Organized Labor

Operating Engineers 3 Move a Million Yards of Dirt for Mixed-Use Project

by Mandy Jessup
Operating Engineers 3

It’s an area along San Francisco’s waterfront steeped in history. Located on 683 acres of waterfront land, the San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point was established as the first permanent dry dock on the Pacific Coast in 1867, when it was used as a commercial shipyard. It was then acquired by the Navy in 1939 – 11 days before Pearl Harbor – and was also used as the Navy’s Radiation and Defense Laboratory.

Hunters Point rests in the southeastern portion of San Francisco, extending east to the Bay, offering stunning views of the water and the surrounding hillside communities. It is often marked with a heavy fog and warm temperatures, uncharacteristic of San Francisco’s coastal climate. Its secluded location and panoramic views made the abandoned Navy barracks attractive and they were renovated in the 1980s by community artists who currently hold annual art displays along the waterfront, called The Point.

Yet, much of Hunters Point is abandoned buildings and empty land bordered by some of the most economically challenged people in San Francisco. The area has long been noted for its drug- and gang-related crimes, as well as its poverty and prostitution.

It’s an area along San Francisco’s waterfront steeped in history. Located on 683 acres of waterfront land, the San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point was established as the first permanent dry dock on the Pacific Coast in 1867, when it was used as a commercial shipyard. It was then acquired by the Navy in 1939 – 11 days before Pearl Harbor – and was also used as the Navy’s Radiation and Defense Laboratory.

For all these reasons, Lennar – a well-known builder – and the Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) community have partnered up with Gordon N. Ball to build a mixed-use community along the waterfront, complete with 1,600 affordable homes (a percentage of which will be well below market-rate housing) – some with multi-generational capabilities, retail and commercial facilities, parks, open spaces and the creation of much-needed jobs for people in the area. The project is similar to a kind of renaissance for the area.

More than 30 Local 3 members were brought on the project as major players in the first phase – moving dirt from the hilltop to the hillside to provide more space for the development phases. With the use of scrapers, dozers and excavators, members work together moving close to a million cubic yards of dirt, as well as providing paving and retaining-wall construction. The first phase began in January 2006 and is expected to keep members busy until 2007.

The Hunters Point Redevelopment Project is all about working together, since community leaders and builders have agreed to let the artist community remain within the plan (though there may be some need of relocation during construction) and have also agreed to keep the influence of the historical architecture along the waterfront.

“This project promises a little bit of everything,” member Gene Lovisone said. “The Navy turned all this land over to the development agency [Lennar/BVHP], and they’re going to develop the whole thing.” Lovisone is a 22-year Local 3 member and is also the project superintendent.

His fellow superintendent, Pat Mackie, is also a Local 3 member. He has been onsite for nine months and enjoys all the different aspects of the project.

“There’s something going on everywhere, so I’m busy,” Mackie said.

New member Kathy Kidwell likes the busy-ness, too. “I love this work,” Kidwell said, while starting to drive down the hillside to work in tandem with other dirt-movers.

The Hunters Point Redevelopment Project is a vision filled with many tandems – the need for affordable communities within an economically challenged region and respect for the onsite artists. This project pays tribute to the dream of an affordable, multi-purpose community overlooking one of the most beautiful scenes along the Bay, while imparting a reverence for the very basic and industrial purposes the waterfront once served.

Local 3 members play a big part in this tandem operation.