Atkinson Nears Completion on First Northern California Project

Atkinson is nearing completion on its first project in Northern California, a seismic retrofit for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The $19 million project is part of BART's Earthquake Safety Program developed after the 1989 Lomo Prieta earthquake. The program includes upgrades to vulnerable portions of the original BART system to ensure public safety during an earthquake.

 

Atkinson's work begins at the Oakland Coliseum Station and continues down the A Line to the Bayfair Station in Hayward. The project consists of retrofitting 353 footings, each requiring an average of 1,000 linear feet of vertical drilling. High-grade rebar, grouted into each footing for the designed concrete cap, posed a unique challenge for the team, but one they'd identified and overcome before the project was underway.

 

During the bid process, the pursuit team identified that using hydraulic drills instead of the industry standard excavator-mounted drills would shave nearly one year off of BART's proposed schedule. The team received the time-saving tip from Atkinson's Rosslyn Metro Station project team in Arlington, Va. This innovative way to cut the schedule by 360 days, coupled with the teams underground tunneling experience, showed Atkinson's commitment to providing the best solution for the client.

 

Construction began in May 2012 and is expected to finish in July, one month ahead of schedule.