Organized Labor

$7.3 Million Project Slated for 2010 Completion

The first phase of construction of a new joint-use facility at the site of the Balboa Reservoir at City College of San Francisco’s Ocean Campus has been completed and Phase II construction is on schedule. CCSF Vice Chancellor for Facilities Jim Blomquist said the structural steel frame for the new building on Phelan Street across from the campus is almost complete. The multi-purpose building that will be jointly used by City College (CCSF) and San Francisco State University students will include classrooms and administrative offices, and eventually a performing arts center, visual arts center, child care facilities, and an advanced technology center.

Construction of the 112,000 square foot development is being managed by Bovis Lend Lease, Inc., and scheduled to be completed by June 2010. Phase I of the project consisted of bringing in approximately 280,000 cubic yards of fill and the installation of a geothermal grid under the fill material, which will heat and cool the buildings. The new building is rising atop the former Balboa Reservoir that is now a parking lot across the street from the campus. The contractor ProVen Management handled the installation of a ground loop geothermal system using of geothermal bores and collection piping to provide cooling and heating for new facilities, as well as the rough grading and engineering fill to provide pads for the construction of the Joint Use facility. The estimated construction budget is $7,300,000. Increased enrollment at CCSF as the UC system cuts down the number of students it can accept due to budget problems, as well as the age of existing facilities led the college to propose expanding to the Balboa reservoir site.

A small crew of ironworkers, operating engineers and laborers were on the job recently, as work on the structural steel neared completion. CCSF’s Blomquist said roughing and plumbing work would soon begin and the number of workers on the job would steadily increase until next March or April. He said that work is on schedule without any problems. Blomquist added that there is a lot of interest from unemployed construction workers and San Francisco residents looking for jobs. “The contractors are doing their best to be inclusive,” he said, Work is being done under the Project Labor Agreement with the building trades approved by the Community College Board of Trustees for work done under the $243.6 million 2005 bond measure. The PLA mandates that all contractors comply “with the established prevailing wages and benefits and working conditions of the craft workers employed on the Project.” Charlie Lavery, San Francisco Business Rep for Operating Engineers Local 3, and CCSF’s Blomquist said the PLA was working well, with no problems. There are two contractors who are signatories to union agreements and one that is not. Ghilotti Brothers, Inc. (GBI), is the contractor for the two new parking lots that will be built; the company has been a union signatory since 1954.

Future work on the classroom building and advanced technical laboratory will include sprayed-on fireproofing, elevators, fire sprinklers and plumbing, HVAC, electrical and fire alarm work.
All components of the project will be LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified at a Silver rating or better, according to Bovis.