Our DT rebirth continues…

As reported in a previous Blog, demolition of the old Downtown Plaza has gone well and now the effort is concentrating on fashioning a “bowl” where the area seating will be built using pre-cast concrete from West Sacramento. 

Getting the bowl dug out is the priority now so that the superstructure can be built that supports the roof.  The main outer roof is planned to be on by early Fall 2015 with “dry in” (work on the interior of the new area beginning around mid-December, 2015.  Concrete for the construction beginning soon will come in primarily after hours according to Turner Construction.

Workers at work.  On any given day right now, there are up to about 125 workers on the site; previously demolition type trades and now excavation and infrastructure trades. But as construction of the new building kicks into high gear in the Spring well see that number increase dramatically, and by the time the roof is finished and work on the interior can begins there will be a congestion of trades including electricians, plumbers, technology installers and so on, perhaps numbering 500 or more.

All of this work, of course has to be coordinated with many different specialists and many city and county agencies.  The General Contractor has said that there has been terrific cooperation among the city, county, water agencies and others to keep this huge project moving along as scheduled.

They said the area would bring more development – and that is starting to happen!  Our Downtown rebirth continues...  with a recent proposal for a 16 story high rise to be built next to the new ESC (Entertainment and Sports Complex – aka the Kings new area).

Recent plans for development around the new arena envision public space between the arena and the high rise to potentially be built on the southwest corner of J and 6^th street.  The public space will connect the area and retail businesses.

Retail business, including restaurants and bars (food and beverage) would be on the first two levels, then a boutique hotel, with the 5 residential levels on top.  It is not yet settled whether there will be owner occupied units, but currently the thinking is there will be luxury rental units that may be purchased later as condominiums.

...And, Macy’s will reopen its 5^th street entrance with a possible makeover of the store’s interior.  Stay tuned…

From a Hole, comes a Bowl...

Just a few months ago demolition began of 2/3rds of the Downtown Plaza on K Street to begin to make way for the new, state of the art Entertainment and Sports Center (the ESC).  Demolition went well and excavation is proceeding on schedule with contractors working every day of  the week except Sunday and ending their day as promised at 11 PM (except for one incident that went later due to a sub-contractor not adhering to the schedule – but that was quickly corrected).

With the removal of the demolished buildings finished, the workers are now digging out a huge hole in the ground that is to become the stadium seating bowl for many future entertainment and sports events; and the work is going fast – hauling out a truck load of dirt and material every 3 1/5 minutes!

Going down to come back up.  They’ll get down to about 4 feet above the water table; that’s what they need to support the micro piling equipment that will drill down to bedrock below to secure the new building.  The micro piling equipment consists of 8 foot sections of drills screwed together as they are bored into the ground.

The majority of the seating for the new stadium will be below ground level and the seating structure will be built with pre-cast concrete from the West Sacramento firm of Clark Pacific.

For now we see a huge hole in the ground but the owner’s goal is to have some event going on there 360 days a year!  Stay tuned for more…