City Manager's Blog

Atherton Town Center - Project Activity

A lot has transpired in the last month with the Project. Most of the utility work has been completed; the mock-up of the rammed earth wall was completed and finalized; work began on the pad for the new library; and the Police Department Ancillary Building began to take shape. 

Live webcams for Library and City Hall/PD Building are active on the Town's website. There is also a project progress photo gallery. 

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City Hall and Police Building

The photo to the right is an image from December looking across the City Hall and Police Building toward the location for the new Police Ancillary Building in their Secure Parking Lot - toward Caltrain.

The single-story, concrete masonry unit (CMU) building will be used to store:

• Stolen Evidence/Vehicles
• Property Storage
• Fleet Maintenance
• Police Motorcycles
• Special Operations/Emergency Equipment
• Emergency Generator & Power Equipment

The image below is from today (January 2020). The CMU walls for the building have been constructed. Entry door gaps can be seen along the front of the building. This is the side of the building that will face interior to the Police Department Secure Parking Lot. As construction continues, the view will change as the new building begins to go vertical in front of the Ancillary Building.

 

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Below is a Site Plan for the full project. 

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Historic Town Hall

Interior work of the Historic Town Hall building is further down in the project timeline. Current work for the building included a review of the interior wood construction for dry rot and installation of rebar at perimeters for the beginnings of earthquake retrofit of the foundation.

This building will ultimately become a part of the new Library connected via a deck and french doors that spill out from the side of the building onto the new deck. 

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Library Building

Most of the work this week focused on the installation of geotextile fabric and crushed rock for the slab work. Over the next week, the contractor will form and place rebar for the slab and begin to form walls. The image to the right was from December 2019.

The image below is the similar view from January 2020.



Along the left site of the Library Building (you can see the base forms in the image above) and a portion of the rear wall will be sections of Rammed Earth Walls. A rammed earth wall is constructed by "ramming" a mixture of selected aggregates, including gravel, sand, silt and a small amount of clay, into place between flat panels called formwork. The image to the left here shows the formwork of the rammed earth mock-up. The mock-up was constructed per the plan specifications to test construction methods and appearance. The image below is the completed mock-up with the forms removed. 



Rammed earth walls provide better thermal protection by absorbing or slowing down the passage of heat through the material. On average, a rammed earth wall will help regulate the building's interior temperatures improving its energy performance. In addition, the rammed earth wall will have sound reverberation characteristics that will improve sound insulation from passing trains. 

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Site Work

Site work this week finished up connections for storm drains and water lines. Work also continued on the installation of the chilled water line connections between the two buildings.

Once underground site work completes and steel begins to arrive on site, the buildings will begin to go vertical and take shape.

Here's a view of the new entrance to City Hall coming in off of Fair Oaks Lane. Administration Offices are on the right. The first floor will be Town Administration and the Post Office. The second floor is the Building, Planning, and Public Works Departments. The bottom and top floors on the left are the Police Department. Secure Parking Lot entry is off to the left of the main building. 

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The Look Ahead

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Project Financials

Payment Request	Period	Town Share	Library Share	Total
Payment Request #1	June 2019	$983,533	$538,622	$1,522,155
Payment Request #2	July 2019	$540,673	$587,037	$1,127,711
Payment Request #3	August 2019	$605,478	$972,754	$1,578,232
Payment Request #4	September 2019	$997,235	$638,317	$1,635,551
Payment Request #5	October 2019	$969,456	$252,633	$1,222,089
Payment Request #6	November 2019	$1,318,002	$341,692	$1,659,694
Payment Request #7	December 2019	$1,346,738	$555,978	$1,902,716
Totals		$6,761,115	$3,887,034	$10,648.149
Initial Project Bid		$28,701,034	$18,375,966	$47,077,000
Net Change Orders		$41,532	$73,410	$114,952
Updated Project Cost		$28,742,566	$18,449,376	$47,191,942
% Complete based on $		24%	21%	23%
Target Based on 25-Month Schedule				28%

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George Rodericks
City Manager
grodericks@ci.atherton.ca.us

Atherton Town Center - Project Activity

A lot has transpired in the last month with the Project. Most of the utility work has been completed; the mock-up of the rammed earth wall was completed and finalized; work began on the pad for the new library; and the Police Department Ancillary Building began to take shape. 

Live webcams for Library and City Hall/PD Building are active on the Town's website. There is also a project progress photo gallery. 

---

City Hall and Police Building

The photo to the right is an image from December looking across the City Hall and Police Building toward the location for the new Police Ancillary Building in their Secure Parking Lot - toward Caltrain.

The single-story, concrete masonry unit (CMU) building will be used to store:

• Stolen Evidence/Vehicles
• Property Storage
• Fleet Maintenance
• Police Motorcycles
• Special Operations/Emergency Equipment
• Emergency Generator & Power Equipment

The image below is from today (January 2020). The CMU walls for the building have been constructed. Entry door gaps can be seen along the front of the building. This is the side of the building that will face interior to the Police Department Secure Parking Lot. As construction continues, the view will change as the new building begins to go vertical in front of the Ancillary Building.

 

---

Below is a Site Plan for the full project. 

---

Historic Town Hall

Interior work of the Historic Town Hall building is further down in the project timeline. Current work for the building included a review of the interior wood construction for dry rot and installation of rebar at perimeters for the beginnings of earthquake retrofit of the foundation.

This building will ultimately become a part of the new Library connected via a deck and french doors that spill out from the side of the building onto the new deck. 

---

Library Building

Most of the work this week focused on the installation of geotextile fabric and crushed rock for the slab work. Over the next week, the contractor will form and place rebar for the slab and begin to form walls. The image to the right was from December 2019.

The image below is the similar view from January 2020.



Along the left site of the Library Building (you can see the base forms in the image above) and a portion of the rear wall will be sections of Rammed Earth Walls. A rammed earth wall is constructed by "ramming" a mixture of selected aggregates, including gravel, sand, silt and a small amount of clay, into place between flat panels called formwork. The image to the left here shows the formwork of the rammed earth mock-up. The mock-up was constructed per the plan specifications to test construction methods and appearance. The image below is the completed mock-up with the forms removed. 



Rammed earth walls provide better thermal protection by absorbing or slowing down the passage of heat through the material. On average, a rammed earth wall will help regulate the building's interior temperatures improving its energy performance. In addition, the rammed earth wall will have sound reverberation characteristics that will improve sound insulation from passing trains. 

---

Site Work

Site work this week finished up connections for storm drains and water lines. Work also continued on the installation of the chilled water line connections between the two buildings.

Once underground site work completes and steel begins to arrive on site, the buildings will begin to go vertical and take shape.

Here's a view of the new entrance to City Hall coming in off of Fair Oaks Lane. Administration Offices are on the right. The first floor will be Town Administration and the Post Office. The second floor is the Building, Planning, and Public Works Departments. The bottom and top floors on the left are the Police Department. Secure Parking Lot entry is off to the left of the main building. 

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The Look Ahead

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Project Financials

Payment Request	Period	Town Share	Library Share	Total
Payment Request #1	June 2019	$983,533	$538,622	$1,522,155
Payment Request #2	July 2019	$540,673	$587,037	$1,127,711
Payment Request #3	August 2019	$605,478	$972,754	$1,578,232
Payment Request #4	September 2019	$997,235	$638,317	$1,635,551
Payment Request #5	October 2019	$969,456	$252,633	$1,222,089
Payment Request #6	November 2019	$1,318,002	$341,692	$1,659,694
Payment Request #7	December 2019	$1,346,738	$555,978	$1,902,716
Totals		$6,761,115	$3,887,034	$10,648.149
Initial Project Bid		$28,701,034	$18,375,966	$47,077,000
Net Change Orders		$41,532	$73,410	$114,952
Updated Project Cost		$28,742,566	$18,449,376	$47,191,942
% Complete based on $		24%	21%	23%
Target Based on 25-Month Schedule				28%

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George Rodericks
City Manager
grodericks@ci.atherton.ca.us

Atherton Town Center - Project Activity

Overall project work this week focused on storm drain installation, drilling and installing piles for the City Hall and Police Building, pile caps for the Library, and grouting and wrapping the embeds for the footings on the Library. 

When you view the site, you'll see a series of "batter boards" up around the footprints of the new buildings. Batter boards are temporary frames that are set beyond the corners of a planned foundation at precise elevations. You can get a rough layout of the building by looking at the batter boards. 
The batter boards are typically set outside the corner stakes of the building. There's an image below that shows the batter boards and the Mason's lines for the Library Building. The batter boards for these buildings are set approximately 4-5 feet beyond the edges of the actual building. Finished floor elevations are above the batter boards by another 8-12 inches.

The total Town Center site is set on approximately 5 acres (219,425 square feet). The footprint of the existing buildings occupied approximately 26,000 square feet distributed across the entire site. There was another approximate 25,000 square feet of restricted and enclosed space for secure police parking, police facilities, and the corporation yard. The remainder of the site consisted of roadways, parking, and open space. There were a total of 122 parking spaces throughout the site (not including the Caltrain parking spaces along the rail corridor). Town facilities (buildings and enclosed spaces) occupied approximately 23% of the entire site area.

With the redesigned site, the footprint of Town facilities (buildings and enclosed spaces) occupy approximately 17.5% of the entire site area returning nearly 13,000 square feet to general public use. Further, the prior site had a significant amount of parking behind City Hall that was used intermittently for construction parking overflow and overnight parking - but overall, rarely used. Based on a site use analysis that evaluated time of use and need based on the types of activities at the site, the parking was reduced to 58 total public spaces (plus the parking spaces in the Caltrain corridor). This resulted in a return of another approximate 10,000 square feet to general open space. Overall, the redesigned site will return approximately 23,000 square feet of hardscape to landscaped open space.  

Live webcams for Library and City Hall/PD Building are active on the Town's website. There is also a project progress photo gallery. 

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City Hall and Police Building

For the new City Hall and Police Building this week, Amoroso continued work on drilling and installing the piers for the building. There are 105 total piers for the new building at varying depths.

The entry into the building from the Fair Oaks side will include a ramp and a small set of stairs. As you cross the site, the difference in elevation of the pad to natural grade decreases as the natural grade elevation increases. This difference in grade is not something you may have noticed on the original site, but in order for the new Civic Court to daylight out to natural grade near the historic Council Chambers the pad ends up higher on the Fair Oaks side of the project.

As you look at the pad from Fair Oaks, to the left you'll see part of the existing roadway that's maintained at the present time. Under this section is the large 36-inch CPUC Water Line. Design and work on this project had to protect that line in place as the CPUC refused to relocate the line as part of the Town's project. This not only put constraints on the design but also causes construction challenges. To the left of the CPUC water line is the pad layout for the Police Department Ancillary Building. The water line traverses the Police Department's new secure parking lot which is west of City Hall. 

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Historic Town Hall

Demolition of the interior of the historic Town Hall building is complete. This building will ultimately become a part of the new Library connected via a deck and patio doors that spill out from the side of the building onto the new deck. You can see the layout of the new patio and dec in front of the grade beams currently excavated for the Library. 

Work on this building will be sealed up for the winter season as work continues elsewhere on the project site. Once the interior work begins, work will resume on the historic Town Hall building. 

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Library Building

Work this week focused on the pile caps and grouting and wrapping the embeds on the piers. You can see the Mason's lines attached to the batter boards that frame up the exterior wall locations for the new building. 

As the line moves back toward the Historic Town Hall, it meets at two existing windows. These windows will be removed and replaced with a pair of french doors that will lead out from the community room (old Council Chambers) onto a deck that extends to the right of the Mason's lines visible in the photo. 

Take a look at the Project Webcams and you'll get a good feel for what the shape of the final building will be and how it relates to the project site. 

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Site Work

Overall site work this week still focused on utilities. While the main sewer line is complete, laterals needed to be added. Storm drain work is also continuing. CalWater is onsite to complete the new water line for the project. Once all this underground work completes, Amoroso can seal up the holes and the buildings will begin to go vertical.

We expect the foundations to be complete and concrete slabs to be poured by the end of this year. After that, steel will begin its installation as the buildings go vertical.

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The Look Ahead

Work Areas for the Week of October 7

• Finish Work on Storm Drain System(s)
• Drill & Install Piles for City Hall/Police Building
• Layout and Excavate Grade Beams for City Hall/Police Building
• FRP Bottom Notches Pile Caps for City Hall/Police Building
• Grout and Wrap Embeds for City Hall/Police Building
• Finish Grout and Wrap Embeds for Library Building
• Install Rebar & PT Cables at Grade Beams for Library Building
• Set AB Templates and Bolts for Library Building
• Layout Ancillary Building for Police
• Layout Grade Beams and Set Batter Boards for Ancillary Building

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Project Financials

Payment Request	Period	Town Share	Library Share	Total
Payment Request #1	June 2019	$983,533.46	$538,622.09	$1,522,155.55
Payment Request #2	July 2019	$540,673.34	$587,037.46	$1,127,710.80
Payment Request #3	August 2019	$605,478.32	$972,753.77	$1,578,232.09
Totals		$2,129,685.12	$2,098,413.32	$4,228,098.44
Initial Project Bid		$28,701,034	$18,375,966	$47,077,000
Net Change Orders		$27,021	$42,847	$69,868
Updated Project Cost		$28,728,055	$18,418,813	$47,146,868
% Complete based on $		7.4%	11.4%	9%
Target Based on 24-Month Schedule				12.5%

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George Rodericks
City Manager
grodericks@ci.atherton.ca.us