American Civil Constructors

Putting the pieces togetherAmerican Civil Constructors was built by combining five companies with different but complementary strengths, Gary Toushek learns. In the first year of this new millennium, five construction companies, each with its particular specialty, amalgamated to form American Civil Constructors (ACC):  West Coast Bridge, founded in 1986 in San Francisco, specialized in seismic bridge retrofitting and tunnel rehabilitation, mainly in Northern California. Randall & Blake, Inc., founded in 1975 in Dallas, had a reputation for landscape construction, maintenance, heavy and highway construction, wetland mitigation, erosion control, sport field and track construction, as well as golf course construction.Hurlen Marine Construction Company, established in 1970 in Seattle, specialized in providing marine and upland foundation work, including piers, wharves, floats, marinas, pile driving, dredge work, levy work, bridges, outfalls and dock restoration. Pavement Specialists, Inc., founded in Denver, has been in business since 1950, provided diversified pavement services including profile grinding, grooving, sawing, sealing and other rehabilitation options. Contra Costa Landscaping, Inc. was formed in 1970 in San Francisco and was best known for its landscape construction, maintenance, and hydro-seeding projects in Northern California.The concept of bringing these five companies together was that the versatility of resources of a regional construction company would combine with, and add value to, the personalized service of a local partner with a base of regular and referred customers. With this perspective, ACC today provides road rehabilitation and paving, freeway seismic retrofitting, bridge construction and repair, reservoir and culvert construction, water and wastewater facilities maintenance, sports field and golf course construction, commercial landscape construction, and landscape management services. The company serves transportation authorities, port districts, utility providers, marine facility owners and operators, private developers and landowners, corporations, property management companies, parks and recreation districts, colleges, universities and school districts, and all levels of the public sector, from municipalities to state, regional and federal government agencies. ACC has additional offices in Martinez, Benicia and Loomis, California; Loveland, Littleton and Broomfield, Colorado; and Irving, Texas. One of ACCÔÇÖs current major projects is modifications, including widening and seismic retrofitting, to the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, which crosses the Carquinez Strait just west of Suisun Bay in the San FranciscoÔÇôOakland area. Another bridge has been constructed alongside to handle all northbound traffic, and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge is being upgraded to accommodate four mixed-flow lanes of southbound traffic as well as a two-way bicycle and pedestrian lane on the side. Completion of the project is slated for late summer 2009. ItÔÇÖs a joint venture with Top Grade Construction, a Bay Area contractor for the grading and paving; ACC is doing the structural work, such as deck slabs and seismic fittings. Doug Silverwood, project manager for ACC working out of the Benicia office, is project engineer on Benicia-Martinez. ÔÇ£The old Benicia Bridge that weÔÇÖre changing into just southbound traffic,ÔÇØ says Silverwood, ÔÇ£is the major north-south artery between the East Bay and Sacramento.ÔÇØ Caltrans, the stateÔÇÖs transportation department, completed the adjacent new bridge for northbound traffic in August 2007. ÔÇ£So basically weÔÇÖre taking an old bridge with two-way traffic and making it stronger and better, with earthquake fittings, seismic upgrading to the joints, for traffic all going one way southbound. We had a steel beam at every joint in the bridge to stiffen up the lateral load. ItÔÇÖs challenging; weÔÇÖre working with steady ongoing traffic beside us all day, so we have to be mindful of it. Sometimes a lane closure is necessary, so we do it at night when traffic is lighter. WeÔÇÖre working with existing steel and concrete that was built in the 1960s. The structure is still basically sound and intact. WeÔÇÖre modifying, repairing, resurfacing the bridge deck, and constructing a bike path with a concrete barrier installed between live traffic.ÔÇØ For work done under the bridge, an ÔÇ£access travelerÔÇØ on an air compressor slides along, attached from above, like a painterÔÇÖs scaffold or platform, and allows for the painting of the steel, which is the most cost-efficient way of preventing rust deterioration from the salty ocean air.Only a few miles away, on the interchange loop named the MacArthur Maze, near the eastern end of the San FranciscoÔÇôOakland Bay Bridge, is an interesting looping of three freewaysÔÇöthe Eastshore, MacArthur and NimitzÔÇöwhich end up converging into one as they approach the bridge. One night a gasoline tanker hit a barrier on the upper freeway and exploded, melting and burning parts of two of the three roadways, and Silverwood is grateful that he wasnÔÇÖt on site at the time. The fiery disaster on the Maze was declared a state emergency by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was covered by major TV networks for a few days because it burned for so long due to the exploded tanker soaking the area with gasoline. ÔÇ£At the time we had been doing seismic retrofitting on all the bridge piers. Our job was to increase the size of the foundations and the thickness of the columns, and to add more steel to the piers. I think weÔÇÖd been working on it for about nine months when the tanker hit a barrier, and the explosion made the freeway collapse. The 580 freeway goes over the top of the 880 freeway in the loop, and a section of the 580 had fallen onto the 880. ACC was emergency-contracted to assist in removing that fallen section and also repair the 880, which had sagged about eight inches from the heat and the impact, so we jacked the 880 into its original position and repaved the surface. Working around the clock, we completed the entire emergency portion within eight days.ÔÇØIt seems in ACCÔÇÖs case that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. ┬á