$438M LAX Central Utility Plant Project Tops Out

(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare REAL ESTATE 2012, March 22^nd in Los Angeles)

LOS ANGELES-The new Central Utility Plant at Los Angeles International Airport has reached a major construction milestone. Workers placed the final structural steel beam atop the building’s frame, putting the $438-million project on schedule for completion in summer 2014.

The project is being built by Clark/McCarthy, a joint venture between Clark Construction Group and McCarthy Building Cos. Additional project partners include: Gruen Associates; Arup; Capital Engineering Consultants; Greenform; and PID Engineering.

In just four weeks, construction workers from Schuff Steel used a Manitowoc 999 Lattice-boom crawler crane with a reach of 140 feet to erect 1,400 tons of structural steel, creating the frame for the new CUP, according to a prepared statement. “An interesting aspect pertaining to the CUP structure is that it was designed as an essential facility with stringent seismic drift criteria to protect the facility during a major earthquake,” explains Kevin Carpenter, design manager for Clark/McCarthy. “Furthermore, some of the cogeneration equipment that will be installed on upper floors, including the two Combustion Turbine Generators that weigh in excess of 60 tons each, requires the steel frame to be extremely stout.”

The new CUP is being built to replace the existing 50-year old facility with a modern; state-of-the-art, computer managed utility plant providing enhanced passenger comfort and reliability of utility service and safety within the newly renovated modernized terminals at LAX, says the statement. The existing CUP will service the airport throughout construction. Upon project completion, the replacement will be brought on-line and the old CUP will be decommissioned and demolished.

Serving as general contractor for the project, Clark/McCarthy’s contract includes demolition of the existing 50-year-old CUP as well as construction of a new 64,000-square-foot, steel-framed replacement CUP with a 20,000-ton cooling capacity.