ConRAC Tour

Last Saturday was Jordan's turn to be on the job site while the subcontractors were working so we decided it was time for me to have a tour of the job. We had planned to have Jordan give both our parents tours while they were here but we ran out of time and it was raining most of the time they were here. I took lots of pictures so you should get a pretty good idea of the size of the project and why it is nicknamed the monster garage. Click here to see the ConRAC last August and to read stats about the job.

It was fun to actually see some of the things I have heard about. Bytheway, ConRAC stands for 'Consolidated Rent-a-Car'.

I took the top left picture so you could see how big it is in relation to Jordan. He is the orange dot. :) I took the top right picture standing in the middle of the helix. When we moved here, the crane wasn't even on the job site yet - they were still driving piles. (I sound like I know what I am talking about, don't I? :) Then we could spot the ConRAC from a distance because of the 'X' the crane made. Now, the crane is almost hidden by the building! Things happen fast! No wonder Jordan is always crazy busy. The job was originally scheduled to be completed next June, which was early for their September deadline. Now they are on schedule to be finished next April.

One thing an office engineer does, particularly on a design-build project, is fix problems. Notice anything wrong with the top two pictures? In the top left picture, the unit hanging from the ceiling is right where wall is going to be when the wall is continued up from the 5 ft cement wall which houses the gas for the QTA (Quick-Turn-Around). The unit had to be hung there for ventilation & support reasons. The picture on the top right: the duct was in the plumbers way so he CUT A HOLE IN THE DUCT to run his pipe. He was going to patch it up so they wouldn't know but he got caught by a Hensel Phelps guy. Brother.

The view from the roof. Terminal B, also a Hensel Phelps job, is going to be finished soon. Looks pretty small next to the ConRAC!

The little red hardhat McKay and I are wearing is what they gave Jordan when he first started last June. Jordan has a big head so they got him a larger hat until he hit his 6 month mark and graduated to a white hat. If you forget his name, just look at his hat. ;) McKay was pretty excited about his read hat, especially when he saw Daddy had a hardhat too. McKay had a good time playing with some friends from our ward while we were gone.

Hopefully I'll be able to do another update when the project is finished or at least almost finished. On the end (if you look at the top picture, the end on the left) there is going to be a picture of a hand symbolizing the hand of the people, made from hocky puck like things in a chain-linked fence. Hmmm... interesting!
Pretty cool job for your first commercial job ever!

Hensel Phelps Holiday Party

Saturday the 10th was Jordan's work holiday party. It was kinda nice to have it after the new year, though the red and green name tags seemed a little out of place. The party was held at the Claremont Resorts & Spa in Berkeley, California. We drove up Saturday afternoon to take McKay swimming and check the place out. Of course, he wasn't done swimming when it was time to go get ready for the formal party but the promise of a bath helped.

We took McKay to the babysitting room (the company provided babysitters) and headed to the reception. We enjoyed visiting with Jeff & his wife Sarah (Jordans Project Manager) as well as another couple Jordan works with. We sat with the Malloys and another couple from BYU, the McPhees) at dinner. The servers couldn't believe it: none of us wanted wine or coffee when it is all free! Dinner was Grilled Fillet Mignon and Jumbo Shrimp. We enjoyed our meal and getting to know the other couples better.

After dinner was the 'Casino Night'. We each got $500 we could turn in for tokens to gamble with. Jordan and I went to get McKay and put him to bed. The McPhees were also taking care of their little 2 year old and 4 month old boys. As we were leaving, they told us they had decided to just go home and gave us their tokens. SWEET! We put McKay to bed, using our cell phone monitoring system (leave one phone in the room and call the other one to listen to him) and got our tokens. We played a couple of games and then it was time to turn in our tokens for raffle tickets. There were about 15 prizes ranging from a huge LCD TV (that everyone wanted) to a kids scooter to an Ipod, video camera, camera, portable dvd player etc - all really nice gifts. Plus, each couple got to put their name in a 'mystery bag' for a chance to win one of the 15 cash gifts on the tree. There were about 300 people there. Long story short, Jordan won $50 and I won a Blu-ray/DVD player. We did get a few comments like 'wow, you guys really cleaned up tonight' and 'you know now you can't win anything next year.' We were pretty excited. It is fun to win!

ConRAC

Here is everyone, field & office, who is working on the ConRAC at the San Jose Airport, the BIG parking garage/quick turnaround rental car facility. You can see their progress behind them. It is a Design-Build project; they are about 13% complete with construction and still have some major design issues to work out. The current projected cost is about $230 million dollars, the biggest project the Northern California Hensel Phelps office has ever done. They also have the smallest team of any of the other airport projects. Jordan has ample opportunities to learn and gain experience, as well as building his resume. If you can't tell which one Jordan is, just look for the guy who isn't smiling. :)