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The “Big Build”: Carpenters fly Sacramento’s airport to the future From a distance, the curving roofline-just a skeleton in the chilly spring air—is vaguely reminiscent of a seagull’s curved wings, or, as the Big Build website explains, it’s a reminder of the canopy of leafy branches arching over the streets of the “City of Trees,” as Sacramento is sometimes called. See the story on page 4. Sacramento has a history of Big Builds that goes back to the city’s first years as the Golden State capital. In 1856, when the state’s leaders began the planning for the new capitol building, that neoclassical take on Washington’s capitol, they probably had no idea it would take four years for the plans to be finalized-and an additional fourteen years to complete the building. Happily, things are proceeding much more smoothly-and quickly-at the city’s latest “Big Build,” which is what the Sacramento County Airport System is calling the Terminal Modernization Project at Sacramento International Airport. In fact, the Big Build website tracks the progress down to the minute. On the afternoon of April 3, the project has 22 months, 8 days, 10 hours, and 47 minutes to completion; by the time you read this, it’ll be 21 months and change.  Sacramento Airport job site. “The overall goal is to bring the Sacramento airport up to modern standards,” says Local 46 Field Representative Dennis Dean. With a new landside terminal building, a 19-gate airside concourse, a 21st-century automated people mover, a two-level roadway and improved air taxiways, the project is a $1.08 billion step toward modernity. The joint venture of Austin Commercial and the Chicago-based Walsh landed the contract for the landside terminal in this design-build project. Turner Construction was awarded the contract for the airside concourse. A number of other subcontractors are also on the job, including Walsh Construction, Brand Scaffold Services, W. F. Hayward Company and the Sacramento-based Otto Construc-tion, as well as a number of others.  Guillermo Olmedo, Local 22, commutes to Sacramento from Vallejo. He’s been with Brand Scaffold on this project for two weeks.  Yuriy Ivanina, Local 46, only has two more classes in his apprenticeship. He’s been working pretty steadily for Walsh Construction on this project.  Roberto Macias, Local 46. “Currently, there are about 50 carpenters on the project,” says Mike Hoge, Walsh Construction’s carpenter superintendent. Hoge hails from Carpenters Local 1307, out of Chicago. He’s one of the management team that Walsh has brought in to supervise the construction, which is largely being done by California carpenters.  Bill Rodriguez, Local 22, erects scaffolding on the airport project.  Working for Walsh Construction, Luis Orozco, Local 46, is framing in the elevator tower.  Bill Edwards has 26 years as a union carpenter-20 of them at Local 46. Outside the landside terminal building, crews from Brand Scaffold are hard at work, while inside, small teams from Hayward hang drywall. A tour by Austin–Walsh’s Safety Manager Joey Stetson reveals a site-wide dedication to eliminating hazards on the job. “We really think about a successful project as a ‘golden triangle’ of elements,” Stetson says. “It’s about being productive, turning in quality work and working in a safe environment.”  Mike Hoge hails from Chicago’s Carpenter Local 1307. He’s the carpenter superintendent for Walsh Construction on the airport project, and has been with the company 20 years. Working for W. F. Hayward, Brandon Vaudrin, Local 9109, says, “I love this job. It’s real safety oriented, and all in all, it’s running smooth.”  Ryan Rice, Local 9109, works for W. F. Hayward. According to Stetson, this site has a large number of individual contractors who have received Cal/OSHA Golden Gate recognition letters and Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) awards. Ultimately though, Stetson says that safety is every person’s responsibility. “It’s a culture we’re establishing out here,” he says. “We’re always trying to make improvements.” Of course,the impulse for improvement is also what’s driving the city’s construction of this thoroughly 21st-century airport. On both, Carpenters are making the difference.  Alan Dowdy, Local 9109, slices the sheetrock to fit.  Andy Chiapuzio, Local 9109, has about three months on this project-and is looking forward to another year of good work at the airport.  Adam Cole, Local 46, is working for Brand Scaffold. He’s been on the airport project three months.Did you know… Sacramento wasn’t California’s original state capitolGeography and climate often dictate the evolution of capital cities as much as politics do. A confluence of rivers or a defensible, deep-water harbor might make a particular site desirable, or a combination of sunny summers and predictable precipitation. Any locale with one of these attributes might have been enough to attract our politically minded predecessors and get them to settle in for the long haul. However, in California, the problem wasn’t a shortage of sites with great geography or a copacetic climate. In fact, just the opposite. The competition for the capital crown was fierce. The government of the new state of California met for the first time in Monterey, and chose the little burg of San Jose for the first meeting of the California legislature in December 1849. And-briefly-San Jose was the state’s first capital. But Vallejo was waiting in the wings, and that North Bay town grabbed the title in 1852 and 1853, mostly because of a persuasive former Mexican general, Mariano Vallejo, who offered to develop a suitable seat of government. When things there didn’t pan out, the capital moved to Benicia-again, very briefly. In 1854, the city of Sacramento, the oldest incorporated city in the state, made its bid for capitalhood-and kept it. |
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