This content was published: May 14, 2012. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Construction subcontractors queue up at Rock Creek
Photos and story by Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
“PCC is investing $38 million to add more than 110,000 square feet of space to our Rock Creek Campus,” said Linda Degman, Associate Director of the PCC Bond Program “With construction starting next month, one of PCC’s goals is to reinvest these bond dollars into the community by spreading the work and opportunity out to minority and women-owned businesses and local vendors in Washington County.”
This summer, construction crews will start deconstructing the rotundas on the front of Building 7 (architectural rendering of the remodeled building above). Once that work is completed, crews will build a 29,000 sf remodeled space and a new building facade. All building improvement will be LEED certified.
David Rule, Campus President for Rock Creek, welcomed the more than forty people representing 39 companies who attended the event to learn about bidding opportunities for local contractors, minority, woman and emerging small businesses (MWESBs) and to kick-off campus construction. Construction will begin June 2012 with the demolition of the two rotundas on the east side of Building 7.
With construction slated to start next month, the PCC Bond Program hosted an MWESB Workshop and Construction Kick-off event at Rock Creek Campus on May 8, 2012.
“In 2011, we had more than 25,800 students enrolled at Rock Creek,” said David Rule. “With that in mind, my focus will be to work closely with our construction management team to ensure that the college is operating smoothly during construction.”
FORTIS Construction Inc., Northwest Infrastructure and Faison Construction have partnered together on the Rock Creek Campus project, with FORTIS acting as the overall construction manager. One of the goals of that partnership is for FORTIS to provide mentoring to Northwest Infrastructure and Faison Construction, both of which are minority-owned companies. All three contractors will manage specific portions of the campus improvements.
Thanks to voters’ support, PCC is investing $38 million into its Rock Creek Campus in Washington County, Oregon – adding more than 110,000 square feet to the campus.
“The Bond Program has strongly encouraged companies interested in serving as construction managers/general contractors (CM/GC) for PCC bond projects to form partnerships with MWESB firms,” said Degman. “Our goal in contracting bond projects in this way is to promote mentoring opportunities between larger and smaller firms. We believe that this will ultimately build capacity within the MWESB firms we hire so that they are able to bid jobs at a higher amount, work more efficiently and grow their companies.”
According to Rob Fallow, senior project manager with FORTIS, contracts for Building 7 improvements will be out for bid in mid-May. Contracts for Building 5, the largest portion of campus construction, will be issued after Building 7. In addition to buildings 7 and 5, there will be interior renovations for buildings 9, 2 and 3, as well as significant site work associated with each of the buildings and surrounding farm lands. Stormwater management for parking lots is still under discussion with Clean Water Services and Washington County.
In addition to providing an overview of campus projects, participants had time to network and ask questions regarding job site, business hours, parking and planned road improvements.
Fallow noted that participants at the construction kick-off event will be invited to bid via email. Fortis will advertise through the Daily Journal of Commerce, iSqFt and at FORTIS’ office (1705 SW Taylor Street, Suite 200, Portland), where contractors can review building site plans and renderings. Contractors and vendors can also view a preliminary schedule of work on the PCC Bond website and PCC’s quarterly report to the Board regarding MWESB percentages on its projects district wide.
The PCC Bond Program is hosting the next Construction Kickoff for its Southeast Campus with O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders later this summer. For more information, contact John Persen at 971-722-8426 or by email or visit the Contracting Opportunities page on the PCC Bond website.
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