McCarthy Selected as Design-Build Contractor for New $34M San Diego County Center

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Local San Diego residents and visitors can look forward to maximizing their recreational enjoyment of the city’s Pacific Coast waterfront location with the future construction of the San Diego County Administration Center Waterfront Park Development project, located along Pacific Coast Highway between Ash and Grape streets in downtown San Diego.

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., recently was awarded the $34-million design-build project, which also includes an underground parking garage. McCarthy’s design-build team includes SGPA, architect-of-record; Schmidt Design, landscape architect; and International Parking Design for the parking portion of the project. The official groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for September 25th, with project completion slated for summer 2014.

The CAC Waterfront Park Development project will convert the large eight-acre, on-grade parking lots north and south of the historic Administration Center and the immediate outdoor areas west and east of the building to a large, 12-acre community and regional open space amenity. The park will encompass expansive civic greens, a children’s play area, specialty garden areas, elaborate water features and a public restroom.

The single-level, subterranean parking garage will accommodate 254 cars. Site work includes all related underground building systems.

“With this project being so close to the waterfront, the underground parking structure poses the most significant challenge since it will require dewatering and substantial shoring,” said Bob Betz, senior vice president of McCarthy.

“Managing construction of a large park while the County Administration Center remains operational will also require careful coordination to minimize noise and disruption to employees working in the building.”

Other consultants involved in the San Diego CAC Waterfront Park project include Sierra Pacific as the site work contractor, Jessen-Wright as the structural engineer, Nasland as the civil engineer, Sparling as the electrical engineer, MA Engineers as the mechanical engineer and G Force as the environmental engineer.