Tight Fit Makes $650M OHSU Expansion Challenging
By Lori Tobias CEG CORRESPONDENT
The challenges of the $650 million Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) expansion would have given the best of project teams pause.
The site in the heart of the Portland campus is almost impossibly tight, requiring the new Vista Pavilion to be “shoehorned” in place; the busy city setting called for the utmost precision and to-the-minute planning.
“The building is 14 inches away from an existing parking structure,” said Jim Aarhus, senior superintendent of Skanska. “It’s right up against an existing roadway on the upper campus and right up against a roadway on the lower campus. We have no space whatsoever.”
One of the early decisions in coping with the considerable challenges was to cut into an adjacent hillside to shift the road over and create enough space to get trucks in and materials unloaded, then the trucks turned around and back down the hill. It also allowed Skanska crews to move the regular traffic and pedestrians away from the work site.
“Another challenge is the crew,” Aarhus said. “We had at
one time over 450 craft workers on site. They all parked down on a gravel lot on the waterfront, and we shuttled them up in the morning and back down in the afternoon. On a different lot down on the south waterfront, we’d bring a lot of materials there and stage them on trailers and bring them up as needed.
see OHSU page 10
Skanska is dealing with tight conditions on the $650 million Oregon Health & Science University expansion project.
John Deere and Hitachi excavators move dirt in the foundation area.
Kent, WA (800) 669-2425
Rochester, WA (800) 304-4421
Spokane, WA (800) 541-0754
Boise, ID (800) 221-5211
Pocatello, ID (800) 829-4450
Billings, MT (800) 735-2589
Columbia Falls, MT (800) 434-4190
Missoula, MT (800) 332-1617
Eugene, OR (800) 826-9811
Portland, OR (800) 950-7779
