On September 20, prime contractor McCarthy Building Companies began the pile driving phase of the construction of Burbank Bob Hope Airport’s Regional Intermodal Transportation Center (RITC). Eight hundred seventy-five piles will be driven between now and the middle of December 2012 to support the above ground structural elements of the RITC.
The hours of operation will be Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. up to 8 p.m., and on Saturday from 8 a.m. up to 5 p.m., as required by the project schedule. During the first week of this phase, there will be one pile driver in operation, and two pile drivers will operate thereafter. The vibration impact of the pile driving operation will be barely noticeable within an approximate 100-yard circumference of the pile driving and is not anticipated to cause any structural or architectural issues for nearby buildings.
McCarthy is driving steel H-piles 65 feet into the ground, providing deep foundations to support the RITC and an elevated moving walkway that will convey travelers between the RITC and the passenger terminal.
McCarthy will also install triple-pendulum-bearing seismic isolators that will dramatically reduce seismic forces from a maximum credible earthquake event, allowing the RITC to be fully operational afterward.
When completed, the RITC will bring Airport patrons and multiple transportation modes together at a single location with easy access to and from the passenger terminal. The RITC will be located along Empire Avenue, directly across from the Bob Hope Airport Train Station, and will include a three-level consolidated rental car facility; a rental car customer service building; a ground-level bus transit station; and the elevated covered moving walkway to the terminal building. The transportation center is scheduled to open in summer 2014.
