Bay Meadows Station 5 Achieves Temporary Certificate of Occupancy Ahead of Schedule

After nearly three years of tackling unexpected project challenges including substantial design-related change orders, long lead times for permanent power and COVID-19, the Bay Meadows Station 5 team celebrated achieving temporary certificate of occupancy 45 days ahead of schedule.

Bay Meadows Stations 1 and 5 were One Webcor projects delivered by Webcor Builders, Concrete, Drywall and Carpentry in partnership with architecture firm HOK. Station 5 is a ground up, multi-story office building. It is one of the five Station Block buildings, all of which were delivered by Webcor and are a part of the commercial component of the Bay Meadows urban village in San Mateo, California.

The 504,000-gross-square-foot project and 195,600-rentable-square-foot structure is composed of a concrete core and shear wall construction, built on a mat foundation, with a mix of mild steel and post-tension slabs. The Station 5 team fulfilled all required points for LEED Gold certification and expects to receive the official paperwork in the coming months.

Thanks in large part to Station 5’s collaborative team, the project was a success that survived significant scheduling challenges, beginning with a delayed construction start date from March 2020 to October 2020 due to COVID-19. Before the project began, the project required a significant change order that involved redesigning the shoring system due to a neighboring city project. The team had to install internal bracing (temporary steel to shore up and brace the systems) shortly before the project began — a major design change process that significantly impacted the project cost and schedule.

Unfortunately, the change order for internal bracing installation wouldn’t be the last of the schedule-related hurdles facing the Station 5 team. Around the time PG&E was scheduled to install permanent power for the construction crews, unexpected storms hit the Bay Area. Since construction projects’ needs took a backseat to those of public safety, PG&E had to cancel and reschedule Webcor’s permanent power installation several times, resulting in long lead times for construction crews’ access to permanent power. Fortunately, the Station 5 team was able to build a strong relationship with their PG&E representative, who streamlined the process as best they could for the team.

Webcor is contracted to deliver Bay Meadows 6 and 7, but the exact start dates will depend on the market/rates.