News Flash

 Atherton Town Center - Project Activity

Overall project work this week focused on storm drain installation, drilling and installing piles for the City Hall and Police Building, pile caps for the Library, and grouting and wrapping the embeds for the footings on the Library.

When you view the site, you'll see a series of "batter boards" up around the footprints of the new buildings. Batter boards are temporary frames that are set beyond the corners of a planned foundation at precise elevations. You can get a rough layout of the building by looking at the batter boards.
The batter boards are typically set outside the corner stakes of the building. There's an image below that shows the batter boards and the Mason's lines for the Library Building. The batter boards for these buildings are set approximately 4-5 feet beyond the edges of the actual building. Finished floor elevations are above the batter boards by another 8-12 inches.

 The total Town Center site is set on approximately 5 acres (219,425 square feet). The footprint of the existing buildings occupied approximately 26,000 square feet distributed across the entire site. There was another approximate 25,000 square feet of restricted and enclosed space for secure police parking, police facilities, and the corporation yard. The remainder of the site consisted of roadways, parking, and open space. There were a total of 122 parking spaces throughout the site (not including the Caltrain parking spaces along the rail corridor). Town facilities (buildings and enclosed spaces) occupied approximately 23% of the entire site area.

 With the redesigned site, the footprint of Town facilities (buildings and enclosed spaces) occupy approximately 17.5% of the entire site area returning nearly 13,000 square feet to general public use. Further, the prior site had a significant amount of parking behind City Hall that was used intermittently for construction parking overflow and overnight parking - but overall, rarely used. Based on a site use analysis that evaluated time of use and need based on the types of activities at the site, the parking was reduced to 58 total public spaces (plus the parking spaces in the Caltrain corridor). This resulted in a return of another approximate 10,000 square feet to general open space. Overall, the redesigned site will return approximately 23,000 square feet of hardscape to landscaped open space.  

 Live webcams for Library and City Hall/PD Building are active on the Town's website. There is also a project progress photo gallery.

City Hall and Police Building

For the new City Hall and Police Building this week, Amoroso continued work on drilling and installing the piers for the building. There are 105 total piers for the new building at varying depths.

The entry into the building from the Fair Oaks side will include a ramp and a small set of stairs. As you cross the site, the difference in elevation of the pad to natural grade decreases as the natural grade elevation increases. This difference in grade is not something you may have noticed on the original site, but in order for the new Civic Court to daylight out to natural grade near the historic Council Chambers the pad ends up higher on the Fair Oaks side of the project.

As you look at the pad from Fair Oaks, to the left you'll see part of the existing roadway that's maintained at the present time. Under this section is the large 36-inch CPUC Water Line. Design and work on this project had to protect that line in place as the CPUC refused to relocate the line as part of the Town's project. This not only put constraints on the design but also causes construction challenges. To the left of the CPUC water line is the pad layout for the Police Department Ancillary Building. The water line traverses the Police Department's new secure parking lot which is west of City Hall. 

 Historic Town Hall

Demolition of the interior of the historic Town Hall building is complete. This building will ultimately become a part of the new Library connected via a deck and patio doors that spill out from the side of the building onto the new deck. You can see the layout of the new patio and dec in front of the grade beams currently excavated for the Library. 

Work on this building will be sealed up for the winter season as work continues elsewhere on the project site. Once the interior work begins, work will resume on the historic Town Hall building. 

Library Building

Work this week focused on the pile caps and grouting and wrapping the embeds on the piers. You can see the Mason's lines attached to the batter boards that frame up the exterior wall locations for the new building

As the line moves back toward the Historic Town Hall, it meets at two existing windows. These windows will be removed and replaced with a pair of french doors that will lead out from the community room (old Council Chambers) onto a deck that extends to the right of the Mason's lines visible in the photo. 

Take a look at the Project Webcams and you'll get a good feel for what the shape of the final building will be and how it relates to the project site. 

 Site Work

Overall site work this week still focused on utilities. While the main sewer line is complete, laterals needed to be added. Storm drain work is also continuing. CalWater is onsite to complete the new water line for the project. Once all this underground work completes, Amoroso can seal up the holes and the buildings will begin to go vertical.

We expect the foundations to be complete and concrete slabs to be poured by the end of this year. After that, steel will begin its installation as the buildings go vertical.

The Look Ahead

Work Areas for the Week of October 7

• Finish Work on Storm Drain System(s)
• Drill & Install Piles for City Hall/Police Building
• Layout and Excavate Grade Beams for City Hall/Police Building
• FRP Bottom Notches Pile Caps for City Hall/Police Building
• Grout and Wrap Embeds for City Hall/Police Building
• Finish Grout and Wrap Embeds for Library Building
• Install Rebar & PT Cables at Grade Beams for Library Building
• Set AB Templates and Bolts for Library Building
• Layout Ancillary Building for Police
• Layout Grade Beams and Set Batter Boards for Ancillary Building

Project Financials

George Rodericks
City Manager
grodericks@ci.atherton.ca.us