The Irvine office of OHL USA Inc. is part of the joint venture whose $1.2 billion bid for the I-405 Improvement Project was deemed “best value” last week by the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board of directors.
OHL joined with Italy-based Astaldi S. p. A. and several local contractors on a proposal to add one regular lane and one “express” toll lane in each direction of the San Diego (405) Freeway for a 16-mile stretch from Euclid Street to the San Gabriel Valley (605) Freeway.
The construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of next year, with anticipated completion by 2023.
OHL USA, which has North American headquarters in New York, has a 60% stake in the joint venture. Its parent company, Obrascón Huarte Lain S.A. in Madrid, had $3.34 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the year.
Astaldi’s U.S. subsidiary, Astaldi Construction Corp., is in Tampa, Fla.
The joint venture’s proposal to design and construct the project “featured several technical strengths such as detailed technical innovation and enhancements, strong understanding of necessary toll systems integrator coordination, and detailed identification of project risks and mitigation measures, including a thorough approach to utility coordination,” according to OCTA’s staff report.
The report also listed a roster of OC-based subcontractors to participate in the project, including engineering firm Advanced Civil Technologies and maker of sensors and other traffic gear Iteris Inc., both in Santa Ana; Hout Construction Services Inc. in Newport Beach; and Lynn Capouya Landscape Architects in Irvine.
“This project will have a tremendous positive impact to the community, including the creation of multiple job opportunities for people in Orange County and the state of California,” said Tony Bagheri, OHL executive vice president and regional director for the West Coast.
The project—the biggest to date for OHL’s Irvine office—is projected to generate about 800 trade jobs at the peak of construction, Bagheri said. The company employs about 300 salaried and hourly employees throughout its Southern California operations, which are centered at the Irvine office.
The total the project cost is $1.9 billion, which will be funded through a combination of state funds and a federal TIFIA loan, as well as Measure M—Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.
“The I-405 Improvement Project has been an unprecedented joint effort between OCTA, the California State Transportation Agency, Caltrans, the Federal Highway Administration, state legislators and local cities,” OCTA Chief Executive Darrell Johnson said in a statement. “After many years of hard work and dedication from multiple individuals and agencies, I am excited to see the start of the project’s design and construction.”
Traffic Relief
Traffic on the freeway is anticipated to grow by 30% in the next 25 years, according to OCTA—during rush hour it would take 2 hours and 13 minutes to travel the stretch of freeway roughly covered by the project in the regular lanes or 2 hours in the carpool lanes if no changes were made.
The widening project likely will improve the travel time over the same route to 29 minutes in the regular lanes and 13 minutes in toll lanes.
Other bidders for the job included Shimmick/Tutor-Perini/Michels team, comprised of Oakland-based Shimmick Construction Co., which has an office in Irvine; Tutor-Perini Corp. in Sylmar; and Michels Corp. in Brownsville, Wis. The third bidder was Skanska/Flatiron, a joint venture of Riverside-based Skanska USA Civil West California District Inc. and Flatiron West Inc. in Benicia.
