At roughly 1.6 million square feet, the Parking Addition and Consolidated Rental Car (PACR) facility being constructed at Portland International Airport easily has the biggest footprint of any current project in the metro area.

It’s a whole lot of structural steel.

“It’s just a really, really big structure,” said Chris Hermreck, a senior project manager with general contractor JE Dunn Construction. “We’re building this garage that’s the size of these entire two (existing) buildings.”

The 2,400-space parking garage, designed by YGH Architecture, is being constructed via a progressive design-build contract. The new, seismically resilient (category 4) structure will hold Port of Portland offices, long-term parking, rental car service and offices, and a parking toll plaza.

The latter is already up and running, which enabled demolition and clearance of the old plaza, which sat where the new parking garage is on the rise. A new garage for rental car fueling, cleaning and storage has also been constructed.

One of the most significant phases of work in the entire project is under way: Ironworkers from Phoenix, Arizona-based Schuff Steel Co. have begun structural work on the 100,000-square-foot office building and five-level parking garage. Also, Carr Construction has been contracted to perform miscellaneous steel work.

Up to 50 ironworkers could be on site at one time when steel work reaches its peak later this summer, Hermreck estimated. The first column was set April 20, he added, and completion of structural work is anticipated sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.

Along with the sheer scope of work, steel erection is also challenged by the project location inside restricted Federal Aviation Administration airspace. This meant a traditional tower crane could not be used on site. Instead, crews are using a massive crawler crane with an articulated boom arm.

“This was a specially considered crane for a lot of reasons,” Hermreck said. “For capacity, and also because of the way it lays down at night. This has the reach and capacity and also the ability to get low enough.”

PACR is part of the five-year, $2 billion-plus PDX Next program in which nearly all of Portland International Airport is receiving upgrades. Construction of a new main terminal, the so-called T-Core project, is the centerpiece.

When it comes to PACR, work involves modifications to the existing P2 parking structure as well as significant improvements to surface roadways and underground utilities. Existing parking garages will connect to the new one.

JE Dunn is self-performing the concrete work for this project, while DeWitt Construction continues excavation and pile driving to accommodate construction of the new parking structure. Other major subcontractors on the job include Oregon Electric Group and JH Kelly Mechanical.

Once the new garage is complete, a temporary exit road will be shut down and a new exit connecting the new P3 garage and exit plaza will be installed.

The entire project should wrap up in 2021, according to the Port of Portland.

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Five contractors in the Portland-metro area are rolling out a program intended to attract mid-career professionals looking to change directions.

Candidates are now being sought for the new Career ReLaunch program – a new approach by builders to address the ongoing shortage of skilled labor. It operates much like a paid internship, except with the additional potential of a full-time job at the end for participants who make the grade.

Skanska USA Building, Rosendin Electric, Apollo Mechanical Contractors, Oregon Electric Group and Charter Mechanical Contractors are the firms involved in the program.

“A couple of years back with the shortage of labor we started changing our recruiting strategy,” said Dennis Huath, a project executive with Apollo Mechanical Contractors. “We started going to business schools for their career fairs and other, different avenues, and we’ve been trying to touch base with people who may not have been introduced to the construction industry.”

Someone will fill an entry-level management position to provide support to project managers and superintendents. The full-time position will start Jan. 6, 2020 and last 11 weeks, all at a Hillsboro job site where the five companies currently are working together.

“Project coordinator is the position we’re recruiting for, and there’s no construction experience necessary,” said Courtney Hron, a business development manager with Rosendin Electric. “We’re really targeting all individuals, including retired military, those who may have experienced temporary health issues, women who take time off from their careers to care for children (and) even former entrepreneurs who have left other careers and want to get back into the workforce. It’s open to all individuals at this point.”

Participants will attend regular meetings with project team members to discuss construction progress, attend client meetings, and work with design firms and other construction companies. Participants also will assist in preparing bid packages and procurement, preparing quotations and change orders, and updating schedules based on project team input, trade contractor progress, and materials delivery.

“The goal is to introduce them to as many facets of the business we run out here as possible in a three-month period,” Huath said. “It’s an opportunity to assess this career and see if it’s something they want to look at full time for a career path, and it’s an opportunity for us to assess them to see if they can sit on our team or possibly work on another team.”

Recruitment is being done via local chambers of commerce and non-construction job boards – both physical and online.

“The places we’re posting this is not where we’d normally look for candidates,” said Katie Coulson, a Skanska USA Building vice president and account manager. “It gives us great access to a talented and diverse pool of applicants that we might never reach otherwise.”

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Providence St. Vincent Medical Center is getting an $85 million facelift – inside and out. Construction will start this fall on a new exterior skin for the hospital along with seismic upgrades and expansion of some patient rooms.

Nancy Roberts, chief operating officer for Providence St. Vincent, said the first priority for the medical center was to upgrade the exterior of the 1971 building, but it made sense to do seismic upgrades at the same time to the oldest building on the hospital campus.

“The main reason (for construction) was to do external repairs, to make it water-tight and for energy efficiency, and to make it last another 50 or 60 years,” Roberts said. “It made sense while doing that to do seismic upgrades because in the process they would be covering up some of the columns to be reinforced.”

Those external repairs involve recladding the exterior with a new aluminum and glass skin, said Karl Sonnenberg, a partner at ZGF Architects.

“Right now it has single-pane glazed windows that lose energy,” he said.

The new exterior curtain wall, or skin, will save energy and help the hospital better control temperatures. Work on the building also will include new electrical and air distribution systems, making it “thoroughly modern,” Sonnenberg said.

The hospital, at 9205 S.W. Barnes Road, was originally designed for the extra weight of another six stories to be added, Sonnenberg said. There are no plans to add any more stories now, but the original design gives the building extra strength.

“It’s not likely to collapse now, but (with seismic upgrades) it is designed for the largest earthquake so (staff and patients) can exit the building,” Sonnenberg said.

In the event of a less than catastrophic earthquake, the hospital will be able to either stay in operation or reopen very quickly.

Andersen Construction is the general contractor for the project with structural engineering by KPFF Consulting Engineers. PAE Consulting Engineers will provide mechanical and electrical engineering. Mechanical work will be by Total Mechanical Inc., and Oregon Electric Group will do the electrical work. Culver Glass will supply the exterior glass for work to be done by The Façade Group on the curtain wall.

At KPFF, managing partner Blake Patsy and project manager Reid Zimmerman said they used a computer model, Construct 3D, to determine exactly what needed to be done for the seismic upgrades.

Zimmerman said the hospital’s seismic upgrades are a voluntary move by the Providence St. Vincent.  Because some building materials from the 1970s are no longer used today and seismic design was in its infancy back then, KPFF used ASCE information on seismic upgrades to older buildings.

“We had a lot of different options, but what we’re doing is using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), sort of like Plexiglas on a boat,” Zimmerman said. “We take sheets of fiber matrix embedded in epoxy to wrap around the existing columns and beams.”

During an earthquake, he said, the FRP “keeps the concrete together” and provides more strength and ductility.

“When something is very ductile, you can pull it out a long time and it never breaks,” Zimmerman said.

The fiber matrix is applied much like wallpaper, according to Patsy.

“We layer it on the concrete, put epoxy on and smooth it out,” he said. “It might take two or three layers.”

The layers of FRP are “very strong stuff,” Zimmerman said, and each layer is only 0.05 inches thick.

The final part of construction will be expansion of patient rooms on the sixth through ninth floors, made possible by the extra room provided by the new exterior skin, Roberts said. Patient rooms on the lower levels were previously remodeled. The building also has three below-grade levels for the emergency department, parking and storage.

Roberts said daily operations of the hospital will not be disrupted during construction because interior work will be done one section at a time.

“We do not anticipate any reduction of service and patients will be moved to either another part of the main tower or to other buildings on the campus,” she said.

The work will take about two years.

“The first evidence of construction will be the arrival of a construction crane in late September or early October,” she said. “But the work will not be complete until the first quarter of 2019.”

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Oregon Electric Group is now accepting applications for the position of Buyer. FT position in Portland, OR. Primary duties include securing competitive negotiated pricing and recommending the best vendor partners. We strive to provide consistent, dependable purchasing practices to support our internal & external customers. For qualifications and to apply online, please visit: www.oregon-electric.com. OEG is a subsidiary of MDU Construction Services Group, Inc. and is an equal opportunity employer.

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AutoCAD/BIM DETAILING SPECIALIST

Oregon Electric Group is now accepting applications for the position of AutoCAD/BIM detailing specialist.Job Title: AutoCAD/BIM DETAILING SPECIALIST Level: Fulltime Position Location: Hillsboro Jobsite

Primary Responsibility: Responsible for AutoCAD/BIM detailing of electrical systems.

Qualifications/Preferred

Educational Experience:

• Four year technical or equivalent combinations of education and design experience.

• Minimum of three years electrical CAD detailing experience in a contracting environment.

• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to maintain confidentiality.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Organizational skills – the ability to thrive in a fast-paced and detail oriented environment.

• Must have experience in AutoCAD MEP 2011, NavisWorks Simulate.

We are an equal opportunity employer that offers competitive salary and benefits including pension plan; 401 (k) savings plan; health, dental, and life insurance.  If you are a results oriented, progressive thinking self-starter looking for a challenging career with an excellent growth opportunity, please apply online at www.oregon-electric.com under careers or send your resume and salary history to: Oregon Electric Group 1709 SE 3rd Ave. Portland, Oregon 97214 Attn: Human Resources

OEG is a subsidiary of MDU Construction Services Group

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