Projects Archives - Page 9 of 12

Multi-use Walkway Brings Community Connectivity to Milwaukie

The City of Milwaukie, Oregon has submitted an application for APWA’s Oregon Chapter Project of the Year for the Kronberg Park Multiuse Walkway that was designed by a team from Otak’s Vancouver office. The walkway was completed in May of this year.

The project was a combination pathway and elevated structure designed as a connection for pedestrians and bicycles between downtown Milwaukie and McLoughlin Boulevard. The new path eliminates the need for people and cyclists to cross a busy highway. It also provides a viewpoint and rest stop midway along the corridor. Overall it encompasses a 340-foot long bridge, a 60-foot shorter bridge, and an at-grade pathway.

Scott Nettleton was the bridge design lead for Otak, working alongside project manager Chuck Green, Sam Lozano, who did civil design, and Josh Pope who worked on the shorter bridge.

The steel girder bridges with concrete decks and steel handrails were designed to curve around the trees, minimizing the need for tree removal. “It’s made to feel that you’re up in the canopy of the trees,” Nettleton said. Bridges were needed because the path runs next to Kellogg Creek Lake which can flow up over its banks.

The project was not without challenges. The site itself sits over an old construction landfill and deep underground there is a 40-year old masonry sewer line. Both of these factors complicated pile arrangements and driving for the bridge as the obstacles had to be avoided. Predrilling had to occur for some of the piles.

Another challenge was to comply with the migratory bird season work stoppages while still remaining on time and budget. With the City and Otak’s experience from previous projects, they identified a solution to set up construction fencing to prevent migratory bird nesting in the disturbance area.

In other environmental protection measures, the path width was held to 10 feet, permeable materials were used, a balance between cut and fill was maintained, and there was maximum tree preservation.

Through Otak’s experience and skill with bridge design and engineering, the City of Milwaukie was able to complete this community connection that was first identified as a community need in the Kronberg Park Master Plan of 2014.

Otak Provides Hydraulic Modeling and Design for Spurgeon Creek Fish Passage

Otak’s Vancouver office is working with Thurston County, Washington to finalize the construction plans for two new bridges on Spurgeon Creek to restore fish passage. The project is part of a $1,700,000 grant awarded to Thurston County to replace four culverts with an 80-foot pedestrian bridge on the Chehalis Western Trail and a 46-foot vehicular bridge on Latigo Street Southeast. The state of Washington is working on many projects to remove fish passage barriers on state, local, tribal, and private land that block salmon and steelhead access to prime spawning and rearing habitat.

In the project location, Spurgeon Creek flows under two parallel crossings, one roadway and one old railroad grade that was previously turned into a trail. The crossings bisect a large wetland complex, creating a challenge to maintain the backwatered wetlands while opening up the creek for fish passage. The project is looking to incorporate large wooden structures to create hydraulic diversity and enhance habitat within the project reach.

Otak performed an alternatives analysis for the crossings in 2018 to apply for grant funds through the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. Upon receiving funding, design has been progressing since November 2019.

Thurston County is performing structural and roadway design in-house but hired Otak to provide wetland delineation, as well as hydraulic engineering and stream design services during the design phase. Nathan Dasler, Senior Water Resource Engineer took on the role of project manager and lead engineer for the hydraulics work. “Balancing the wetland impacts with opening up the creek for fish passage has required lots of coordination with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, the County, tribes and the funding agency to make sure all agency and stakeholder needs were incorporated,” Nathan said.

To gauge the impacts of any new design, Nathan worked with Gary Wolf, senior hydraulic modeler in Otak’s Portland office, to create a two-dimensional hydraulic model utilizing SRH-2D. The model calculates how the creek will flow through the wide floodplains and new bridges and habitat features. Stream velocities and water surface elevations were utilized to design bridge scour mitigation, determine streambed sediment size and evaluate potential flooding impacts. Thurston County and Otak devised and implemented a water level monitoring plan to determine the backwater effects of the existing crossings. The gages will be left in place to provide future information on the effects of the project on water elevations upstream and downstream of the crossings.

Construction is slated to take place during the summer of 2021.

CO 42 Pedestrian Underpass Connects Extensive Trail System for the City of Louisville, Colorado

Otak recently completed a pedestrian underpass project for the City of Louisville, Colorado, connecting the city’s extensive trail system to neighborhoods and housing developments. The new underpass, which broke ground in September 2019, will encourage more walking, running, and cycling by strengthening the city’s approximately 32-mile trail network with better connectivity.

Otak was heavily involved in the process that designated the Lake to Lake Trail as part of the city’s 2014 Open Space and Trails Wayfinding project. The Lake to Lake Trail connects Harper Lake, Lake Park, Hecla Lake, and Waneka Lake in Lafayette and may one day extend to Marshall Lake. Additionally, the Lake to Lake Trail contains another underpass previously designed by Otak at McCaslin Boulevard, and may eventually include additional underpasses at the BNSF Railroad and South Boulder Road, as included in the City of Louisville’s Transportation Master Plan.

Led by Colorado’s Active Transportation Manager, Scott Belonger, PE, Otak provided the design for the CO 42 Pedestrian Underpass project, as well as project management services during construction, in coordination with the City of Louisville. The new underpass involved the design and construction of a concrete box culvert (CBC) running underneath CO 42 and Courtesy Road, creating a pedestrian thoroughfare that carries the Lake to Lake Trail. The project also included sidewalks and trail connections at each side of CO 42, and the careful relocation of several utilities and the Goodhue Ditch. The new underpass closes a gap in this important regional trail and also provides improved connectivity to the adjacent neighborhoods.

The CO 42 Pedestrian Underpass project is just one of the recent investments by the City of Louisville in transportation, and supports the city’s goal of safe traveling conditions for pedestrians and motorists. A ribbon-cutting celebrating the opening of the new underpass was held on August 21, 2020.

Pacific Highway Emergency Culvert Replacement Project Wins APWA Project of the Year Award

We are excited to announce another Otak project—the Pacific Highway Emergency Culvert Replacement in Clark County—has been awarded Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association (APWA) Washington Chapter. The Clark County Public Works project was recognized for excellence in the Disaster or Emergency Construction/Repair Category for projects under $5 million.

Following a heavy snow and rain event in February 2019, the existing culvert under Pacific Highway (northwest of La Center, Washington) was obstructed by debris and impounded water on the upstream end. The roadway base was also severely undermined, resulting in a deep scour hole beneath the road, and failure of the reinforced concrete panels of the old highway. The Clark County Council passed a Declaration of Emergency to expedite environmental approvals and contracting for the roadway repairs, and to reopen the highway as soon as possible. As the engineering consultant on-call, Otak was hired to quickly design a new crossing for the unnamed tributary.

In addition to re-opening the roadway, the County had specific goals beyond the typical temporary emergency culvert replacement:

Design a permanent solution to avoid future disruptions, costs, and road closures.
Ensure safe fish passage to the area’s Chinook, chum, coho, and steelhead.
Provide a cost-effective solution.
Avoid utility shutdowns.

The project design team consisted of Otak as the prime consultant, Zucker Engineering for additional engineering capacity, and Hart Crowser for geotechnical evaluations. Together with contractor Thompson Bros. Excavating, the team worked to design and construct a 13-foot span culvert, embedded with a natural stream bottom to repair the road and provide new fish passage. The road was reopened on March 29, 2019, just 45 days after the failure.

Congratulations to Nathan Dasler, PE, CFM, CWRE, and the rest of the team for successfully guiding this critical emergency project and quickly delivering an effective long-term solution to ensure public safety and restore critical fish passage.

To read more about this project click here.

APWA Names Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex Project of the Year

The Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex (RORC), an ambitious 53-acre outdoor facility for sports, recreation, and education has received the APWA-Washington Chapter Project of the Year Award. Hired as the Construction Manager and Owner’s Rep for the City of Ridgefield and the Ridgefield School District, Otak guided the $22M project to successful completion in the Spring of 2019.

Jointly owned by the City and the School District, the RORC was built in conjunction with a new Intermediate and Middle School campus. The partnership between the city and the school district offered a tremendous opportunity for the community to develop a new recreation complex while also saving millions of dollars on land acquisition, road improvements, and recreational and community space infrastructure.

The RORC features an innovative two-floor Community Building with concessions, kitchen, and meeting facilities; six multipurpose sports fields; a playground and trails; and a large plaza with connections for food and concessions carts and trucks. The RORC project is the first installation of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) in Clark County. From supporting beams to the roof structure itself, the Community Building is an architect’s and structural engineer’s dream, showcasing the strength, durability, and architectural look and feel of CLT from both inside and outside of the Community Building.

Continuous and comprehensive communication and cooperation were key to completing the project. In addition to the complex design, concurrent construction, utility projects, frontage improvements, site work, and community-building efforts, all required continuous coordination between a multitude of contractors, community schedules, and events—over the past two years the site hosted the annual Ridgefield Oktoberfest and Experience Ridgefield, together, attracting as many as 10,000 visitors! The complex is also home to the Ridgefield Raptors, a West Coast League baseball team. During construction, project partners decided they wanted to add something else to set the RORC apart from others: a rollup door on the second floor overlooking Field 1, so Raptor fans would be able to “hear the crack of the bat” during baseball games.

Consideration was also given to protecting and preserving the surrounding natural wetlands. Measures were taken to protect the environment, as well as private property, property access, and utility service. As the construction manager and owner’s rep, Otak’s team was in continuous contact with utilities, contractors, and property owners when sensitive and potentially disruptive construction phases were underway, including utility cutovers, paving, and restoration.

Under the leadership of Tim Leavitt, PE, CESCL; and Chuck Green, PE, Otak guided the project through to completion on time and on budget providing construction engineering expertise, as well as construction management, inspections, and design review and support. Additional Otak team members included Mike Hale, Nick Redinger, Kyle Farnsworth, and Robert Dethlefs, PE.

Projects like the Ridgefield Complex are not only representative of Otak’s expertise in multi-disciplinary work, but also represent the community and environmental stewardship that have become Otak hallmarks. The RORC is a prime example of a project that promotes outdoor recreation, community cohesion through events, healthier lifestyles, and improved quality of life.

To read more about this project, click here.

Photos Courtesy: Jason Rayne, Rayne Studios

Building Renovation Will Help DAS Achieve “One State” Vision

In January 2019 the Oregeon Department of Administrative Services (DAS) became aware of a building for sale along the I-5 corridor in Wilsonville that has turned out to be an ideal location and size for the DAS to achieve their vision of bringing multiple state agencies under one roof. Working through existing State contracts, SERA was hired to perform a due diligence study and subsequently building opportunity studies for various tenants. After the purchase of the building, Otak/DAY CPM was brought in as the Owner’s Representative and SERA has been retained to continue design based on the earlier studies.

The 175,000 SF building housed a Microsoft manufacturing facility with an office/warehouse that sat on a 425,146 SF (9.76 acres) lot in a Planned Development Industrial Zone. After performing a due diligence study and building utilization exercise the state purchased the building in December of 2019 with the support of the Legislature and the Capital Projects Advisory Board.

Since the purchase, the state, working with Otak/DAY CPM and SERA has been focusing on establishing a holistic “One State” vision for the building that would be a collaboration between state agencies that perform regulation and inspection functions and reduce the amount spent on maintenance requirements in having offices housed in several buildings in and around Portland.

The project mission driving the design is to: “Enhance the DAS property portfolio with the adaptive reuse of space for the State’s tenants in a “One State” collaborative environment using sustainable construction and operations techniques including provisions to support critical services response”. The intent is to create synergies between tenant needs and shared resources such as laboratories, security systems, and electrical facilities.

Tenants and activities to be included are the:

Department of Agriculture for testing animal and plant health including entomology, metrology, and other regulatory services provided by the agency.
OSHA
Department of Administrative Services Operations and Maintenance
Flexible space for Emergency Response.
Oregon State Police for long term evidence storage

While early design plans were being formatted, the arrival of COVID gave the building a new temporary function which supported the business case for the building purchase. The facility was converted into a home for Emergency Response Teams and included office space for 400 temporary employees in a call center. Accommodating emergency response efforts and providing temporary workspace is a function that the building will be able to provide in the future as well. This use and the corresponding response is one example of the flexibility that this building/project will provide DAS.

Design And Planning Teams Bring Luxury Living To The Waterfront Vancouver

Vancouver, Washington has been undertaking a full-scale renovation of its downtown over the past several years. The goal is to restore the area to a desirable riverfront community for visitors, residents, and businesses. The cornerstone of the City of Vancouver’s efforts is to make Vancouver a destination on the west coast; the area known as The Waterfront Vancouver. This is where Otak’s Portland, OR office has been working over the past few years.

Otak was contracted by Kirkland Development to provide comprehensive planning and design services for the Hotel Indigo and Kirkland Tower mixed-use project. Construction includes 10,000 square feet of retail, 7,700 square feet of restaurant space including the signature steakhouse El Gaucho, the boutique-style Hotel Indigo, and a luxury condominium building called Kirkland Tower. The hotel and tower are the sixth and seventh buildings to rise in the overall master plan.

Brian Fleener is the principal in charge for Otak, working alongside senior designer Gary Larson, director of design Gary Reddick, and project architects Michael Payne and Wayne Yoshimura. After three years of design and planning, Kirkland Development broke ground on the property in June 2018 and the project should be completed this winter.

The “Kirkland Tower,” a twelve-story luxury condominium building, will feature sweeping views of the Columbia River from its one, two, or three-bedroom units that have access to the amenities of the Hotel Indigo. Amenities include maid and turn down service, valet parking, and room service. The Kirkland Tower will also feature a rooftop health club and a rooftop lounge with a chef’s kitchen for entertaining guests. There will be 40 units overall. On the eighth floor, there will be a modern bar and the ninth floor includes a roof terrace.

The eight-story, 138-room Hotel Indigo will adhere to the hotel chain’s signature brand that promises no two of its properties are alike as they reflect the neighborhoods in which they sit. This property will take advantage of river views with a glass curtain wall and an expansive terrace. A large conference space will spill out into an 8-story atrium. Amenities will include concierge services, valet, food delivery, dry cleaning, and a dog-washing station.

“This is a terrific example of quality placemaking that is a focus of Otak and further illustrated by other projects we have on the drawing board,” Reddick said.

The project was not without challenges that mostly stemmed from its location, on the river, and on a flight path. “So many agencies get involved.” Reddick continued. “To get through that and realize something is actually coming out of the ground is amazing.”

Fleener explained that special permission was needed to keep the cranes up over the winter when planes were flying from a nearby airport. Building a 2-level, below-grade stacker parking deck next to the Columbia River mandated the use of an intricate sheet pile and concrete cofferdam-like structure to keep the water out. To add to that, the construction was shut down in Washington during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The team overcame the challenges and are excited to see the project completed and another step of the rebirth of Vancouver realized. The south-facing site featuring a restaurant with a wall of windows, and the outside decks on the buildings, will be the perfect place to sit in the sun and be out by the water,” Fleener said.

Otak On-Call Contractor with City of Portland Bureau of Transportation

The Survey Group at Otak, Inc. has been working as one of the consultants under the 2017 On-Call Survey Contract with the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). In this role, Otak provides land and hydrographic surveying, laser scanning, mapping, and construction staking services. As projects come up, they are assigned to the next consultant on the roll call; unless specific technology or skills are required, and a specific consultant is the only one with the capabilities.

Most recently, the Otak team has provided mapping along SW 4th Avenue from Lincoln to Burnside in downtown Portland, for a grind and inlay pavement project to rehab the pavement and for planned pedestrian improvements. The City will also be putting in a left-running protected bikeway, signalized pedestrian crossings, and upgraded ADA corner ramps. Otak provided mapping of the existing conditions, including roadway, utilities, building fronts, sidewalk, trees, etc. and resolved the rights of way.

This past spring, Otak also completed a topographic survey of a plot in St. Johns for an alternative shelter and performed a boundary survey to clearly identify property limits and any encroachments by neighboring properties. This is a piece of land where the city and Multnomah County’s Joint Office of Homeless Services is working with Do Good Multnomah to establish a transitional shelter for twenty small homes. Sue Tsoi, Otak Project Surveyor, finds this type of work to be rewarding, stating that “it may be a small project, but it is important community work and it feels good to be a part of it.”

Additionally, Otak subcontracts to partners like D&H Flagging for traffic control, and APS Locating Inc. for private utility location.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has an aspirational goal to use 20% minority, women, and emerging small businesses. Otak works toward this goal when opportunities arise on projects.

Ogden Middle School Renovation in Oregon City, Oregon

While the return of students to classrooms across the country this fall is in a state of flux due to the pandemic and COVID19, school districts across the region have been moving forward with construction and renovation projects supported by voter-approved bonds. One such project in Oregon City is the Ogden Middle School remodel and expansion which broke ground in March and is slated to be completed in time for the 2021/2022 school year.

Otak has been the owner’s representative for the Oregon City School District, providing bond oversight and guiding the 34 million dollar renovation of Ogden Middle School. Stephen Wasserberger, bond manager and senior project manager, and Tracy Goodman, PM CM, have been working with district leaders, including Superintendent Larry Didway, project architects and general contractors since early 2019 to ensure the newly envisioned middle schools will satisfy the vision set forth by the district and the community.

The passage of the bond at the end of 2018 “presented a generational opportunity for the district to invest in the future and to reimagine the way middle school students are taught,” Stephen stated, adding that “it has been exciting to be a part of such a significant project in our community.” The DAY CPM team is providing budget oversight, managing the scope of the project and the schedule, acting as a liaison between the design team and the owner, and orchestrating the complex logistics inherent with moving classrooms. They have been involved every step of the way, initially advising the district with pre-bond services to both meet the vision and allow for contingencies.

During the design phase, in January of 2019, Stephen and Tracy, along with the team of designers, Superintendent Didway, and other school officials and teachers visited six schools in San Diego. The targeted schools are on the cutting edge of public education and are setting the example for the rest of the country with their successful implementation of design-thinking method, which is student-centered, project-based learning. The new Ogden Middle School design will incorporate much of what these leading schools have set as the new standard and it will become an example for other schools in the region to follow.

Oregon City Middle School students also participated in the design phase and were able to share their own needs and goals, as well as their anxieties and concerns. “Involving the kids was a crucial decision and instrumental to the overall design,” Stephen said. For example, “we learned how important a connection to the outside and nature is to their positive school experience.” The newly renovated school will include ample natural light and connections to the outdoors.

The bond project includes two middle schools. In addition to the remodel of Ogden Middle School, the project is replacing Gardiner Middle School with a new state of the art 78 million dollar facility. Originally the two projects were going to be staggered, but to keep costs down, minimize disruption to the teachers and students, and better meets the goals of the District, the two projects have moved forward in tandem. This work is also focused on move-management – taking everything out of the classrooms to a staging area in the gym, then moving everything into modular units, and finally back to the new classrooms.

The owner’s representative team is also overseeing the procurement of all the furniture, fixtures and equipment for both schools, based on the architect’s specs and a “furniture fair” the team held to get feedback from teachers and students. As Stephen points out, “the district is really making an effort to support the teachers and help them be successful in the new schools.” To that end, a life-size, 3-D mock-up of a learning neighborhood was built in the old high school gym. The furniture fair was held in the model neighborhood, where teachers and students were able to try out the furniture and also become more accustomed to the new classroom setting.

Both schools are projected to be completed in time for the fall of 2021, and teachers will be able to move into their new classrooms in August 2021. They will have a full month to get set-up, acclimate to the new space, and learn how to function and teach in the new classrooms.

Renderings courtesy BRIC Architecture

Work Underway to Restore Fish Passages in WA

Otak, working as a sub-consultant to HNTB Corporation, is providing design and engineering services on an ambitious project for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to renovate or replace up to 450 culverts and restore safe fish passages throughout the state’s Northwest Region. The project is in response to a mandate by the federal government. The current goal is to complete 450 culverts in two phases, the first phase is to complete Preliminary Hydraulic Designs (PHDs) for all the culverts within the next three years, and to complete the final designs and construction within the next ten years.

In 2018, native tribes in Washington won a lawsuit against the state for allowing construction of more than 2000 culverts across State roads that, according to the lawsuit, diminished the number of spawning fish below the amount that was assured to be protected in the Treaty between the State and the Tribes. The culverts were constructed decades ago when the science on fish migration was preliminary so while the state, offices of WSDOT, Fish and Wildlife and Parks, complied with state and federal guidelines for the construction at the time, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the tribes that the culverts were now acting as barriers. The court concluded that 2,000 culverts must be listed as a high priority and corrected by 2030.

Otak was one of the firms chosen to work on the HNTB team because it is one of few engineering firms with the breadth of skills to be able to perform this work and has the capacity to get the job done quickly. The Otak team is being led by Russ Gaston, Principal and Project Manager. Otak’s Stream Design Engineers are playing a crucial role in the hydrologic design that must meet the project’s criteria and be in compliance with state and federal regulations. In addition, Otak is applying its experience with MicroStation, the CAD software WSDOT uses and is a unique skill among engineering firms.

Otak has initiated scoping on to complete PHDs for ten of the fish passage culverts, to have them completed within three months after WSDOT provides surveys of each location. The team will determine if a more efficiently designed culvert, a bridge, or natural streaming will be the best solution at each location. The culverts, generally placed under roadways, need to allow a flow of water that isn’t too fast or too shallow or results in a waterfall at either end.

“The job is not simply to replace culverts but to look at alternatives such as avoiding passage near a road, using bridges, or adding water passages that mimic natural streams,” Gaston states. Otak’s Stream Design Engineers are conducting a preliminary hydrologic design report to examine the movement of water and overall watershed sustainability to determine the best way forward for each culvert. Each Fish Barrier Culvert replacement is estimated to have a design cost of around $400,000.