Throughout this pandemic, we have seen the essential roles that infrastructure and construction play in our daily lives and the well-being of our local communities. These projects continue to transform the greater Los Angeles area into a healthier, and more equitable place of civilization. Congratulations to all of this year's winners! Special thanks to Paul Lee, our MLAB 2021 Awards Chair.
5th Street / 6th Street Improvement Project
City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Outstanding Bikeways and Trails Project
The 5th Street / 6th Street Improvement project was implemented through a multi-agency partnership between the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Metro to reduce congestion, improve mobility & increase safety on local streets/corridors in DTLA. The project installed new part-time dedicated bus lanes on the right side of both 5th and 6th Street between Central Ave and Hope Street, and new protected (Class IV) bicycle lanes on the left side of both 5th Street and 6th Street between Central Ave and Spring Street. The LADOT design team included innovative and much-needed safety features as part of this project, such as cat-tracks through intersections, a wide striped safety buffer on both sides of the bicycle lanes, new high-visibility crosswalks, and unique bikeway transitions at the project limits. The project reallocated a travel lane and off-peak parking lanes to become transit-only lanes during the hours of 7 AM to 7 PM Monday-Friday.
5th Street and 6th Street are one-way streets and together they establish a major east-west transportation corridor through the urban core. This connection links Skid Row, Central City East and the Arts District to the rest of Downtown’s growing active transportation network, and to jobs, resources and high-quality transit such as Metro Rail.
The project was developed through coordinated efforts: 5th and 6th were identified for transit prioritization by a Bus Speed Engineering Working Group authorized by Metro Board & Los Angeles City Council to support implementation of the Metro Los Angeles NextGen Bus Plan; and a community-driven organizing effort led LADOT to prioritize and seek funding for bicycle/active transportation enhancements on these streets. Lastly, LADOT, Metro and StreetsLA (the Bureau of Street Services) worked together closely to improve the road surface condition to ensure a smoother ride for everyone.
Project Members
City of Los Angeles: Carlos Rios, Tim Conger, Makenzi Rasey, Clare Eberle, Stephen Tu, Martin Schlageter, Nate Hayward, Andrew Hall
LA Metro: Kang Hu, Julia Brown
SoFi Stadium
SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park
Outstanding Architectural Engineering Project
Completed in the September of 2020, SoFi Stadium is the home to two NFL teams, the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The stadium seats 70,000 and can be expanded to 100,000 for special events. The 3.1 million-square-foot landmark is an architectural and engineering marvel with innovative engineering and construction solutions. This enormous and complex project, was delivered by multiple prime contractors, designers, engineers, surveyors, and approving agencies, established numerous industry firsts.
Located on the former Hollywood Park racetrack, the stadium is just 500 yards from an active seismic fault. With the site on the flight path to LAX Airport three miles away, the playing field was driven 100 feet into the ground. A record-breaking 100-foot tall mechanically-stabilized earth (MSE) wall creates a moat around the entire stadium, giving it room to safely move during a seismic event. An advanced structural system featuring buckling restrained braces and lock-up devices provides needed lateral strength. SoFi Stadium’s sinuous semi-transparent roof canopy -supported by the largest double cable-net system in the world - rests on a massive asymmetric steel compression ring that is in turn supported atop a system of (38) 150-ft segmental concrete columns outside of the MSE wall. The canopy includes 46 micro-operable openings to help maintain a comfortable environment for fans as an outdoor experience. The canopy columns are supported on a complex soil-isolated foundation system that extending outwardly from the stadium, in some locations extending under the adjacent public roads.
Considered separate from the stadium yet nestled under a portion of the stadium’s roof canopy, is a 6,000-seat performance venue. Surrounding the stadium, a master-planned community will include 2,500 residential units and 25 acres of public parks, and open space. Parts of the remaining area have been set aside for retail, office and residential components, a 6-acre lake amenity.
Ownership Groups, Design Companies and Stakeholders
SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park: Marlene Nations
Wilson Meany: Chris Holmquist
Legends Project Development: Bill Bailey
HKS Architects – Architect of Record: Mark Williams, Rick Gunter, Kevin Taylor, Ryan Blaylock, Greg Walston, Neil Prunier
Turner Hunt - Contractor:
Walter P Moore – Lead Structural Engineer:
Rafael Sabelli, Thomas Langlitz, Ryan Anderson , Mark Waggoner
David Evans and Associates, Inc – Lead Civil and Site Planning: Jose Cruz, Rick Garcia, Mark Oskorus
City of Inglewood: Louis Atwell, Boytrese Osias, Peter Puglese, Victor Nunez
Henderson Engineering – Lead HVAC Engineer: Kevin Lewis, Phil Miller, Dan Webb
Kiewit: Walter Eggers
Mia Lehr Architects – Landscape Architect of Record: Kush Parekh
Broadway Palace Apartments
G.H. Palmer
Outstanding Urban and Land Project
Broadway Palace Apartments is an urban infill mixed-use podium and tower development located at 928 and 1026 S Broadway. The 4.1-acre project spans across two blocks and consists of two buildings, which include 686 apartments with 17 live/work units and over 50,000 SF of retail space. The south building is a seven-story timber structure with three subterranean parking levels while the north building is a combination of a seven-story podium timber structure and an 11-story steel tower with 4-levels of subterranean parking. Together the buildings provide over 800 bicycle spots and over 1,400 parking stalls. The project included an alley vacation, realignment of a public sewer main crossing the site, public street and sidewalk improvements, and subterranean drywell systems located within the building footprints.
The project architect created the design to match the Beaux-Arts architecture of the historic Broadway corridor in Downtown LA. This required the Broadway elevation of the north building to be designed as a mid-rise structure, to match the historic appeal, while the remainder of the building was designed as a low-rise structure. Additionally, the building was designed to maintain public visual access to a culturally significant Banksy street art exhibit on the adjacent building.
This project incorporates the use of innovative stormwater sustainability via interior subterranean drywell systems located within the building envelopes under the subterranean parking levels.
Construction documents were prepared to achieve meet local LID BMP requirements to infiltrate stormwater onsite within building structures that extend from property line to property line. Drywells were successfully located to limit the effect on required parking spaces, accommodate access for maintenance, and accommodate the plumbing engineer’s interior pipe network routing. The drywell pipe routing system within the building was designed to overflow the site BMPs/Drywells to the public street elevation, without the use of pumps when the BMP’s had to be located several subterranean levels below street elevation.
This mixed-use project located on Broadway Avenue, whose design was shaped in large part by the City's Broadway design guide that seeks to maintain the corridor's mid-rise street wall and historic architecture, is the latest installation to the historical, yet blossoming community in Downtown Los Angeles.
Project Team
Architect: Alan Boivin
Oakes Architects (Architect): Leland Oakes, Julie Oakes
Edmond Babayan & Associates, Inc. (Structural Engineer): Jack Agopian
David Evans and Associates, Inc. (Civil Engineer): Deering Volkmann Viola, Jonathan Tapia
Shamim Engineering Consultants Inc. (MEP Engineer): Mahmoud Shamim
Geotechnologies, Inc. (Geotechnical Engineer): Reinard Knur
L.A. Group (Landscape Engineer): Tyler Gold
GJM Engineering, Inc. (Plumbing Contractor): Greg Missick, Eddie Sandoval
A Bridge Home - Sunset - Council District 11
City of Los Angeles - Bureau of Engineering
Outstanding Community Improvement Project
Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “A Bridge Home” plan provides a transitory safe refuge off the streets for individuals experiencing homelessness on the path to permanent supportive housing. The design challenges of providing accommodations for the homelessness on a demanding schedule and limited budget called for design innovations that balanced efficiency with maintaining an environment of dignity and humanity for the users. The Sunset “Bridge Home” Project is a small step in a city-wide effort to combat the large-scale homelessness problem.
The Sunset "Bridge Home" site is an urban-infill project housing 154 occupants located on what was previously an MTA Bus storage facility. The project components consist of a series of prefabricated structures, 60 ft. by 120 ft. tensile membrane "Sprung" structure, 24 ft by 40 ft. residential trailers, a 24 ft. by 80 ft. administration trailer and a 12 ft. by 60 ft. Hygiene trailer. The Sprung structure houses 100 occupants , separating men and women, bifurcated with an open central communal area with ten-foot-high perimeter privacy walls. Two offices for case managers flank either side of the open space at the entries to the respective sides of the men and women. The residential trailers were used for the housing of Transitioned Adult Youth (TAY). a total of 54 beds were allocated to at-risk youth. As a design tool, vibrant colors were incorporated as much as possible, both in the interior and exterior of the facility, primary and secondary gathering spaces balanced efficiency while maintaining an environment of dignity and humanity for the users.
Project Team
LA BOE: Deborah Weintraub, Jose Fuentes, Marina Quinonez, Mariet Ohanian
City of LA General Services (Contractor): Charley Pallares
Gonzales Goodale Architects (Designer): Mary Wu
Chevron Cogeneration B-Train Efficiency Upgrade
Chevron El Segundo Refinery
Outstanding Energy Project
The Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) utilizes discarded heat from the combustion turbine generator’s (CTG) exhaust gas to produce steam for the 850 and 300 psig steam systems. It also provides gas emission controls for the CTG exhaust gasses.
The processed flue gas passes over the High Temperature Economizer (HTEC) tubes where feedwater receives final preheating before entering the HP boiler. The gas continues and passes over the new Low Temperature Economizer (LTEC) tubes where feedwater receives the first pre-heat before being directed to either the MP boiler tube section, or to the HT economizer tubes. This capture of waste heat by the HTEC and LTEC enables additional steam generation (with no additional duty/fuel) which increases Cogeneration efficiency (more steam is generated for the same fuel burned). The estimated duty reduction is ~13 MMBTU/hr or ~7,500 MT CO2 reduced for the same steam generation.
The original LTEC design had 10 rows of tubes in a serpentine design with upper and lower headers. The nature of this design led to large moments where the drains attach to the lower headers and forced the tube bend to accommodate the strain and to yield plastically. Buoyancy instability is present in several rows and was expected to cause plastic deformation in the upper tube bends, particularly during start up and transient conditions. These events led to low-cycle fatigue and tube failures that ultimately led to the decommissioning of the LTEC.
The new, upgraded LTEC design incorporates HRST’s ShockMaster technology and utilizes all up-flow circuits, eliminating the buoyancy instability and inlet-pass thermal shock during both steady-state and transient operating conditions. The HRST design includes no tube bends, acting further to eliminate moments and bending stress at the tube-header connections. The new single-pass panels result in a reduced overall pressure drop and increased reliability will sustain higher efficiency throughout the run of the Cogeneration unit.
Chevron partnered with SoCalGas to participate in the Energy Efficiency Conditional Incentive Program (EECIP) and was one of the leading energy efficiency projects under this program. Furthermore, Chevron is working with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to submit this project under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Refinery Investment program.
Chevron Project Team: Andreas Harsono, Brian Poon, Casey Stokes, Kevin Campbell, Wouter Appelmans, Nick Stewart, Brian Huff, Daniel Saei
Contractor: HRST
Crenshaw/LAX Corridor
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Outstanding Transportation Project
This project has contributed to the local community in aspects of several different award categories. It sets the stage for the airport's landside access modernization program, such as by building in accommodations for the future Aviation/96th St station that will connect the rail line to the automated people mover between the terminals and the consolidated rental car facility. The underground stations have architectural elements. The project is incorporating future bike lanes. Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors (WSCC) built several bridges, including one over the 405 freeway. The project has donated to local toy drives and supported local businesses such as Dulan's during construction. This major construction project includes several traction power substations that convert SCE's 16 kV and DWP's 4.8 and 34.5 kV feeds to direct current that will energize the overhead catenary system with 600V DC. The electric trains will operate sustainably without the need for combustion and the associated emissions. The project uses best management practices to protect the environment. The tunnel entrance portals are protected against major floods with grading and sump pumps. The drilling for soldier piles and earth-pressure direction drilling by TBM utilized geotechnical instrumentation to confirm that any settlement was within established limits. It is rejuvenating a boulevard that used to have trolleys.
Its Florence/West Fairview Heights station is within walking distance of a beautiful Inglewood park. It has safely maintained traffic during construction and includes roadway restoration along the alignment. Structural calculations have confirmed that the equipment is safely anchored to pads to withstand earthquakes. Within the megaproject are many smaller projects, such as a pedestrian underpass for the Faithful Central Bible Church. Structural engineering ensured safety for the new bridge passing under the 105 freeway and over Imperial Highway. Quad gates will protect grade crossings in Inglewood against car-train collisions.
The project is spurring urban development along the corridor, including new senior housing south of 54th St. The project includes improvements to the Baldwin Hills mall plaza, including special pavers. The project includes many millions of dollars worth of bringing water meters and fire hydrants into compliance with standards, replacement of several blocks of 24" water main, and new connections for domestic, fire service, and irrigation water services. Each underground station has an oil water separator to treat water before it is released into the City's systems. WSCC has replaced several sewers and cleaned some to the benefit of the City's sanitary system.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Park Revitalization Phase 1A
Los Angeles County Public Works
Los Angeles County, Department of Parks and Recreation
Outstanding Sustainable Engineering Project
AHBE|MIG, Paul Murdoch Architects (PMA), PACE Advanced Water Engineering and CWE Engineers in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Development Authority (CDA), Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, and Los Angeles County Public Works (PW)—created a 21st century park that addresses how Southern California might implement the capture and reuse of our stormwater runoff and adds a much-needed amenity to an underserved community.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson (EMJ) Park, the largest open space in South Los Angeles, is an highly complex project and intersects many of today’s environmental, social, and public policies issues. Originally an oil processing site, the Park was bought by the County of Los Angeles as an extremely contaminated site in the middle of one of most politically active communities in the last century - the Willowbrook District of South Los Angeles.
The 120-acre park combines new recreation amenities with green infrastructure. The project includes a new community event center, a lakeside community loop trail with picnic areas and scenic viewpoints, a destination children’s play area, outdoor classrooms, and California Native landscapes.
To minimize potable water use, the Park was re-engineered through collaboration with the CDA and PW to provide a sustainable new water source using a unique stormwater management system to recycle the runoff from the 375-acre watershed. This system captures and treats runoff (dry and wet weather flows) to improve water quality. The stormwater runoff is then directed to a biofiltration area in the form of mitigated wetland surrounding one of the park’s two lakes. The filtered stormwater water fills the lake and is then recirculated to irrigate the Park. In addition, the wetland creates a habitat for birds, insects, and other urban wildlife.
Project Owner: Los Angeles County Community Development Authority
Project Owner: Los Angeles County, Department of Parks and Recreation
Project Owner: Los Angeles County Public Works
Landscape Architects and Prime Consultants: AHBE/MIG
Architect: Paul Murdoch Architects
Civil Engineer – Site: CWE
Structural Engineer: KPFF
MEP & Technology Engineer: Integral Group
Cost Estimator: TBD Consultants
Irrigation Consultant: Sweeney & Associates
Specifications: Chew Specifications
Community Outreach: The Robert Group
Water Engineering: PACE
Signage and Graphics: Selbert Perkins
Geotechnical Engineer: Geotechnical Professionals Inc.
Lighting Design: HLB Lighting
Arborist: Carlberg Associates
Agronomist: Wallace Laboratories
Restoration Ecologist: Land IQ
Kitchen Consultant: Webb Food Service
LEED Consulting: Zinner Consultants
Deputy Inspections: Geocon
Acoustics: Veneklasen Associates
Environmental Consultant: Rincon Consultants
Franklin D. Roosevelt Park Regional Stormwater Capture Project
Los Angeles County Public Works
Outstanding Water Project
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Park Regional Stormwater Capture Project is a regional, multi-benefit, sustainable project that integrates both below-ground and above-ground green infrastructure and low-impact development (LID) type features. The below-ground features include two infiltration galleries built below the new soccer field at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Park area and three infiltration wells drilled into an adjacent street, Whitsett Avenue, that have a total 24-hour capacity of 8.5 acre-feet. The implementation of 37,000 square feet of drought-tolerant landscaping, 54 new trees, and bioswales reduce water usage and impacts due to the heat island effect; helps mitigate the impacts of climate change; and creates new habitat within the park for native species. Within the park, an existing soccer field was re-designed to replace the grass with artificial turf, reducing both irrigation and maintenance. Other recreational improvements within the park include the replacement of existing skate park ramps with concrete to improve safety, the installation of a healthy court with Americans with Disabilities Accessible exercise equipment, kids’ play mounds, picnic areas, and a decomposed granite walking path. This multi-benefit project helps improve the quality of life for residents by enhancing recreational opportunities and providing environmentally sustainable practices by reducing stormwater pollution, improving water quality, expanding urban tree canopy, and recharging local groundwater supply.
Los Angeles County Project Stakeholders: Stormwater Quality Division, Design Division, Project Management Division III, Department of Parks & Recreation
Construction Contractor: Los Angeles Engineering, Inc.
Glendora Mountain Road Highway Safety Improvement Program Project
Los Angeles County, Department of Public Works
Outstanding Operations and Maintenance Project
Glendora Mountain Road is a 13.9 mile rural mountain road located in the San Gabriel mountains in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County. The road is primary used for recreational activities in and around the Angeles National Forest. It is more heavily used on weekends and around holidays than during a typical weekday. Anecdotal evidence indicates that substantial negative behaviors occur on the roadway, including vehicle racing, traveling at too great of speeds than conditions allow, and driving under the influence.
The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works (Public Works) maintains a database of the traffic investigations and collision studies within the unincorporated County areas. The data has show that in the past 5 years there have been 133 vehicles crashes on this rural road. The majority of these were categorized as to be due to unsafe speed and vehicles going to the opposite direction crossing the centerline. 57 percent of all the crashes resulted in bodily injury to the vehicle occupants.
Due to the high concentration of crashes in this rural road, this project was identified as a safety priority, and to mitigate the collision patterns, it was determined to use one of the countermeasures listed in the Local Roadway Safety Manual (LRSM).
The design of this project was simple in nature, but required the coordination of many internal and external entities. Working with the Caltrans, the County of Los Angeles Public Works coordinated the submittals of each phase of the project to Caltrans, ensuring the necessary funding could be ascertained to be able to do these safety and maintenance upgrades. Additionally, the County maintained contact with the US Forest Services since the road right of way was mostly within their jurisdiction. The project team ensured the safety of cyclists and other uses of the roadway for the variety of recreation that this roadway provides. Additionally, they took the appropriate safety measures to ensure this forest would be safe from accidental fires, by avoiding work during the Bobcat Fire. The collaboration of these agencies made the construction easy and straight forward with the contractor able to complete the full 13.9 mile stretch in less than 2 weeks.
Contractor: Sterndahl Enterprises, Inc.
LADOT COVID-19 Pandemic Response
City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation
Outstanding Emergency Response/Preparedness Project
In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, LADOT worked closely with our communities to create and adjust programs to relieve pressure on the most vulnerable and affected constituents of the City of Los Angeles.
The Al Fresco Program reallocates street space in the City’s right of way to allow food establishments enough outdoor dining area to operate while adhering to LA County Department of Public Health guidelines. LADOT designed temporary street detours and traffic control plans (TCPs) for street reallocation. Where appropriate, k-rail, barricades, and other street ornaments are used to reserve this space. This program is especially essential to food establishments that do not have existing outdoor dining areas. LADOT is committed to prioritizing Al Fresco space to BIPOC establishments and neighborhoods that were hit the hardest economically by the pandemic.
The Food/Retail Pick Up Zone Program allows food and retail establishments to apply for reserved temporary parking zones near their stores free of charge. This program is essential to establishments who are only open for take-out orders, and for food delivery drivers to operate seamlessly. The areas are evaluated by engineers, the signage is deployed by our Paint & Stripe crews, and enforced by our Traffic Officers (TOs).
LADOT’s Special Traffic Operations (STO) team worked to establish efficient COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites across the City, including Dodger’s Stadium. They worked to create Traffic Control Plans (TCP) to ensure seamless flow of traffic around these sites, and close streets or redirect traffic as necessary. Our frontline Traffic Officers were on site daily to direct traffic smoothly and efficiently around these important sites.
Many students rely on school meals for breakfast and lunch. When schools transitioned into virtual classrooms, students and their families were cut off from this resource. LAUSD quickly created Grab n Go centers to allow students and their families to pick up meals they would have received on campus. LADOT supported this effort by providing TOs to facilitate traffic and Engineers to survey and adjust Traffic Control Plans. We also supported larger county-wide food drives in a similar manner.
The Slow Streets Program was initiated to encourage outdoor activity when public recreation facilities closed down. Approved neighborhood streets were closed to local traffic only and had speed limits decreased. The program is now transitioning into a permanent application, and will prioritize installation on BIPOC neighborhoods. This project utilized the combined forces of our STO Engineering team and our Community Engagement Planning team.
The safer at home orders changed traffic patterns across the city - fewer vehicles on the road led to increased speeds, and pedestrians were hesitant to push pushbuttons to actuate pedestrian phases at signalized crosswalks. To mitigate this, our ATSAC engineers redesigned the signal timing across the city to ensure pedestrian phases in every cycle to eliminate the need to push buttons, and also installed phasing to disrupt speeding patterns.
Project Team
LADOT: Daniel Mitchell, Tim Conger, Mariana Valdivia, Rose McCarron, Jaclyn Garcia
LABOE: Ted Allen
Streets LA: David Rivera
Mayor's Office: Jennifer McDowell, Stacy Weisfeld
LADOT GIS Strategic Plan
City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation
Outstanding Applied Mapping Technology Project
The GIS @ LADOT Strategic Work Plan is a living plan of action collectively authored and maintained by various GIS users and designed to develop and maintain technical capacity to deliver an LADOT GIS that empowers staff to meet their duties and deliver on the agency’s goals and responsibilities. Specifically, the strategy is a product of steering by the LADOT Data Working Group, contributions from GIS power users and beneficiaries throughout the department, and owned by the LADOT GIS Unit.
A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data that is rooted in the science of geography and can support many types of data. The City of Los Angeles uses GIS to build maps that communicate, perform analysis, share information, and help solve complex problems in the city. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) uses GIS to analyze the spatial location, organize different layers of information, and prepare data visualizations of transportation facilities, community characteristics, mobility demands, and usage of physical assets to inform project decisions, policies, and operations. With quality data, capable users, and an authoritative source for citywide data, LADOT can leverage GIS to reveal deeper insights into transportation and public realm data, such as patterns, relationships, and situations—helping practitioners make smarter decisions and develop more compelling recommendations to elected officials, funding grantors, and community members.
Contracted staff and vendors: Ellis & Associates, Blue Systems, Remix, Conveyal Analysis Connectivity Platform, StreetLight Data, Socrata, etc
LADOT GIS Unit: Zack Bouz , Vlad Gallegos, Tony Hernandez, Zackary Campos, and Angeli Penalba.
Long Beach Civic Center
City of Long Beach
Port of Long Beach
Outstanding Structural Engineering Project
Encompassing four buildings and spread across several city blocks, this multi-faceted development in the heart of downtown Long Beach features 600,000 square feet of sustainable structures that include a new city hall, civic chambers, headquarters for the Port of Long Beach, and the Billie Jean King Main Library. The project also created greater connectivity between the Civic Center district and the surrounding city through the reintroduction of the city grid with a regional bike network, buses, and the Metro "A" Line (Blue Line).
The new LBCC is the centerpiece of the City’s efforts to revitalize its downtown area, without added burden to taxpayers. The private sector development team included The Plenary Group and Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate as co-developers, Clark as design-builder, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as lead designer, and Johnson Controls as major systems providers and long-term operating partner. The development was delivered under an innovative public-private partnership (P3), utilizing a design-build-finance-operate-maintain (DBFOM) contract, which enabled the construction and long-term maintenance of the Civic Center in exchange for land that will be privately developed. The project is the nation’s and North America’s first municipal DBFOM. The project is also the first North American hybrid DBFOM to combine public infrastructure and private development within a single project.
The new Civic Center optimizes operations and maintenance, maximizes street parking, and expands bike infrastructure to create a hierarchy and quality of place –one that befits the city’s dynamic center for culture, recreation, education, and government.
Ensuring that area residents played a significant role in the delivery of the Civic Center was a top priority for City officials and the LBCC team. More than 1,200 craft workers from the City and its immediate surrounding communities helped bring the project to life.
Project Team
City of Long Beach (Project Owner): Craig Beck, Marilyn Surakus
Port of Long Beach (Project Owner): Sean Gamette, Jamilla Vollmann
Plenary Properties Long Beach LLC (Project Developer): Joshua Coulter, Gillian Schloss
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (Lead Designer): Paul Dana, Jose Palacios, Jed Zimmerman
Nabih Youssef Associates (Structural Engineer): Nabih Youssef
KPFF Consulting Engineers (Civil Engineer): Byung Kang
Syska Hennessy Group (MEP Engineer): Robert Bolin
Curtainwall Design Consulting (Waterproofing Consultant): Michael Lee
Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Deisgn (Lighting Consultant): Michael Lindsey
Gustafaon Gurthie Nichole (Landscape Architect): Jennifer Gurthie
Clark Construction (General Contractor): Marc Kersey, Erin Young, Jeff Frye, Steve Deyer, Ashley Kelly
Subcontractors: Largo Concrete, Morrow Meadows, Johnson Controls, Benson Industries, Murray Company, Critchfield Mechanical, Schmitt Contracting, Letner Roofing, Shaw & Sons, Beck Steel, Otis Elevator, PeopleSpace, Cosco Fire Protection, WS Klem, Tower Glass, Pacific Architectural Millwork
Morris Dam Low Flow Outlet and Facility Improvement Project
Los Angeles County Flood Control District
Outstanding Flood Management Project
The Morris Dam Low Flow Outlet and Facility Improvement Project enhanced operational flexibility at the Morris Dam and included the following main items of work:
1) Installation of a new low flow outlet valve,
2) Installation of an innovating self-adjusting floating boat dock,
3) Refurbishment of the auxiliary (Caterpillar) gate, hoist system, and
4) Construction of a new security gate and fence.
The new low flow outlet valve improves water conservation at the dam by reducing spray and vapor loss during mandatory small water releases. Additionally, the valve increases safety in the workplace for maintenance crews by preventing dangerous slippery surfaces caused by excessive spray. The self-adjusting boat dock on the upstream-face of the dam improves operational, maintenance, and emergency response by providing direct and immediate boat access to the reservoir through all variation in the reservoir water levels. Refurbishing the auxiliary (Caterpillar) gate and hoist system provides for operational flexibility for making repairs and conducting maintenance on the valves; thereby increasing the reliability of the outlet works at this facility. The new security gate and fence improves the security at the dam by keeping all the mechanical valves and valuable instruments safe within the facility. Together, these components of the project help to ensure reliable flood protection and water conservation at Morris Dam for the benefit of downstream communities.
Project Team
LA County Public Works: Adam Ariki, Sterling Klippel, Siyavash Araumi
Tech Com International: Cameron Katebian, Butch Whittle
California Department of Water Resources, Division of Safety Dams: Rick Draeger
Mulholland Highway over Triunfo Creek Bridge
Los Angeles County Public Works
Outstanding Construction Project
The Mullholland Highway over Triunfo Creek Bridge is a 143.5-foot long single-span steel truss bridge in the unincorporated community of Cornell. The original three-span steel girder bridge served as the main corridor connecting the east-west traffic in the Cornell community. The bridge was completely destroyed by the Woolsey Fire in November 2018, and the emergency shut-down of the bridge resulted in a 5-mile detour to route traffic around the closed bridge, which significantly impacted mobility in the area. Los Angeles County Public Works removed the destroyed bridge and debris from the creek and installed a one-lane temporary modular steel bridge under emergency permit to restore access to the community in May 2019.
The new permanent bridge restores Mulholland Highway to its full capacity, with one lane in each direction and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk. The Project consists of constructing the 143.5-foot long by 43 feet wide steel truss structure, bridge support structures, and approach roadways, which were significantly altered to accommodate the new bridge. The decision to construct a single-span bridge was chosen to eliminate construction of intermediate piers and minimize environmental impact inside the creek, saving significant time. Design was further expedited by working closely with multiple renowned steel truss bridge fabricators. The contract was awarded in December 2019 and the construction began in May 2020. The total project costs of the bridge restoration is estimated at $9 million.
Input from the community was used for the aesthetic design, from the color of the truss to the veneered concrete barriers, to complement the existing features of the area. The Project has been a great team effort among Los Angeles County, Caltrans, Federal Highway Administration and Congressman Ted Lieu in the 33rd District to commit and fast-track the reconstruction of the bridge, a further expression of Public Works’ deep commitment to the communities that were affected by the Woolsey Fire. This complex project will provide a vital community asset for many years to come.
Sheila Kuehl, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor
Ted Lieu, Congressman of California’s 33rd District
Los Angeles County Public Works: Mark Pestrella, Hector Bordas, Andrew Ngumba, Kenneth Ho, John Lu, David Rojas, Sherry Saethao, Khai Chung, Manuel Orellana, Sherrie Jong, Sergio Barboza, Bob Gysel, Keegan Fahey, Colin McCarter, Chandra McLoud, Mary Reyes, Lance Grindle, Ricardo Gordillo, Tarek Mohamed, Dale Sakamoto, Josue Barahona, Lisa Woung, Karen Mendez, George Molina, Karin Burger, Mark Wittig, Ruben Cruz, Jasper Junio, Alex Padilla
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District: Veronica Hurtado
Southern California Edison: Morgan Strunk
Granite Construction Incorporated: Steven Jackson, Spencer Norton
North Atwater Bridge
City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering
Outstanding Bridge Project
The North Atwater Bridge is used for non-motorized travel for equestrians, pedestrians, and bicyclists to make year-round crossings over the Los Angeles River between the communities of Atwater Village and Griffith Park. This bridge is part of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan which connects the Atwater Village on the east bank to the Los Angeles River Bike Path on the west bank with access to Griffith Park. The bridge is supported by two reinforced concrete abutments at both ends of the bridge and an elliptical center pier, with the cables supporting the bridge deck.
Reyes Construction, Inc (General Contractor): Alex Padilla, Alex Franquez, Alex Lopez
Adam & Smith (Bridge Erector): Justin Page, Joe Blythe
Stinger Bridge & Iron (Bridge Fabricator): Sergio Barrera, Mark Little
City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering: Shirley Lau, Dung Tran, Dahlia Hanna, Arnulfo Nuno Jr.
City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Contract Administration: Maxwell Jardine
City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering Survey Division: Pete Miera
TY Lin International (Prime Consultant, Engineer of Record): Joseph Smith, Cathleen Ma, Jacob Tabari
ZTC Consulting (Subconsultant): Farzad Tasbihgoo
Rincon Consultants (Environmental): Brenna Vredeveld
MLA Studio: Ben Feldman
Lighting Design Alliance (Lighting Design)
Leighton Consulting
City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Street Lighting: Mark Libuit, Zouhair Shehab
LADOT: Brian Phan, Edward Giron
Pandemic Travel Behavior Study
City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation
Outstanding Big Data Project
As Los Angeles grapples with how to manage the effects of this health and economic crisis, LADOT launched a study of travel trends during the pandemic. Our analysis affirms that long-standing racial inequities, created through decades of policies meant to intentionally oppress black, brown and other people of color, that impact how people travel have only deepened in recent months, impacting how many Angelenos in need get around.
We used a big data platform to understand how the COVID-19 Pandemic affected travel patterns, vehicle miles travelled (VMT), and transit usage on a regional basis and at a neighborhood level. We also collected vehicle detector loop counts and bikeshare data from Metro.
The data showed that there are mobility inequities in that not all people were able to stay safe at home during the most challenging months of the pandemic. People from the most disadvantaged communities had to continue to go to work or take on new work - like home delivery services. So they were exposed to COVID-19 more than others - which explains why the case and death rates were larger within these communities.
This study analyzes trip pattern data within the City of Los Angeles and clearly saw a correlation between wealth and race with travel pattern changes. Areas with lower incomes and higher BIPOC populations saw little change or increased their travel largely due to essential working jobs. At the opposite end, wealthier and whiter areas were able to adhere to the safer at home orders and saw their travels decrease greatly.
This study helped prioritize LADOT's pandemic response programs to distribute resources in areas of most need.
https://medium.com/@connie.llanos/travel-trends-in-l-a-during-covid-e97ac201f36
Project Members: Rubina Ghazarian, Karina Macias, Rosemary McCarron
Pier E Berth E22 Wharf and Backlands, Phase 3
Port of Long Beach
Outstanding Ports Project
The Port of Long Beach Middle Harbor Terminal Redevelopment Program (Middle Harbor) involves connecting and upgrading two older shipping terminals and transforming them into one of the world's most technologically advanced and greenest facilities. The $1.5 billion program uses automation, electrified equipment, and upgraded infrastructure to more than double the older terminals’ cargo capacity, improve productivity, and reduce air pollution by as much as 50 percent.
The program is phased in three turnover milestones to allow the operating tenant, Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), continuous operation during construction. Phase 1 and 2 of the project was completed and began full operation April 2016 and October 2017, respectively. Phase 3 is anticipated to be substantially completed last June 2021.
The $146M Pier E Berth E22 Wharf and Backlands, Stage 3, Phase 3 project is one of the landmark projects of the third phase of Middle Harbor program. It was substantially completed on April 1, 2021 and has since been turned over for tenant use. This project included demolition of existing Pier F infrastructures consisting of pile-supported concrete wharf, removal of the cyclopean wall, pavement, and utilities; dredge and fill activities to construct the backland base; construction of a new wharf at Berths E22. Utility improvements include construction of a portion of the new terminal water main, storm drain, and power and telecommunication power distribution system as well as commissioning of electrical outlets for ships to connect while docked.
The project’s success was due in great part to the Port team working collaboratively with contractor and other stakeholders in solving construction challenges while accommodating end user’s request.
Project Team
Port of Long Beach: David Tran, Cesar Larios, Lori Izakelian, Austin Cho, Maritza Bravo, David Sunada, John Litzinger, Monique Lebrun, Christopher Barnes
Anser Advisory, LLC: Wilson Leong
Jacobs Engineering Group: Frank Davidson
Manson Construction Company: Colin Oldham Colin Bill
Potrero Canyon Park Grading
City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering
Outstanding Geotechnical Engineering Project
Potrero Canyon encompasses approximately 48 acres of steep slopes along the coastline of the Pacific Palisades. Throughout its history, the canyon has experienced numerous landslides due to the instability of its steep walls, resulting in damage to many homes and properties.
In the 1980s and 1990s, various grading and drainage projects were constructed to mitigate immediate safety hazards, however because of the size and scope of work required at the site, a comprehensive solution to stabilize the entire canyon could not be completed. In 2004, the Los Angeles City Council requested the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) and the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering's Geotechnical Engineering Division (GED) to evaluate the existing canyon conditions, prepare a scope of work to complete stabilization of the canyon, and install a park.
In December 2010, GED staff collaborated with MARRS Services, Inc. to design an innovative solution to reconstruct the canyon and restore the area to a safe, natural recreation space. Numerous coordination meetings were held with local residents, the California Coastal Commission, CalTrans and other regulatory agencies to ensure that the project would create an accessible, attractive and environmentally-friendly park while ensuring the stability of the slopes. After an initial establishment period, the park is designed to be self-sufficient and will have a series of unique riparian basins that act as check dams from the top of the canyon down to a pump station at the bottom, which recycles the water as needed or releases it into an existing storm drain. The passive park consists of only native vegetation, and features walking trails and educational signs to promote the natural beauty and character of the community.
In 2018, OHL USA, Inc. was contracted to begin construction for the grading of the park. Construction included approximately 1.4 million cubic yards of earthwork for excavation, fill and compaction of slopes. Ten basins with impermeable liners, granular soil and rip rap dams were constructed for the riparian zones .Terrace drains were constructed along the new slopes to direct runoff to a cobblestone stream that winds through the basins to direct flow to the mouth of the canyon. In August 2020, OHL completed the grading of the project. After nearly thirty years of effort and coordination to produce a lasting solution for the unstable bluffs, the Potrero Canyon Park team has successfully created and constructed a unique design and stabilized the canyon.
Project Team
City of Los Angeles: Gary Lee Moore, Jose Fuentes, Patrick Schmidt, P.E., Pedro Garcia, Kristen Ly, Easton Forcier, Justin Ramirez, Darryl Ford,
MARRS Services, Inc., RRM Design, VCS Environmental, Ninyo and Moore, OHL USA, Inc.
Council District 11
Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee
Robertson Recreation Center
City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks
Outstanding Parks and Recreation Project
The Robertson Recreation Center is a new gymnasium and community center that serves the South Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, replacing a beloved but deteriorated recreation facility. Built on the site of the original "Rob Rec" and funded by the City of Los Angeles, the project transforms the undersized recreation center into a new state-of-the-art gymnasium and community center.
The neighborhood surrounding the recreation center is a microcosm of Los Angeles. The Robertson Recreation Center is centered between different commercial and residential zones, as well as different social groups and housing types. The design team engaged with an active and involved community with many interested parties, leading to two years of design work with significant public input and, ultimately, to consensus for the project's final direction.
The site, an attenuated triangle bounded by busy traffic on Robertson Boulevard, presented limited opportunities for the large rectangular volume of a basketball court, and the surrounding perimeter of mature Melaleuca trees further limited planning options. In response to the rhythm of the existing landscape, the building's exterior walls weave around the dripline of the trees to form a ribbon. In return, the trees provide shading for the building, minimizing the use of air conditioning. Open trusses, large windows and clerestory windows provide continuous indirect sunlight, significantly reducing the need for artificial lighting throughout the day and further reducing the building's environmental impact.
The project is organized around a regulation basketball court with supplementary meeting and activity spaces. Outdoor basketball courts, outdoor play structures, and exercise equipment welcome the community into the facility and create opportunities for neighbors to interact and engage with one another.
The new Robertson Recreation Center breathes new life into the community and will be an anchor for the neighborhood for many years to come.
City of Los Angeles: Gary Lee Moore, Steven Fierce, Eric Chang
Kevin Daly Architects: Kevin Daly, Julian Funk
Ford CE Inc. (General Contractor): Arash Daghighian
San Fernando Valley Green Streets Project
City of Los Angeles, Sanitation and Environment
Outstanding Roadway and Highway Project
Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation (LASAN) for implementing green stormwater infrastructure via alternative project delivery in the San Fernando Valley Basin of Los Angeles, during global COVID-19 pandemic, to capture and infiltrate stormwater runoff and thereby increase groundwater replenishment, improve downstream receiving water quality of the Los Angeles River, and reduce localized flooding.
LASAN: Wing Tam, Kevin Ho, Andre Harris, Esther Woo, James Aldrich, Paola Garcia
LADWP: Johanna Chang
Geosyntec Constultants: Ken Susilo, Daniel Lee, Yvana Hrovat, Richard Gonzalez, Brian Rowley, Jose L Avina
Sun Valley Recycling Center Transfer Station and Material Recovery Facility
Waste Management Recycling and Disposal Services of California, Inc.
Outstanding Environmental Engineering Project
The Sun Valley Recycling Center Waste Transfer Station and Material Recovery Facility (TS/MRF) is a 104,000 SF facility with adjoining 3,600 SF, 2-Story Administration Building located at the closed Bradley Landfill site in the San Fernando Valley, and is the newest addition to project owner’s, (Waste Management) property.
Officially permitted as an enclosed large-volume municipal solid waste transfer station and material recovery facility, the facility’s purpose is landfill diversion. Waste Management constructed the pre-engineered metal building to house a 60,000 SF tipping floor and 44,000 SF recovery facility. The facility will receive, sort, consolidate, and prepare municipal solid waste (MSW), commercial and residential recyclable materials, and organic material largely consisting of commercial source separated food waste.
The project, in its entirety, is intended for sustainability. The facility can sort nearly 500 tons/day of inbound municipal solid waste. The MRF portion of the facility can recover recyclable materials from waste through a combination of manual and advanced mechanical sorting. Commodities such as plastics, cardboard, paper, glass, aluminum, and steel are sorted from the MSW.
The facility also has the capability to sort and process organics. The specially designed process recovers up to 50 tons/hour of organics from the MSW and single stream organics lines. In a three-month period the facility can see as much as 120,000 tons of inbound material as green waste, organics, recycling, and MSW. Just over 60,000 tons of material were diverted in this facility in this time frame.
Additionally, the location of the TS/MRF being near Waste Management’s hauling company makes it ideal for reducing the vehicle miles traveled for the refuse collection vehicles. After the trucks dump their contents at the transfer station, they can return to the fleet parking area onsite, constructed for this project, for compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling overnight while they are parked. This reduces the emissions from the vehicles, traffic on the public streets and wear on the vehicle.
Structurally the project is unique with its application of braced frames. The innovative and patented all-steel braces, referred to as Web Restrained Braces (WRB), were a significant contributor to the efficient use of the building materials while providing a state-of-the-art solution for a high seismic location.
From a mechanical standpoint, the air handling system is quite unique. Three large fans pull 200,000 cubic feet per minute of air from the building and through a baghouse structure so no detectable odors from the tipping floor or organics are found at the property line.
This innovative project now serves as Waste Management’s flagship site for sustainability and has set a high bar for every TS/MRF that follows.
Project Team
Waste Management: Doug Corcoran, Rick Von Pein, Scott Sumner
Anaergia: Hans Ouellet
ET Environmental: Ross McDonald, Rushton Wolff, Todd Reasy, Mack Lawson
XA Architecture: Eric Kleiner
GHD: Kyle Muffels
CP Manufacturing: Alan Goode
Span Construction: Mark Reynold
Butler Manufacturing: Laurie Shipp
Blue Ocean Civil Consulting: Jessica Cassman,
David Evans and Associates: Clark Stanphill, Steven Steinhoff, Stephen Fenerty
Geocon West: Neal Berliner, Harry Derkalousdian
Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System
Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communication System Authority
Outstanding Telecommunication Project
Previously, public safety agencies for 88 cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County used a patchwork of 40 aging radio networks and the same commercial broadband services used by millions of Los Angeles area residents. Thus, safety agencies were competing for space on bandwidths that often slowed and crashed, wasting time and imperiling lives.
The innovative solution was to transform this system, through the integration of two types of state-of-the-art networks dedicated for use by public safety agencies only, to better serve Los Angeles County and improve public safety. The first network is the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) network, which are the handheld walkie talkie type devices used by first responders. The second network is the broadband wireless network using Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology. This network provides communication services for the public safety agencies and a 4G data network for secure, high speed video and data access; for example, allowing an ER doctor to view and direct the efforts of first responders in real time. The build out of these two networks was managed by the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) authority. LA-RICS is a joint-power authority, comprised of many member agencies, responsible for the safety of 10 million Los Angeles County residents living on more than 4,000 square miles in one of the most diverse geographic regions in the nation.
This intricately coordinated undertaking included Public Safety Grade Wireless Telecommunications upgrades for 29 sites throughout Los Angeles County to meet the aggressive schedule set by the federal grant deadline. These 29 LTE cell tower sites consisted of three different types of projects including raw land, collocation, and rooftop sites.
The raw land sites were parcels of land where a new monopole type structure and ancillary equipment were constructed on vacant land. The monopoles ranged in height from 70 to100 feet and were used to attach the structural arms of antennas and telecommunications equipment at high elevations. All selected raw land sites were located on public agency land. The collocation sites already had an existing communication lattice tower, monopine, or a monopole located on the site. These sites, located on either private or public agency land, involved designing new LTE equipment to be added to the existing towers, monopines, or monopoles. Alternatively, the rooftop sites already had LTE communication equipment installed on the roof of an existing building. These projects involved designing new LTE antennas and equipment to be added to existing building roof structures. The rooftop sites were located atop governmental agency buildings, educational buildings, city hall buildings, courthouses, and federal buildings.
Due to the extraordinary scale and pace of the projects, which was set by federal funding timescales, an incredible project team was assembled to overcome the various challenges including entitlement processes, plan approvals, commission hearings, strict agency requirements, approval/construction deadlines, maintaining public safety communications during construction, geotechnical findings, and design constraints.
The project team’s collaboration and partnership with over 20 public agencies, various contractors and a diverse range of sub-consultants, ensured successful progress through the required departments and processes, leading to successfully meeting grant deadlines to secure the projects permits.
Project Team
Jacobs (Owner’s Representative): Chris Odenthal, Tanya Roth, Rosalyn Knowlton, Mark Revis, Riad El Masri, Dan Walker, Eric Steinberger, Richard Gutierrez, Evan Qiuxingyu, Marissa Bosque, Nadine Luscombe, Robert Petri
David Evans and Associates, Inc. (Civil Engineer): Mark Miner, Deering Volkmann-Viola, Justin Brown, Garrett Freer, Mark Oskorus, Kristen Thomas, Lisa Bourbour
Salas O’Brien (Electrical Engineer): Andy Chan, Romeo Bonifacio
Brandow & Johnson (Structural Engineer): Jim Pearson, David German
Metrocell Construction (Contractor): Steven Culwell, James Culwell
Motive Energy Telecommunications (Contractor): Bernard Gartner, Trista Green
Diversified Communications Services, Inc. (Contractor): Cesar Ramirez, Victor Wright
AESCO (WBE/DBE/SBE) (Geotechnical): Debra Perez
Kana Subsurface Engineering (Utility Locators): Malo Tauaese Jr.
Paul J Ford (Structural Engineering): Brian Starrett
Power QC (GPR Analyst): Stephanie O’Raidy
Sabre Industries (Tower Solutions): Mike Kellen
Tangent Systems (Telecommunications): Kate Mahoney
Valmont (Tower Structures): David Schoenecker