New work keeps coming in new year
By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC
As we kick off a new year, I am happy to report that the new work just keeps rolling in.
Most of our members are already booked and busy on jobs, but we have new projects coming down the pipeline that promise to keep our members building for years to come.
I am especially excited about two new Project Labor Agreements that are happening. One is for a new Power Control Center for SMUD. The other is a massive UC Davis project that began a few years ago with demolition at its Sacramento Campus in preparation for the new tower I am talking about.
This new tower is going to redefine the UC Davis Sacramento medical campus and upgrade aging facilities to ensure they meet new seismic standard laws.
It’s a $3.8 billion project that will span 14 stories and include a five-story pavilion.
The entire complex is slated to open in 2030—meaning years of work for our members. Hundreds if not thousands of Building Trades members will work on this project during its construction.
That work will include constructing one million square feet of cutting-edge medical space, including operating rooms, an imaging center, an expansion of the burn care unit and about 400 patient rooms.
Some of the high-tech features will include special rooms that can be sealed off to better prepare for another pandemic, or for wildfire smoke reaching vulnerable patients.
UC Davis Health CEO David Lubarsky called the project “a cornerstone in the critical care we provide our patients and the region moving forward,” and I couldn’t agree more. This facility is going to not only transform health care in Sacramento, but continue to transform the neighborhoods around UC Davis, and even help our downtown core. It will bring thousands of jobs, and thousands of visitors and patients to our region, adding to our economy and our growth.
I am proud that members of the Building Trades are going to make this happen. Sacramento is changing and expanding, and it is due to the hard work and commitment of our members, and of our unions to ensure that work is done under Project Labor Agreements.
The other project I am excited to talk about is a new Power Control Center for SMUD. This new construction is slated to break ground in 2024 and is still in its planning phase. But it will be done under a Project Labor Agreement.
Though we don’t know all of the details yet, this too will be a high-tech facility of a different variety. We can get a glimpse of what this project might look like from another SMUD project we just finished, a downtown substation that opened only a few months ago.
Located at the intersection of Seventh and G Streets in downtown Sacramento, Station G stands as a “testament to innovative design and artistic vision,” according to SMUD.
Construction on Station G began in August of 2020 and was completed ahead of its projected summer of 2023 completion date—because Building Trades members do the job, and do it right.