Location: Sacramento, CA
CYS was the structural engineer-of-record for this $180 million Design/Build project with Skanska Construction Company, involving a new central plant and thermal energy storage (TES) tank servicing all of the heating and cooling needs for 23 state office buildings, including the State Capitol.
The project was on an extremely accelerated, fast-paced schedule that required constructing the new central plant around the existing plant, getting it into operation and accepted by the State, then demolishing the existing plant and constructing a new 6-million gallon TES tank at the site of the existing building.
The new building is a two-story, steel-framed structure with a BRBF seismic bracing system. Heavy boilers and chillers that weigh up to 100,000 LBS each are located on the ground floor. On the second floor are office and admin areas, as well as a steam turbine generator and all of the pumping equipment for the fluid transfers. Throughout the building, large bore piping with diameters up to 36″ are suspended from structural framing. CYS participated in a piping analysis and oversaw the seismic bracing of all piping and anchorage of all equipment. The new plant will eliminate water discharge into the Sacramento River by utilizing cooling towers. These towers, which weigh a total of 1.5 million LBS, are located on top of the roof level, and presented interesting structural challenges and solutions for the vertical and lateral support of these units at that roof level.
The new building, as well as the TES tank, are entirely supported by deep drilled concrete piles to minimize settlement issues and alleviate a liquifaction problem underlying the site. Consequently, the first floor concrete slab carrying the heavy boilers, chillers, a 15,000 LB forklift, and also a minimum 100 LBS/SF live load is an 18″ thick heavily reinforced structural slab supported by grade beams that span between pile caps.
The project received LEED Platinum certification
Winner of Sacramento Business Journal 2010-2011 Real Estate “Utility” Project
Winner of Building Design+Construction 2011 Building Team Bronze Award