[ PUBLIC ] FACTS & FIGURES PROJECT Pima Public Service Center OWNER/DEVELOPERS Pima County GENERAL CONTRACTOR Sundt Construction ARCHITECT AECOM SIZE 257,000 SF LOCATION 240 N. Stone Ave., Tucson, Arizona, 85701 COMPLETION DATE April 2015 SUBCONTRACTORS GLHN Architects & Engineers
Pima Public Service Center Constructing the Pima Public Service Center wasn’t easy. Those involved continuously adapted to changes in plans from the building’s design and a tricky foundation to securing tenants and funding. In the end, everything worked out and the project made history as Tucson’s largest concrete placement ever. The center fills a four-acre parcel of land in Downtown Tucson providing a centralized justice/court facility, which includes courtrooms, judges’ chambers, a sally port, detention cells, meeting rooms and courtrelated administration offices. The City of Tucson originally intended to share the facility but later backed out and chose to renovate a nearby structure instead. So the county filled the space with the offices for city officials like the treasurer, assessor, recorder and constables. Aside from securing tenants and funds for construction, setting the foundation was also a challenge because of the site’s sandy features. A compensating mat slab placed 25 feet below grade was used to support the building’s weight. Spanning over more than an acre, the five86
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foot-thick slab required a total of nearly 8,000 cubic yards of concrete that necessitated two of the largest concrete placements in Tucson’s history. In fact, no single provider had enough concrete to complete the job so it was shipped in from two plants. It took two overnight operations using 70-concrete trucks, 24 laborers and foremen plus an equal number of testing agents and flagging personnel to do the job. The project earned LEED Silver Certification by including sustainable elements such as diversion for construction waste material, use of
recycled content and low-emitting materials. In total more than 73 percent of construction waste material was diverted from the landfill and more than 26 percent of the materials used on the project were recycled.