As First and Main dig begins, county hopes to piggyback
Daily Journal of Commerce
by Libby Tucker
08/09/2007
Excavation work for a new 15-story office tower at Southwest First and Main in downtown Portland will soon begin. And Multnomah County, which has plans to build a new courthouse on an adjacent property, wants to piggyback on the dig to build a tunnel through the site.
The county, hoping to build a courthouse next door to its Justice Center at 1120 S.W. Third Ave., considered buying the First and Main site. But the county failed to act before the property was snatched up in 2005 by Equity Office Properties. The Blackstone Group of New York in February acquired Equity Office and its Portland portfolio, and then dumped the portfolio, including First and Main, to Shorenstein Properties of San Francisco.
Negotiations with Shorenstein are now under way to somehow incorporate into First and Main’s underground parking structure a tunnel that would connect the existing Justice Center with a new courthouse to be built at the Hawthorne bridgehead.
“We’re talking with (Shorenstein) about what the options are to link the two buildings,” Pam Krecklow, the courthouse project manager for Multnomah County, said. “And since First and Main is between them,” she said, it’s the ideal location for a tunnel.
It’s too early to know the cost or location of such a project, she said, but the deal could throw the county into a public-private partnership with Shorenstein.
The county, Krecklow said, has long planned to build a tunnel as part of a project that would replace the nearly century-old courthouse at 1021 S.W. Fourth Ave.
The Multnomah Bar Association advocates replacing the courthouse, which has an outdated electrical system and is not earthquake-safe, Judy Edwards, executive director of the bar association, said.
By partnering on Shorenstein’s First and Main dig, the county could split the costs with the real estate developer and save money. And it would avoid having to dig a longer tunnel, because the county won’t be able to dig a direct route to the planned courthouse under the First and Main site once Shorenstein builds an office tower on it.
General contractor Hoffman Construction Co. last week took bids for excavation on the site. In October the contractor will begin digging a city block-sized hole 35 feet deep to make way for a three-story underground parking structure for the new office building.
A tunnel under the First and Main site is technically feasible, Brett Shipton, an associate with GeoDesign Inc., the project’s geotechnical engineers, said. The decision to go ahead with the partnership, he said “is probably political at this point.”
“Right now (the county) is busing between the Justice Center and the current courthouse and that’s problematic on numerous levels: security, operations, cost,” Krecklow, said. “A tunnel would provide a secure (route).”
But the county still has only secured $9 million for the courthouse project – enough to tear down an old approach to the Hawthorne Bridge to clear that site for courthouse construction. Demolition of the approach is scheduled to begin in 2008, Krecklow said.
“It’s always good to segregate the accused from the general public, and so if that’s the best way to get them there for their safety and the public safety, we’d support that,” Edwards said. “We’re just hoping they get started building a new courthouse before (the old) one falls down.”
First and Main dig to use new tech
Downtown office workers may hardly notice when excavation work for the 15-story First and Main office building begins in October.
Instead of driving the building’s steel piles into the ground with a large hammer, contractors will use a quieter “decompress” system that essentially shoves the metal into the soil without slamming it, according to the project’s geotechnical engineer.
It is the first time the new approach to pile driving has been used in Portland, Brett Shipton, an associate with GeoDesign Inc., said.
“It’s a press rather than a hammer, so it won’t disturb surrounding businesses,” Shipton said.
The machine will drive steel sheets 35 feet into the ground, shoring up the soil to keep surrounding roads intact during excavation. The metal sheets will then serve as the walls for a new three-story underground parking structure once digging is finished. – Libby Tucker
Project details:
Owner: Shorenstein Properties LLC, San Francisco
Developer: Gerding Edlen Development Co., Portland
Contractor: Hoffman Construction Co., Portland
Architect: GBD Architects, Portland
Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Portland
Civil Engineer: Harper Houf Peterson Righellis, Portland
Geotechnical Engineer: GeoDesign Inc., Portland
http://www.djcoregon.com/viewStory.c...29912&userID=1
Prev
Linear Mode
