Newly Relocated Hatch Mott MacDonald Rides High-Profile Projects

By Nicole Zaro Stahl, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Growth Brings About Higher Profile, Expansion for Engineering Consulting Firm

Hatch Mott MacDonald vice president Ervon Koenig serves as the San Francisco area manager for the firm, which is currently involved in such high-profile projects as the new San Francisco Transbay Transit Center.

The second half of 2010 has been a landmark time for Hatch Mott MacDonald on multiple fronts. After years, even decades, of planning, several of the engineering consulting firm's monumental projects have catapulted into the public eye, while the company's Pleasanton headquarters relocated from Hacienda West on Hopyard Road, taking over the entire third floor of 4301 Hacienda Drive.

The product of a joint venture between world-renowned Mott MacDonald (United Kingdom) and Hatch Associates (Canada), the Hacienda firm specializes in engineering design, construction management, and program management, primarily in the areas of transportation and water resources facilities, and almost exclusively for public-sector clients. It also offers specialized expertise in transportation planning and financing and public-private partnerships.

Hatch Mott MacDonald's Bay Area business started with work on the Guadalupe Corridor Light Rail in Santa Clara in 1996, relates Ervon Koenig, Vice President and San Francisco area manager. Since then it has grown to play a key role in some of the region's most high-profile infrastructure initiatives, with eight major projects in process.

One of the most notable currently underway is San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center, a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment effort that goes far beyond replacing the outdated Transbay Terminal at First and Mission streets. Designed by acclaimed Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the new, modern regional transit hub will be joined by a commercial tower slated to become the tallest building west of Chicago. The old terminal was shuttered on August 6, and a few days later the wrecking ball took the first swing in what will be an eight-month demolition process.

The firm is also the construction manager for the $242 million New Irvington Tunnel in Alameda County, which broke ground in September. The new tunnel is a critical piece in the $4.6 billion upgrade to the Hetch Hetchy drinking water delivery system, which serves almost 2.5 million people in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties. The 3.5 mile tunnel will run parallel to its existing 1930s-era counterpart, which was last inspected in the 1970s and has considerable seismic vulnerability.

Definitely more visible than the underground tunnel is the Bay Bridge seismic retrofit and Self-Anchored Suspension Span (SAS). Traffic slowed and drivers gawked over four days in mid-December, as more than four million pounds of steel were lifted into place, bringing the new SAS tower to 374 feet, roughly 25 percent shy of its final height of 525 feet. Hatch Mott MacDonald is doing oversight work on the project, tracking schedules, expenditures, and technical issues in regular reports that go all the way up to the Governor's desk. "We are now expecting completion at the end of 2013, 14 months ahead of schedule," Koenig remarks.

Commenting on the firm's own progress, Koenig mentions that the Pleasanton office has work in place through 2017 and a multitude of other prominent projects in the pipeline. "When I started here about seven years ago, we had a small team and a small CM project, the Peninsula Corridor Caltrain expansion. We have grown to 76 staff in the Pleasanton office. It has been very gratifying to help build such a great team, mentoring young engineers and seeing them progress along their career paths."

To find out more about the firm and its projects, visit www.hatchmott.com.

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