, operators will still be able to control them by remote. The most likely path for wide-scale use of the driverless vehicles would involve set lanes on streets specifically designed to deal with the cars’ limitations, according to Shladover.

For instance, in some European countries, curbside parking has been eliminated on test streets so that the autonomous car doesn’t have to account for pedestrians walking between cars. Also, street curbs have been altered to force bicyclists to slow when crossing streets.

The city of Portland is examining how to incorporate the technology into its transportation network.

鈥淲e are focusing a lot on the overall effect of autonomous vehicles,鈥� Pearce said. 鈥淥ne of the keys is making sure we can direct it to get health and climate outcomes we want. We want it to be a really positive innovation.鈥�

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has been asking technology companies what kinds of infrastructure changes they will need and investigating the chances of a pilot program for some prototype cars.

鈥淲e hope to move towards further piloting into the winter and next year,鈥� Pearce said. 鈥淚t depends on whether there is an entity interested in testing with us. It might be on the raceway before piloting on city streets.鈥�

Even once the bugs are worked out of the technology, questions remain about the public’s willingness to turn over the wheel to a computer. Large-scale use of the technology is inevitably going to lead to crashes. How that affects public opinion of the technology is an open question, according to Mark Vandehey, president of Kittelson & Associates.

鈥淚 think it has the potential,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are a lot of hurdles that have to be overcome.鈥�

Whether ride sharing, autonomous vehicles or a technology not yet conceived, it will have to be used in a way that preserves livability.

鈥淭he big question from my standpoint is how all of this fits together,鈥� said Jim Hencke, an urban designer at David Evans & Associates. 鈥淒oes this create a place people love? It’s not much use if it only moves people, but creates a horrible place that nobody wants to be.鈥�

The post Preparing for new ways of people movement appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

When temperatures soar, city dwellers feel the impact more than anyone else. The heat island effect can cause a city core to become as much as 20 degrees hotter than rural areas.

鈥淢ore and more, it’s definitely an issue,鈥� said James Hencke, a landscape architect and urban designer at David Evans and Associates. 鈥淭he news is concerning about environmental issues. Those of us in planning and urban design, it is something (we) hear about.鈥�

A variety of factors influence the extent of the heat island effect. Vivek Shandas, a professor in urban studies and planning at Portland State University who has studied the phenomenon since 2005, has found that temperatures around the city can vary by as much as 20 degrees, depending on tree canopy, surface types and colors of buildings.

鈥淲e have done empirical assessments when the airport is reporting 100 degrees and been able to capture temperatures (in other parts of Portland) ranging from 90 to 112,鈥� he said.

The intersection of Southeast 82nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard, for example, tends to be one of the hottest areas in town, Shandas said. The worst heat islands tend to form in places with a lot of concrete, a high number of big buildings and few large trees, he added.

The people designing city infrastructure and buildings are responding by making adjustments to the kinds of materials they use.

鈥淚t’s something we think about,鈥� Ric Battaglia, a project architect at Bora Architects, said. 鈥淔or the most part, we try to meet or exceed LEED heat island standards.鈥�

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards are guidelines intended to minimize buildings’ impacts on microclimates as well as human and wildlife habitats. The goal is to prevent buildings (especially their roofs) from absorbing heat. When a building absorbs heat during the day, it radiates that heat out at night, increasing temperatures during cooler evening hours.

There are a couple of ways the roof of a building can meet LEED standards. At least 75 percent of the roof can be covered with reflective material, or at least 50 percent of the roof can be covered with vegetative material. If a combination of reflective material and vegetation are used, a total of 50 percent of the roof must be covered.

Architects also are changing building materials used on structures to keep cities cooler. For example, insulating materials can be used on exteriors and exterior shades can be installed over windows 鈥� all with the goal of reducing how much heat a building absorbs.

Buildings aren’t the only structures sending city temperatures climbing, though. Sidewalks and streets have long been identified as heat-absorbing culprits in cities.

鈥淲e can use different materials to make more reflective sidewalks,鈥� Battaglia said.

Some cities have experimented with painting their streets with reflective materials. Los Angeles, for example, recently covering black asphalt with a material called CoolSeal. Hencke is among those tracking how the material functions a real-world situation.

鈥淚t’s fascinating,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat material is so white, I am curious about glare. It will be interesting to see how that works.鈥�

Many methods of reducing heat have proven benefits, Hencke said.

鈥淗eat island effect is one of the many issues we try to include in doing good planning,鈥� he said. 鈥淕reening the city is one of the best ways.鈥�

Greenery is one area where Portland excels. The city has 220,000 trees along streets and 1.2 million trees in parks, according to Jenn Cairo, an urban forester with Portland Parks and Recreation‘s urban forestry division. That number doesn’t include trees on private property.

Managing Portland’s urban forest gives Cairo an opportunity to help regulate temperatures throughout the city.

鈥淚t can determine where the priority for planting for trees is,鈥� Cairo said. 鈥淗ow much shade is in that part of town? How much higher are the heat issues there? Trees are one of the most straightforward ways to mitigate heat.鈥�

In the realm of building projects, mitigation of heat can be an important factor when seeking a building permit, Cairo said. In areas with a lot of asphalt and concrete, trees make a measurable difference in temperatures, she said.

Concerns about climate change and increasing occurrences of heat waves are expected to place a growing emphasis on how urban planning and design can be tapped to help keep cities cool.

鈥淭en-plus years ago 鈥� it was on people’s minds,鈥� Hencke said. 鈥淣ow, it feels like we have reached a point where city councils are demanding action. The planners were advocates, but the call to action wasn’t well received just 10 years ago.鈥�

The post Keeping cool by design appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently issued its quadrennial report card, and gave the nation’s infrastructure an . That is the same as the grade given in 2013, but up slightly from the D given in 2005 and 2009.

鈥淭he quality of life of any society is tied to the quality of its infrastructure,鈥� said Al Barkouli, chairman and CEO of David Evans and Associates Inc. 鈥淚f you want an 鈥楢’ quality of life it can’t happen on a 鈥楧’ budget.鈥�

Overall, infrastructure in Oregon isn’t as bad as in other states, according to the ASCE. While the group doesn’t assign letter grades to states’ infrastructure, it pointed out areas of particular concern 鈥� namely roads, bridges and levees.

Currently, 11 percent of Oregon’s roads are in poor condition, the ASCE reported 鈥� more than half of Portland’s roads are rated poor or very poor. Plus, the group labeled 5.3 percent of Oregon’s bridges structurally deficient. Meanwhile, area levees are undergoing structural analysis in order to stay accredited with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

鈥淥verall, big picture our levees are in pretty good shape,鈥� said Jules Bailey, the interim convener for Levee Ready Columbia. 鈥淭he assessment we are doing is to make sure they are up to snuff.鈥�

Levee Ready Columbia is a partnership of more than 20 organizations committed to floodplain management. The current levee assessment has uncovered some needed repairs. So far, identified damage is manageable, Bailey said.

鈥淭he result (of the analysis) was there is some work that will need to be done,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t wasn’t as bad a picture as we might have feared. We had feared (levees) would need repairs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It will probably be in the tens of millions. It’s still a lot of money.鈥�

Yet that doesn’t come close to the amount of money needed to fix area roads. Portland has $141 million worth of unmet road repairs every year, according to Portland Bureau of Transportation Communications Director John Brady. In the city’s latest status and conditions report, 47 percent of the arterial and cluster streets are rated poor or very poor. Among local streets, only 6 percent are rated very good while 60 percent are rated poor or very poor.

鈥淯nfortunately cities don’t have rich uncles,鈥� Brady said. 鈥淲e were very encouraged by the success of the (10-cent gas tax) fixing-our-street campaign. We are committed to spending that money efficiently and effectively where it is needed most.鈥�

Between the fuel tax and a heavy vehicle use tax, the city will gain an estimated $74 million for road repairs.

鈥淭hat is still a drop in the bucket,鈥� Brady said.

One area where progress has been made is with bridges, according to Bailey, a former Multnomah County commissioner. The new Sellwood Bridge and Tilikum Crossing are open, and repairs are set for the Morrison and Burnside bridges this summer.

鈥淭he bridges are in pretty good shape,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey still need some seismic work. Hopefully the state Legislature will help by taking this up.鈥�

Securing state and federal dollars to deal with these issues is high on the wish list of both engineering firms and local governments.

鈥淥ur elected officials have recognized the problem,鈥� Barkouli said. 鈥淲e hope this year something gets done.鈥�

Portland isn’t alone in its need to deal with infrastructure issues. Nationally, ASCE tagged the nation’s inland waterways and transit infrastructure with its worst grades: a D- for both. Rail lines got the best score with a B, while ports and solid waste managed a C+.

The evaluations covered 16 categories of infrastructure.聽The ASCE put together a committee consisting of civil engineers from across the country who assessed capacity, condition, funding and public safety to assign each category a grade.

The group has released its report card since 2001 and has never given the nation’s structures better than a D. That has led publications from Forbes to the Washington Post to question how much credibility to put into a report from an organization that stands to benefit from more construction spending.

鈥淚 would say, from our perspective, this is credible,鈥� Barkouli said. 鈥淲e are not going to put something out that is not credible. It is important to our professional integrity to call it like we see it.鈥�

The card relies extensively on reports performed by federal agencies such as the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. A flurry of recent incidents such as problems with drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and damage at Oroville Dam in Northern California makes it harder to dismiss the group’s findings.

鈥淚n general, engineers are not very good salespeople,鈥� Barkouli said. 鈥淲e are more likely to bury ourselves in the work. We need to take (the grade card’s) findings seriously.鈥�

The post U.S. infrastructure in poor shape, engineering group reports appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

David Evans and Associates has joined forces with the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District and the Beaverton School District to build a unique park in Aloha. The Southwest Quadrant Community Park will be the first in Oregon designed to accommodate both able-bodied and disabled users without stairs or ramps.

鈥淲e had to look across the country (to find) parks like this,鈥� THPRD senior park planner and project manager Tim Bonnin said.

The park will include fields for baseball, soccer and lacrosse as well as tennis courts and protective shelters. Though private funding sources are helping pay for the $14 million project, it’s receiving $10.6 million from a $100 million bond approved by voters in 2008.

鈥淚t’s one of the largest public investments that we have made in such a diverse community,鈥� Bonnin said.

The team planning the park on a 22-acre site at Southwest 170th Avenue and Farmington Road sought to make it accessible to all users without including ramps or stairs. Plus, all playing fields needed to be level. That was a significant engineering challenge because the site’s north side is 27 feet higher than its south side. Crews moved more than 50,000 cubic yards of dirt from one end of the site to the other.

鈥淭his was a huge grading project,鈥� said Todd Marcum, regional manager for land development at David Evans and Associates. 鈥淲e had to deal with that without having any steps throughout the site.鈥�

P&C Construction began work on the project in 2016, and was hampered by soil holding water from heavy winter rains. The issues prompted crews to work six-day weeks to stay on schedule.

鈥淕etting the soil to dry out was a major problem,鈥� Bonnin said. 鈥淭hey had to aerate the soil constantly.鈥�

Designers also had to find a suitable synthetic material for the playing fields.

鈥淭he surface had to be hard enough to be accessible by wheelchair and still soft enough that people wouldn’t get hurt when they fall,鈥� Marcum said.

Then benches and shelters had to be positioned so that they would provide shade for park users.

鈥淭here are people who can’t be out in the sun that we needed to accommodate, or just people who are out for picnics,鈥� Bonnin said. 鈥淲e also needed places for caregivers to be able to use the shelters.鈥�

Once the design challenges were solved, funding and coordination had to be sorted out. Some of the land was owned by THPRD, some was owned by the Beaverton School District and more land had to be purchased from private owners.

鈥淚t went through land use planning, permits, stakeholder meetings, neighborhood task force (meetings),鈥� Marcum said. 鈥淚t was in 2014 that we began this process. THPRD did a great job with user stakeholders.鈥�

Despite the challenges, the park is expected to be open before the start of the 2017-18 school year.

鈥淚t is going to be the crown jewel of the bond program,鈥� said Bob Wayt, director of communications and outreach for THPRD. 鈥淚t will be used by athletes with special needs and all abilities. This has been a labor of love.鈥�

The post Construction of unique park under way in Aloha appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.