Schools
Sausal to Win $1.7 Million Schools Retrofit Bid
Sausal Construction of San Leandro is expected to win a $1.7 million contract for earthquake retrofitting at three Castro Valley elementary schools. The school board will vote at a meeting 10 a.m. Wednesday.
A San Leandro company is expected to win a $1.784 million contract for earthquake safety improvements at three Castro Valley elementary schools.
The Castro Valley Unified School District will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday to vote on a resolution that says Sausal Construction's bid was "the lowest and most responsive" of five bids for work at Marshall, Proctor and Vannoy elementary schools.
Click here to see a photo gallery of Sausal Construction's recent projects.
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The other contractors who bid for the work are:
- BRCO Constructors Inc., $1.86 million
- Cal State Construction Inc., $2.542 milion
- CL W Builders Inc., $2.328 million
- John Plane Construction Inc., $2.498 million
Construction will begin as soon as school lets out for the summer and end before the children return in fall, completing a five-year program of seismic upgrades.
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said Bush, assistant superintendent of business services, who oversees such projects.
The district is working off a 2005 report by Dasse Design Inc., a structural engineering firm, which ranked earthquake hazards at the schools and gave them a number rating of 1 to 10, with ratings of 1, 2, and 3 indicating substantial risk.
In some cases, windows will be replaced by walls. Other upgrades are meant to prevent the collapse of covered walkways. All three campuses will get "structural roof strapping and associated roof patching." Seven buildings will get new roofs.
Other improvements involve minimizing risk of injury from broken glass.
Classroom walls that are mostly windows will be reinforced by "infill with structural shear wall." That means those rooms will each lose two windows, one on each end of the classroom, and gain extra bracing that serves to strengthen the side walls as well.
"A lot of this stuff is corrected in a very simple way," Bush said.
More specifics about the upgrades are listed in the March 24, 2011, school board agenda, available as a PDF on the school district's website.
To see the agenda for Wednesday's meeting, click here.
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