Methane Mitigation Services – Harbor City, CA

Terra-Petra is currently working with a Victorville design team to provide  Soil Gas Investigation (SGI), methane mitigation design, inspection, and consulting services for a retail development located in Harbor City, CA. The project will consist of a new 3-story cannabis facility (occupied by a dispensary, cultivation rooms, manufacturing facility and distribution ) constructed out of steel frame, with insulated metal panel exterior and interior walls, and an open air parking garage below the structure. The total building footprint is approximately 4,712 SF and total site square footage is 41,894.20 SF.

Terra-Petra will be consulting on all mitigation matters relative to the site, including methane testing, laboratory testing, methane mitigation system design, construction administration support, and DMBI inspections to be in compliance with City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) codes.

Terra-Petra Partners with Law Firm Wactor & Wick in Downtown Los Angeles

With an increase in the amount of expert environmental work requested by law firms throughout California in recent months, Oakland, California environmental law attorneys, Wactor & Wick LLP recently hired Terra-Petra to perform a methane soil gas investigation for a Methane Buffer Zone site in downtown Los Angeles.Terra-Petra was selected based on its expertise and knowledge in the field of methane soil gas and upon its prior work on numerous projects throughout the Los Angeles Basin over the last 25 plus years.. 

CEM 75 Drill Rig in action at the project site in Los Angeles, CaliforniaWactor & Wick LLP was founded in 2002 by two former EPA enforcement attorneys. The firm provides cost-effective solutions to reduce environmental risks to clients such as property owners, developers, manufacturers, retailers, lending institutions, mining companies, attorneys and consultants. Wactor & Wick is rated as a Pre-Eminent law firm and both partners have earned the Highest (AV) Rating from Martindale-Hubbell for Legal Ability and Ethical Standards, the Super Lawyer rating (top 5% of all lawyers), the Superb rating from Avvo and have been named in The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers.

According to Vice President and GM, Justin Conaway, Terra-Petra determined that the use of a CME 75 Drill Rig was imperative in reaching our designed depth of 50 feet below surface grade in the gravel like soils at this specific site (based on the Wactor & Wick's due diligence on the project), Terra-Petra also determined that typical direct push probe drilling equipment would not have been able to reach a depth of even 15 feet given the specific conditions of the site.

"We had a great experience collaborating with Wactor & Wick and are looking for more opportunities to work with other such accomplished law firms in this industry," said Conaway, "Wactor & Wick is extremely knowledgeable about environmental regulations; they are very diligent in their effort to coordinate this investigation. We really appreciate working with a law firm that is dedicated to getting the job done right."

 

Terra-Petra going “underground” (aka below grade) in Denver and beyond…

at Haselden ConstructionWe are very excited about the new opportunities that have developed for Terra-Petra in the Denver area, as well as the state of Colorado, and other surrounding states including Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma as of late. One of our key contacts that we met with is working for Haselden Construction out of Wyoming. The company is working on the final stages of a hospital building project in Laramie. Terra-Petra is looking to take on some potential future waterproofing design consulting projects with Haselden. We would also like to plan to work with Haselden in the Wyoming area and support them with more below grade waterproofing, as well as some environmental consulting needs in the near future.

It looks as though the “wild-west” area is booming again thanks to certain industries – particularly with regard to below grade waterproofing needs. There are also many construction sites that are subject to some sort of contamination issue due to the fact that Denver, for one, is growing very fast. Multi-unit housing complexes going up in droves to support (population) growth in this area. The oil, mining, and legal marijuana industries, in particular, are driving this kind of speedy growth.

To that end Denver appears to also have plenty of waterproofing requirements, but they also have their share of environmental concerns. However, the Denver area still does not have a tremendous amount of regulations in place with regard vapor barriers and mitigation systems (like there are in cities like in New York or Los Angeles). So owners/developers in the Denver, as well as in many of the surrounding (Rockies/Midwest) areas, are now in a rush (or will soon need to be in a rush) to put these specific measures in place for current/older and new buildings —and this will become more and more of a necessity in order to maintain the clean environmental conditions in the area(s). We all know that there are many environmentalists residing in places like Colorado, so the consensus is that it is just a matter of time before tighter measures and regulations are put into place and owner/developers will be required to go down certain mitigation paths to better conditions.

Terra-Petra is looking to be the “go-to” environmental engineering firm as the construction industry (in the “wild west” area) continues to catch on to a growing environmental protection concern where building and land development is concerned. Yes, there are plenty of big environmental engineering firms located in Denver including URS and AECOM. This indicates that there is a market for larger scale environmental projects now and on the horizon. It’s going to be another wild ride in the west!

Terra-Petera Methane begins mitigation system installation project for The Irvine Company in Playa Vista, California

Terra-Petra is excited to announce that the methane mitigation system installation is in progress on three new apartment complexes in Playa Vista being developed by The Irvine Company.

The Irvine Company selected the architectural firm of McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners (MVE) out of Irvine to realize their vision of bringing a premier apartment community to the west side of Los Angeles. MVE has designed three mediterranean style apartment complexes each having one level of subterranean parking with on grade parking and four levels of apartments above grade. The building footprints increase in size moving from west to east from 187,067 SQ.FT., 256,866 SQ.FT. and 333,827 SQ.FT. 

MVE’s design team for these three projects included the following prestigious firms:

Structural Engineer: Englekirk –  Los Angeles
Civil Engineer: Fuscoe – Irvine
Geotechnical Engineer: Group Delta – Torrance

The project are located in the City of Los Angeles Methane Zone, thus Terra-Petra was selected by The Irvine Company as the methane design engineer for these projects given our strong Terra-Petra personnel witnessing the installation of Treco Barrier Solutions Vapor Lock-M. Left to right Andrew Alvarran, Jesus Mora, Danile Valdez and Eduardo Rangelreputation as a high quality methane consulting firm as well as our ability to simultaneously design three large scale complex projects in an expedited fashion. We were brought on to the design team in February of this year. We completed the methane mitigation system design work along with all permitted systems by the beginning of October, and way ahead of schedule.

The construction phase of this development began under Western National, serving as the General Contractor on the project. All three buildings are being constructed concurrently and Terra-Petra will be responsible for carrying-out all Deputy Methane Barrier (DMBI) inspection work for each one. The arduous task associated with performing continuous inspections of the methane mitigation system for three projects being constructed simultaneously can only be achieved by Terra-Petra given that we maintain the largest and most experienced staff of DMBI Inspectors in the industry.  

We're looking forward to completing another successful methane mitigation project!

Related articles on the Playa Vista Development.   

http://www.ocbj.com/news/2012/oct/28/irvine-company-eyes-playa-vista/
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324784404578145572308360156
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/26/business/la-fi-mo-playa-vista-sale-20121121

Terra-Petra Completes Methane Barrier and Below Grade Waterproofing Work on Cedars-Sinai’s Completed Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion Project

The new Cedars-Sinai Advanced Health Science Pavilion integrates clinical care and biomedical research in a single building. Terra-Petra Environmental Engineering developed the combination LADBS approved methane mitigation system as well as the buildings below grade waterproofing system for the 820,000 square foot structure.

According to Terra-Petra's VP/General Manager, Justin Conaway, "Terra-Petra performed all LADBS Deputy Methane Barrier Inspections (DMBI) for this project; we also provided manufacturer required below grade waterproofing system inspections to ensure the project received the full 15 year Hydro Shield warranty."

Terra-Petra Deputy Methane Barrier Inspectors are cross-trained, qualified and certified to perform the below grade waterproofing inspections in order to provide a substantial cost-savings by performing both of services with one inspector. Terra-Petra currently employs 7 LADBS Deputy Methane Barrier Inspectors (DMBI).

"We are proud to be a part of such an outstanding project and very excited for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and their quest to provide services for today's new era of health care within the new Advanced Health Sciences Pavillion," said Kevin Buchanan, President of Terra-Petra.