Posted Feb 13, 2009, 2:51 PM
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BANNED
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: San Francisco & Tucson
Posts: 24,088
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Quote:
Friday, February 13, 2009
Bay Area colleges halt major construction
Economic winter freezes state funding for projects
San Francisco Business Times - by Blanca Torres San Francisco Business Times
The State of California has frozen funding for major construction projects at Bay Area state-funded colleges after its bond revenue took a hit.
The standstill means millions in additional costs and hundreds of jobs lost associated with more than 130 projects on the 23 California State University campuses, 150 projects on California’s community college campuses and more than 70 projects on UC campuses.
San Francisco State University halted a $116 million renovation of its main student library and California State University-East Bay stalled work on a $44 million administration and student services building.
Other projects on hold include $80 million for new buildings at City College of San Francisco, $26 million in renovations on buildings at UC Berkeley, and $35 million for facilities and technology for outreach programs for underserved patients at UCSF.
Last December, the state decided to hold back funding about 2,000 projects ranging from schools and college campuses to road and park improvements.
The medical school plans to expand its class size by 10 percent and focus on training students with the most modern technology such as conducting doctor visits through video conferencing.
“Anytime you have a project of a maginitude on a campus like UCSF, the timeline has to be carefully managed,” said Doug Levy, an aide for USCF’s dean. “Our timeline is now thrown off.”
The new CSU-East Bay building was about two-thirds done when the state ordered work to stop. The project needed about $16 million to finish.
“It was enough that we could not afford to fund the rest,” said Shawn Bibb, vice president of administration and finance at CSU-East Bay. “I don’t have that kind of money lying around.”
CSU-East Bay had to pay the project’s contractor, Benicia-based Lathrop Construction, $3.5 million for work completed in November and December out of its own budget. Restarting the construction could add $1.5 million in costs.
It is unclear how long it will take to restart projects, CSU’s Bibb said. The state must first pass a budget, improve its bond rating, raise funds and give schools the green light — a process that could take several months.
SF State’s library was supposed to be complete by 2011. The project’s contractor, Barnhart Inc., had about 200 workers on the site before they had to halt work, said Leroy Morishita, vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer at SF State.
“It’s only going to cost us more money,” he said.
Email Blanca Torres at btorres@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4960
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Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...ml?t=printable
So I am left wondering about the CCSF tower in Chinatown and the UCSF hospital in Mission Bay.
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