DPR completes ground-up construction on new 42,900-sq.-ft. switching facility and data center for “America’s Choice” provider

Although far from the magnitude of the late 90s, when DPR built out more than a million square feet of mission critical facilities in 18 months, the nation’s leading technical builder continues to experience a steady flow of data center projects across the country from Florida to California. The projects, for such repeat customers as AOL/Time Warner, AT&T, LSI Logic, Oracle Corp. and Verizon Wireless, range from mechanical upgrades and equipment installations to renovations and expansions, including most recently a new, ground-up facility for the nation’s largest wireless network, Verizon Wireless.

Serving more than 32.5 million voice and data customers and counting, Verizon Wireless required a new facility to handle the growing needs of California’s central valley. Located in Rocklin, CA, the 42,970-sq.-ft. building, which now features a data center and switching facility for cellular phones, broke ground in September of last year and included a tight nine-month schedule that became even more challenging with record rain fall in the area.

Going into the project, an El Niño type of winter was forecasted, so we pushed to complete earthwork and underground work to pour the building slab within the first two months of the project. “As it turned out, it rained almost every day in December and most of January, so having our slab in place was critical,” said Tony Walters in DPR’s Sacramento office. “We worked around the wet weather to stay on schedule, which was vital to the project as these types of facilities often generate several million dollars in revenue each day.”

To further expedite project delivery, Verizon vendors began installing $20 million worth of switching equipment half-way through the project, alongside DPR crews. “The value of the switching equipment exceeded the overall cost of the building, so we were careful to communicate, as well as accommodate, each others’ needs to ensure success,” said Dave Dovichi in DPR’s Sacramento office, who added that another challenge arose when the manufacturer of owner-supplied main electrical switchboards went out of business. “It threw a torpedo into our project schedule,” said Dovichi, “but we worked with the owner and owner’s equipment supplier, Lee Technologies, to help mitigate this delay by scheduling additional shift and weekend work to get the job done.”

Part of this overtime included pulling electrical feeders in advance of electrical gear arriving on site, which allowed equipment to be set and feeders terminated as soon as equipment arrived on site.

“DPR had to deal with a number of ongoing owner and design changes throughout the project,” said Greg Johnson, Project Manager for Verizon Wireless. “They did their best to implement the changes as quickly and efficiently as possible, and I appreciated the ‘let’s make it happen’ approach.”

DPR and Verizon Wireless worked in conjunction to expedite approval of changes, which allowed the efficient incorporation of changes and kept Verizon on track to open up their facility as originally planned.