(Source: Business Wire)
State officials and local construction workers gathered at the corner of Q and 7th streets this morning to celebrate the opening of the new Central Plant that heats and cools the Capitol and 22 state office buildings daily. The 78,000 square foot facility is the largest of its kind in the western United States and will operate on 90 percent less water than its predecessor. Because of the new plant's progressive "Green" design, it will help the state reduce energy costs; cut water usage and provide better reliability to state buildings.
In less than two years, more than 300 local construction workers built the state of the art facility in the heart of downtown. The design of the seven story tall plant allows enormous chillers, pumps and boilers churning inside to be nearly silent to the neighbors living across the street. The Department of General Services built the new facility to meet and exceed the goals set by Gov. Schwarzenegger's in his 2004 Executive Order that directed the "greening" of state buildings. The new central plant will achieve the Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council next year.
"California leads the nation in green building design and construction and with this project we have set the bar for reaching beyond the ambitious goals the governor laid out for us," said the Secretary for the State and Consumer Services Agency, Fred Aguiar. "This Central Plant will be the 17th building we've constructed to meet the most comprehensive energy efficiency and environmental design criteria in the world. It allows us to launch an effort to reduce energy consumption in all our downtown state office buildings in the coming years."
Since its groundbreaking, the Central Plant project was responsible for putting between 75 to 375 full-time construction employees to work every day. During the peak manpower on the project, from November 2008 to March 2009, the central plant project put approximately $3.5 million dollars per month in payroll into the local economy.
"These are well-paying jobs that have enabled hard-working local professionals to support their families during difficult economic times," said Kelly Smith, Vice President of Skanska of Oakland, the state's general contractor for the project.
