The Bay Meadows Station 5 team celebrated achieving TCO on Feb. 23 - a commendable 45 days ahead of schedule.
After nearly three years of tackling unexpected project challenges including substantial design-related change orders, long lead times for permanent power, and a slight inconvenience known as COVID-19, the Bay Meadows Station 5 team celebrated achieving TCO (temporary certificate of occupancy) on Feb. 23 - a commendable 45 days ahead of schedule.
"When it came to planning and coordination, this team constantly pushed the boundaries," says Construction Manager Anthony Sammut. "We always asked ourselves, "Do we have an opportunity to start activities sooner, i.e. build some float in the back end and create some breathing room in case anything goes wrong?' It was hard, but the team definitely took the challenge and ran with it.
Bay Meadows Stations 1 and 5 were One Webcor projects delivered by Webcor Builders, Concrete, Drywall, and Carpentry in partnership with architect firm HOK. Station 5 is a ground up, multi-story office building. It is one of the five Station Block buildings, all of which were delivered by Webcor and are a part of the commercial component of the Bay Meadows urban village in San Mateo. The 504,000-GSF project and 195,600-rentable-SF structure is composed of a concrete core and shear wall construction, built on a mat foundation, with a mix of mild steel and post-tension slabs. The Station 5 team fulfilled all required points for LEED Gold certification and expects to receive the official paperwork in the coming months.
Thanks in large part to Station 5's driven, highly collaborative team, the project was a huge success that survived significant scheduling challenges, beginning with a delayed construction start date from March 2020 to October 2020 due to COVID-19. Before the project began, the project required a significant change order that involved redesigning the shoring system due to a neighboring city project. The team had to install internal bracing (temporary steel to shore up and brace the systems) shortly before the project began-a major design change process that significantly impacted the project cost and schedule.
"Thankfully, everything went smoothly," Anthony says. "We partnered closely with Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring, FERMA Corporation, and Webcor Concrete on the strategic planning to ensure we were as efficient as possible to minimize schedule impacts."
Unfortunately, the change order for internal bracing installation wouldn't be the last of the schedule-related hurdles facing the Station 5 team. Around the time PG&E was scheduled to install permanent power for the construction crews, unexpected storms hit the Bay Area. Since construction projects' needs took a backseat to those of public safety, PG&E had to cancel and reschedule Webcor's permanent power installation several times, resulting in long lead times for construction crews' access to permanent power. Fortunately, the Station 5 team was able to build a strong relationship with their PG&E representative, who streamlined the process as best they could for the team.
"We also took advantage of temporary power as much as possible," Anthony says. "We moved commissioning and start-up as far along as we could so that when permanent power was eventually installed, we'd be ready to distribute power and turn on equipment right away. It was a successful effort in partnership with Brayer Electric."
Reaching TCO nearly two months early despite such substantial schedule-related obstacles was a true testament to the highly functional team guided by Anthony and Project Director Ted Williams, Anthony says. That culture wasn't limited to the Webcor side-all involved trade partners were rightfully valued as critical team members whose partnership was essential to project success. This approach was key to achieving TCO as early as they did, particularly due to the pull planning process.
"There was an extensive amount of pull planning with our trade partners," Anthony says. "We prioritized building solid relationships with our trade partners and ensuring they knew we were all in this together. We asked ourselves how we could be successful as an overall team-we never wanted anyone to feel that one person was positioned for success while everyone else suffered."
The Station 5 team was also highly collaborative from a One Webcor perspective; both the Builders and Craft groups enthusiastically embraced the One Webcor approach from the beginning. Anthony and Ted immediately involved Webcor Carpentry, Concrete, and Drywall with meetings at the job site office so everyone could openly share their ideas on what they would need to be successful.
"Ted and I built a great relationship with each other as team leaders," Anthony says. "It was the first time we were able to influence a team's structure, manage the groups within it, and run it the way we wanted to right from the start. We were incredibly lucky to work with a group of high-performing people who truly got along with one another. Of course, there were moments of struggle as there are on any project, but no one ever let issues fester-we always addressed them right away. Everyone trusted, listened to, and communicated with one another. It also really helped that everyone knew one another's roles and responsibilities. There was never any confusion as to who was responsible for what, which can sometimes create strife amongst team members.
Anthony also credits Station 5's success to the many valuable trade partners that helped deliver it, as well as the longstanding relationship Webcor shares with the Owner and Developer.
"Everyone understood how important it was to maintain these relationships," Anthony says. "We came out of the project with an even stronger partner in them and look forward to future work together."
Currently, Webcor's contracted to deliver Bay Meadows 6 and 7, but the exact start dates will depend on the state of the market/rates.
Catherine Joslin is one of Webcor Concrete's (WCG) fastest-growing field leaders and the first female superintendent in WCG's history.
Unlike most construction professionals, Webcor Concrete Superintendent Catherine Joslin's interest in the AEC industry wasn't sparked by a childhood passion for building Lego towers or a dad, uncle, or grandfather who was a career-long builder. Her decision to study civil engineering was inspired by something a bit less common but just as simple: a near-lifelong curiosity about bridges.
"When I was little, I remember looking out the car window and admiring the construction of the new Carquinez bridge in Martinez," she says. "I remember always wondering how they built something like that. Several years later, I sort of stumbled into civil engineering when I was looking into college major options in high school and decided to study it on a whim."
Little did Catherine know, that impulsive decision was the starting point of an exemplary career trajectory that's propelled her from office-based college intern to superintendent on-the-rise. Today, she is one of Webcor Concrete's (WCG) fastest-growing field leaders and the first female superintendent in WCG's history. She's become a go-to subject matter expert (SME) for Revit-a 3D software WCG uses to model projects and create 2D shop drawings for the field-and taught the majority of WCG's project engineers, senior project engineers, assistant superintendents, and project managers how to effectively use the complex program in their own roles so they can better serve their project teams. Catherine's also been instrumental in launching Webcor Timber, Webcor Craft's newest self-perform division, and is preplanning the mass timber portion of 828 Brannan, one of Webcor Timber's first projects. She's currently the superintendent leading the Building 610 concrete scope at the SFPUC Biosolids Digester Facilities Project (BDFP), where she's worked since mid- February.
"Catherine's estimating work for mass timber projects over a year ago and current role leading 828 Brannan have made her a key player in Webcor Timber's success," says Webcor Craft Superintendent Matt Miller, who referred Catherine to Webcor in late 2016. "Catherine's unique ability to discover innovative solutions and solve complex problems has been key to her rapid growth within WCG. She uses the resources around her, including her colleagues and WCG's field personnel, to help strategize the best solution to every challenge she faces."
An Unlikely Path to Webcor
Like most construction professionals who pursue the field route, it didn't take Catherine long to realize she wanted to spend her days right where all the action happened-in the field, getting her hands dirty. After finishing a college internship that confined her to the walls of a corporate office, she knew she'd never be happy working on the project management side of construction.
"I didn't have any family or connections in the industry, but there were a lot of construction opportunities at Cal Poly SLO," she says. "I tried out my first one and spent a whole summer working on a bridge deck replacement job in Richmond. I had a lot of fun, so the days always flew by. That experience sealed the deal for me-suddenly, I knew exactly the kind of job I was looking for."
Transitioning from the project management to field track proved to be more challenging than Catherine realized, however. Immediately following her graduation from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she was recruited by a general contractor and quickly placed on the project management track. Before she knew it, she was back to pushing paper in a company office instead of bringing projects to life out in the field.
"I was pigeonholed into an assistant project manager (APM) role under the assumption that I'd be a project manager (PM) one day," she says. "At the time, becoming a superintendent never even crossed my mind as a realistic career option; most of the superintendents in that industry were guys I couldn't relate to and had years of experience in the trades. But I missed being in the field and decided that at the very least, I wanted to be a field engineer for the first few years of my career so I could get that knowledge and experience under my belt. I knew I wasn't happy-and never would be happy-continuing the track I was on at the time."
After a year and a half with the company, Catherine received the call from Webcor that would dramatically transform the course of her career. Knowing she was eager to transition to the field side of construction, Matt Miller-who had been friends with Catherine since their Cal Poly SLO days and was a Webcor project engineer (PE) at the time-had referred Catherine to WCG, which quickly led to an interview.
"My immediate question at the interview was "Can you guys put me in the field?'" Catherine says. "Of course, they said yes. That was pretty much all I wanted to hear, so I came over to Webcor. I didn't really know what I was in for."
Getting Started in Webcor Concrete
Upon joining Webcor, Catherine was assigned to Harvey Milk Terminal 1 Boarding Area B (BAB) at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)-not exactly a simple, small, or low-profile first assignment. It was an exceptionally ambitious and demanding project that mercilessly thew Catherine challenge after challenge to tackle with her team, fully and rapidly immersing her in the world she'd longed to be a permanent part of for years.
She loved every second of it. "As soon as I started, things felt right," she says. "Even though I was new, Webcor put so much faith in me as the only PE. We crushed it out there. I loved how Webcor Concrete did things. The field guys' drive to get the job done was contagious. It was completely different from the world I'd left, where work was delivered at a slow pace and people dragged their feet while looking for opportunities for delays.
"I saw how hard the guys worked, which inspired me to work even harder for them. We had lots of exhausting days out there, but I still loved it. I remember our last slab-on grade pour-I was out there at 4 a.m., and we finished around 11 p.m. I laid down on the slab and just put my fists up in the air. The long days were tough, but I felt so fulfilled."
Despite her clear affinity and growing passion for field work, it wasn't until Matt directly asked her if she wanted to become a superintendent that she genuinely considered it as a career option within her reach. At that point, she'd been with WCG for nearly a year.
"I was so busy being a project engineer and loving it that I hadn't thought about becoming a superintendent one day," she says. "But him asking made me think about it. I asked him if he thought I could do it-I truly wasn't sure I could. But he laughed and essentially responded, "Yes, why not?" That moment ultimately solidified my decision.
"It's weird to think about how much that conversation follows me now. I might have eventually made the decision to seriously pursue the superintendent path at some point even if we hadn't had that talk, but it definitely made a huge impact on me and where I am today."
A WCG Leader in the Making
Construction has long been a man's world-the gender-based statistics of those working in construction, especially those on the front lines of a job site, are there to prove it. (Taking a single glance at almost any construction site will produce a similar effect.) When Catherine decided she was ready to commit to the superintendent route, she knew that as a young woman, the journey would come with its fair share of challenges. On top of that, without a relative or other connection to the hands-on labor side of the industry, her knowledge of tools and formwork was limited.
"I had very little point of reference for many of the highly technical items concrete superintendents deal with every day," Catherine says. "It was all new to me, and it's extremely intimidating to learn about those types of things when you don't know anything. I second-guessed myself often-would I ever learn enough to be the one in charge? How could I ever lead a bunch of carpenters when I don't have decades of carpentry experience?"
Despite sometimes feeling plagued with self-doubt, however, Catherine refused to let it deter her from climbing her way to the top. She spent her first few years as a WCG project engineer and senior project engineer completely immersed in the craft-observing, researching, constantly asking questions, and building valuable friendships with the guys she worked with as she absorbed every facet of the concrete world she could. When she confidently took on the role of assistant superintendent in 2021, she knew her relentless determination and tireless work ethic had paid off-and would continue to do so.
"Cat is extremely organized and passionate about construction," says Project Director Matt Faith. "I always appreciate her approaching issues head-on and playing a key role in strategizing solutions. Her attention to detail is also phenomenal-she understands the documents and really dives into the details to fully understand what we're building.
"To describe Cat as "bold' would be an understatement-she faces challenges head-on, especially now as she leads one of Webcor Timber's first projects, 828 Brannan. Cat loves being in the field with the crews and really gets along well with her fellow craftsmen."
It's been more than six years since the fateful phone call from WCG that landed Catherine in the middle of one of Webcor's most decorated projects-her first taste of the challenging but rewarding journey in store for her. Despite her exponential growth over the last few years, she's nowhere near satisfied with her level of expertise and knows that her insatiable thirst for knowledge will continue to be one of her greatest assets.
"Since my promotion to superintendent, my day-to-day has continued to be defined by massive learning experiences again and again," she says. "Every day, I feel more confident in my role at the company and look forward to what's next. I still doubt my capabilities here and there, but now that I have so many friends and peers in this division, I know I am not the only one-everyone feels that way sometimes."
Catherine's Shout-Outs to Her Webcor Supporters
NEWB has pulled Webcor PEs and APMs from the office and thrown them into a five-day crash course in all things Webcor Craft since its 2017 launch.
4 a.m. wake-up calls, 12-hour (or more) physically demanding work days, and no complaints. It's an exceptionally taxing lifestyle requiring a truly tireless work ethic that Webcor Craft field professionals know all too well and office employees usually cannot begin to fathom.
Enter New Engineers Will Build (better known as NEWB), an internal Webcor boot camp that's known to completely redefine each participant's idea of a hard day's work. NEWB has pulled Webcor project engineers (PEs) and assistant project managers (APMs) from the safe confines of the office and thrown them into a five-day crash course in all things Webcor Craft since its launch in 2017. Each year, NEWB continues to evolve as leaders incorporate lessons learned from previous NEWB camps and work to improve the next NEWB class's experience.
"Every NEWB leader has put their own spin on things while still holding true to the Webcor Craft experience and Webcor's core values," says Sr. Project Engineer Miranda Nowlen, who led this year's NEWB class, aka the NEWB Theta class. "It's always great to see the NEWBs develop a connection with the foremen in the field, as this is essential to working with trade partners, and to learn from their expertise. It's even better to see the teams develop and bond throughout the week. On day one, they're thrown into circumstances most have never been in before, like waking up for a 5:30 a.m. start time and performing challenging manual labor with people they just met. By the middle of the week, the teams usually begin to find their groove-they've learned how to communicate with one another and understand the next steps required to complete the day's main task. You can see each one of them smiling from ear to ear, taking photos, and rooting on their teammates. They "graduate' from NEWB with a sense of pride in what they've accomplished and a desire to build more.
"Although it's primarily targeted to office PEs and APMs, I highly encourage all Webcor employees to participate in NEWB on some level if given the chance-it's a learning and bonding experience like no other. I'm so grateful that Webcor continues to offer this program year after year."
In 2019, NEWB's host site transitioned from the Webcor Equipment yard to an active project site that changed each year. Past host projects include UC Merced 2020, Bay Meadows Stations 1 & 5, and SFPUC Biosolids Digester Facilities Project (BDFP). This year, NEWB was hosted at Genesis Marina in Brisbane, a few miles south of Webcor's King Street office in San Francisco. Each day was dedicated to a different side of Webcor Craft: concrete (layout, form, and pour), framing (layout, framing including rough opening, backing, and setting welded frames), drywall (hanging sheetrock), carpentry (grab bar, fire extinguisher cabinet, swing door, door hardware, wood paneling, baseboard), and drywall finishing (tape and mud).
"Familiarizing myself with working on an actual job site was extremely valuable," says Project Engineer Tiffany Vuong. "I have a newfound respect and appreciation for our self-perform groups and trade partners out in the field. Each day posed new challenges-understanding the drawings and specs, having a plan of attack at the beginning of each day, delegating tasks, finding ways to be more efficient, running into instances of rework, seeing how each deviation is affected at every step of the project, etc. I know this experience barely scratches the surface, but it gave me a better understanding and perspective of some of the frustrations and issues our subs deal with day in and day out."
Throughout the week, participants ran into near-constant surprises about life in the field, many of which were related to strategy, efficiency, and the weighty consequences of seemingly trivial mistakes on the job.
"The reality is that even when following a good plan, when you're trying to work quickly in such a small space with so many people, anyone can easily make a mistake," says Project Engineer Sandra Padilla. "It's easy to solely focus on your individual tasks and forget to confirm whether your actions will align correctly with the next step of the building process. For instance, if your walls are not plumb (perfectly vertical) when you install the door frame, you will not be able to do it-you'll be left with work to undo/fix before the frame and door can be installed. Essentially, you lose hours, perhaps even days, of work."
Webcor Craft workers dropped in throughout the week to give demonstrations and enlighten the group of novice PEs and APMs with their expert insights on the most effective ways to deliver work in the field, leaving NEWB participants inspired to tackle their projects with Craft workers' shared perspectives fresh in their minds.
"The tips and tricks that the Craft members/demonstrators use in the field every day were surprising and extremely beneficial," says Project Engineer Lia Milam. "As new builders, we hadn't immediately thought of the most efficient ways to approach certain things in the field. Creating a work plan as a team of new builders was definitely the biggest challenge-we were given a set of plans and an agenda for the day, but it was up to us to strategize the most productive way to conquer it."
"The immeasurable difference between the self-perform foremen's skill level and the NEWB cohort's was completely and utterly expected, yet surprising at the same time," Tiffany shares. "Seeing the demonstrations and explanations happen in minutes while our teams took the rest of the day to complete similar work was humbling to say the least. Still, seeing our final structure on the last day was an extremely rewarding moment. I was proud of what we created and accomplished as a team, and seeing the structure's progression each day was a really cool experience. Although it might have looked simple, it took a great deal of effort, coordination, and time to deliver."
It's a feeling Sr. Project Engineer James Bicamumpaka says he also shared with his NEWB team members, all of whom sunk several long, exhausting hours into bringing their "tiny home" structure to life. Shortly after they'd finished taping and stepped back to admire the work they'd delivered over the last five days, however, they were in for a surprise.
"The carpenter who had taught us how to mud and tape mentioned he had another tutorial for us," James says. "Everyone gathered around him as he approached our tiny home for the demonstration. He then swung his hammer into our south wall with all his might, leaving behind a huge hole in the wall. Although I was agitated in the moment upon seeing what he'd done to our product of several manhours, it quickly turned into my favorite memory of the entire week. He went on to teach us how to do a California drywall patch, which was incredible to see and more or less restored our wall to its pre-smashed state!"
At the end of the week, NEWB participants left the experience with countless valuable lessons, many of which certainly weren't limited to the field. Aside from an appreciation for the manual labor required to physically build a structure and a deeper understanding of the frustrations often faced in the field such as logistics, last-minute changes, and incomplete drawings, they also developed a sense of pride in what they were able to accomplish as a collaborative team, Miranda shares.
"Every year, NEWB participants grow more bold and comfortable with asking questions when needed while remaining humble enough to learn from those who are on the way to mastering their craft," she continues. "They learn to use their resources, including one another; often, PEs on separate projects are dealing with similar problems, but one has determined a solution that the other hasn't thought of. It's encouraging to know you're part of a community of people who most likely have been in your shoes and are willing to help."
"NEWB is an incredible experience filled with plenty of hard work," says Project Engineer Enio Pepe. "Understanding what goes into performing tasks we normally coordinate and the enormity of those efforts helps you become a better PE. Don't miss out on it! Ask your manager about getting involved with the next NEWB class. Once you're there, prioritize going out with your fellow NEWB attendees. You'll be exhausted from the day's work, but connecting with one another outside the work environment will be more than worth it."
