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Biggs Cardosa's Projects Receive Notable Awards
2020 ACEC GOLDEN STATE AWARD for Engineering Excellence
Plaza Bridge at Marine Way, Irvine, CA


Having outgrown its headquarters in Irvine, tech company Broadcom sought a new home. The City’s planning commission approved a master plan for a two-million-square-foot research and development campus on property owned by developer FivePoint. The site consisted of two parcels bisected by a new road, Marine Way. Because Broadcom needed a landscaped central courtyard for all of its employees, the master plan called for creating a 398-foot by 130-foot landscaped Plaza Bridge over Marine Way at the heart of the campus; essentially the size of a football field.

Biggs Cardosa was the prime consultant responsible for providing structural design services under a modified design-build contract and coordinating a team of subconsultants. Biggs Cardosa performed all design work under a contract with DPR Construction.



The Plaza Bridge is a cast-in-place concrete slab supporting a landscaped park. Because of the bridge’s size, the structural design had to meet strict California Fire Code and NFPA requirements for tunnels and had to be able to resist a 13,000 gallon gasoline tanker fire combined with a burning heavy-goods vehicle loaded with ordinary combustibles. After extensive research, Biggs Cardosa developed a unique system of rebar clearances, as high as 6”, and high concentrations of polypropylene fibers as a lower cost alternative to fire sprinklers or spray foam systems. To enable the landscaped plaza to support soil and trees, Biggs Cardosa incorporated lightweight expanded polystyrene below the soil at strategic locations to reduce loads. A complex waterproofing and drainage system manages stormwater and water from the irrigation system. Within the Marine Way tunnel, concrete bas-reliefs of tree patterns extend along the west wall, illuminated from above by color-changing LED lights. The project also included a separate vehicular bridge to the north of the Plaza Bridge.


2020 ACEC Honor Award for Engineering Excellence
Clarke Avenue Pedestrian Overcrossing, East Palo Alto, CA


The eight lanes of US 101 have long served as a barrier for the city of East Palo Alto, separating those living in the city’s southwest side, a high-density residential area with virtually no amenities, from the city’s northeast side of US 101. To cross, pedestrians and bicyclists have long been forced to share a narrow sidewalk on University Avenue, the only existing structure to connect this divide over a two-mile stretch. School children and other walkers and bikers using University Avenue contended with busy, intimidating intersections.
 
The new Clarke Avenue Pedestrian Overcrossing provides a safe, dedicated crossing over US 101. Biggs Cardosa was the consultant for bridge design, responsible for providing structural design consultation services throughout the feasibility study phase of the project. The firm also provided project management and structural design services for the bridge PS&E phase which included coordinating a team of subconsultants.




The 14-foot wide, 1100-foot-long overcrossing consists of three structures: 1) a cast-in-place concrete box girder bridge over US 101 and East Bayshore Road, 2) an east-side ramp structure that connects the bridge to ground level adjacent to the Ravenswood Shopping Center, and 3) a west-side ramp structure that brings the bridge to ground level to meet an existing intersection.
 

Many concept-level alignments were developed to deal with the very tight site. The final alignment avoided tight curves to improve bicycle safety and to meet strict ADA grade requirements. Site constraints required a highly skewed bridge alignment as well as a horseshoe-shaped ramp layout on one side, complicating the seismic design. Biggs Cardosa’s innovative solutions included balancing the stiffness of supports by varying column diameters, thereby reducing earthquake-induced superstructure torsion, and devising innovative hinged seismic joint cover plates to provide a continuous, safe, and ADA-compliant connection between bridge and ramp structures.

 
Biggs Cardosa Associates, Inc. is a leading, award-winning California engineering firm that provides structural design, consulting, project management and construction management services. Biggs Cardosa has been reshaping California highways and skylines for over 30 years through innovative and effective design of bridges, transportation structures, buildings and supporting infrastructure facilities. The firm specializes in the design, seismic retrofit, modification and rehabilitation of these structures. Biggs Cardosa is known for the quality of its work, active principal involvement, responsiveness to clients’ needs, and innovative solutions to complex project issues. The firm is staffed with over 120 professional and technical personnel, which includes over 50 registered Civil and Structural engineers.
 
San Jose – Fresno – Oakland – Orange – Sacramento – San Francisco

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