Eight firefighters were hospitalized with burn injuries to their faces, hands and legs after two explosions erupted from the school's chemistry lab shortly after crews arrived at 5 a.m. on Sept. 5.

Investigators found the cause of the fire was accidental and the origin to be the installation site of a vent in a lab area, according to a release Friday. The fire had been smoldering in the crawl space above the lab's ceiling for hours.

The explosions were caused by an increase in oxygen to fuel the fire, a backdraft, after firefighters entered the school's chemistry lab.

Tulsa Public Schools leased the building, located at 2324 E. 17th St., to a charter high school it sponsors, the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, less than three weeks before the fire.

The Tulsa Fire Department received assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and its National Response Team, which department officials called "tremendously helpful" in the probe.

Without them, "it would have taken weeks longer to do what we did," said Capt. Stan May, public information officer. "The investigation into how it started and how the explosions happened is going to help us in our training."

The department plans to train firefighters to recognize circumstances similar to those that caused the explosions and will review safety protocols to prevent injuries.

Eric Doss, school director at Arts and Sciences, said that the day before the fire, its contractor, Magnum Construction, had been installing a ventilation pipe from the ceiling of the school's chemistry lab to the roof. He said it is standard for chemistry labs to have special ventilation to help remove odors and gases.

Arts and Sciences has announced it will hold classes at the former Sequoyah Elementary School at 3441 E. Archer St. for the remainder of the school year. TPS is evaluating the Barnard site's future.

"The district continues to explore its options with the Barnard property and we are still in information-gathering mode, working in conjunction with TSAS and our insurance companies," said TPS Superintendent Keith Ballard. "In the coming weeks, the TPS board will make a decision as to how we will proceed with the property."

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School fire caused by construction project, investigators find

Investigators with the Tulsa Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found the cause of the fire at the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences to be accidental and the origin to be the installation site of a vent in a lab area, according to a news release Friday.

On Sept. 5, a three-alarm fire gutted the school, which is located at 2324 E. 17th St.

Tulsa Public Schools leased the empty building to the charter high school earlier this year. Barnard Elementary School was closed as part of the district's efficiency effort Project Schoolhouse.

Two explosions erupted within an hour of when crews arrived on scene and began an interior attack on the blaze.

Eight firefighters suffered burn injuries to their face, legs and back. Three were hospitalized overnight.

Investigators say the explosions were caused by an increase in oxygen to fuel the fire -- a backdraft -- after firefighters entered the schools chemistry lab.

Read more in Saturdays Tulsa World.

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Construction ruled cause of fire at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences

By Leslie Krowchenko Correspondent

The Marple Zoning Board voted unanimously, June 20, to grant a variance to RKA Builders to open a business office in the main building of 30 North Sproul Road. The parcel is zoned R-3 Residential.

The property, with a two-story apartment and detached garage, has served for many years as the office and home of Victor Zelkovitz M.D. The sale was contingent upon the boards approval.

RKA, which renovates older properties in the West Chester Pike and Route 30 corridors, currently rents office space in Bryn Mawr. The company plans to expand the professional facility to the entire first floor to accommodate the two or three employees on site each day. The firm has little walk-in traffic and the three parking spots in front of the building, and additional space in the driveway, should satisfy its needs, said RKA principal Andrew Kerns.

The second story, entered through an auxiliary front door, will be rented as a two-bedroom apartment. Equipment and construction materials related to the firm will not be stored on the property, said Kerns.

Although the tract is zoned residential, attorney George Broseman noted it is surrounded by numerous commercial uses, such as an auto body shop, dental office, bakery, dance studio, and hair salon, and multi-family homes.

The zoners stipulated the property be classified as two separate uses for the office and apartment.

The property, with a two-story apartment and detached garage, has served for many years as the office and home of Victor Zelkovitz M.D. The sale was contingent upon the boards approval.

RKA, which renovates older properties in the West Chester Pike and Route 30 corridors, currently rents office space in Bryn Mawr. The company plans to expand the professional facility to the entire first floor to accommodate the two or three employees on site each day. The firm has little walk-in traffic and the three parking spots in front of the building, and additional space in the driveway, should satisfy its needs, said RKA principal Andrew Kerns.

The second story, entered through an auxiliary front door, will be rented as a two-bedroom apartment. Equipment and construction materials related to the firm will not be stored on the property, said Kerns.

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RKA Builders get okay for office

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) introduced today the Trimble 773 Robotic Total Station with VISION(TM) technology as part of the Trimble Field Link for MEP and Trimble Field Link for Structures construction layout solutions. The new layout solutions allow general contractors, steel contractors, concrete contractors and mechanical, engineering and plumbing (MEP) trades to easily interpret the measurement of surfaces and positions using live video for increased accuracy and productivity as it relates to the layout of field points.

The Trimble 773 Total Station with VISION Technology enables building construction contractors to remotely see and measure through a live video feed from the instrument on their Trimble Tablet within the Trimble Field Link software. By integrating 2D line-work, point symbols, point names, descriptions and/or point elevations with the live video in the field, contractors can easily locate and stake points as defined in the data file for the project.

"By adding VISION technology to our Trimble Field Link construction layout solutions, we further connect the design aspects of building construction to field based processes," said Pat Bohle, general manager of Trimble's Building Construction Division. "Overlaying 2D line-work and point data from Trimble Field Link job files onto live video from a Trimble total station is the next step in the evolution of our layout portfolio to help provide greater productivity and accuracy for the building construction contractor."

The Trimble 773 Robotic Total Station with VISION technology for Trimble Field Link is available now through Trimble's Authorized Distributors of construction layout solutions for MEP and structures contractors.

About Trimble's Building Construction Business

Trimble's Building Construction Division is a leading innovator of productivity solutions for the building construction contractor. Trimble's solutions target general, concrete, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors on large and small commercial, industrial and residential jobsites. Trimble is focused on delivering solutions that tightly link office based process and information with the field crew--including taking Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other design data to the field for highly accurate positioning and layout of foundations and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Trimble solutions provide a high-level of process and workflow integration from the design phase through to the finished project--delivering significant improvements in productivity throughout the building construction lifecycle.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring positioning or location, including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user in the field and to ensure communication between the field and the office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

For more information, visit: http://www.trimble.com.

CONTACT: Willa McManmon, Investors, +1-408-481-7838, willa_mcmanmon@trimble.com, or Lea Ann McNabb, Media, +1-408-481-7808, leaann_mcnabb@trimble.com

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Software for MEP Trades aids in-field construction layout tasks.

Missouri Baptist Medical Center wants to significantly modify its plan for a new medical office building.

The hospital's new proposal calls for reducing the size of the planned building, and creating an additional medical office building on top of an existing parking garage on the campus at 3015 N. Ballas Road.

Town & Country's Planning and Zoning Commission met on June 27 and unanimously approved recommending the change to the board of aldermen. The issue will next go before the city's architectural review board. The board of aldermen likely won't vote on the matter before August.

The city approved an earlier plan for the north medical office building in 2009. The new plan calls for reducing the building size from 185,000 square feet to about 93,000 square feet. However, the plans would still allow for the building to be built as high as six stories.

The 92,000 square feet of space taken away from that building would remain in the plan. It would take the form of a two-story medical office building on top of a two-story parking garage in the northwestern part of the medical center's almost 65-acre site.

George Stock, with Stock & Associates Consulting Engineers, told the commission the garage was designed to be able to hold additional floors. The change will improve the aesthetics of the area, he said.

The plan for the medical office building is part of an overall development plan approved for the Missouri Baptist campus. The first phase of the plan also included a new west pavilion addition, new parking lots, a vehicle storage building, an Ameren UE substation, the new Clinical Nursing Institute building with parking garage, and a new ring road through the campus. Stock said the medical office building would be part of the second phase of improvements.

Commissioner Rick Kelly told Stock he'd visited the campus before. "The existing parking garage (which the new office building would be atop) is usually packed, so it's tough to find a spot now," Kelly said. "Your plan will increase the number of people who'll be in that building, and I'm afraid patients will be scrambling."

Doug Black, vice president of program and campus development for the hospital, said a new garage on the campus has been underused.

"When our new ring road opens, that garage will be more used, because it wasn't convenient during construction in that area," he said. "We'll move employees there to free up some garage space."

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Missouri Baptist Med Center seeks to modify office building plan

LISBON - The local office of the Cooperative Extension Service is being relocated to the new Columbiana County Government Services Building to help pay off the project's debt.

County Auditor Nancy Milliken said that adding the CES as a rent-paying tenant will provide enough extra money to ensure commissioners have sufficient revenue left in the county's general debt service account to make the construction bond payments on the new government services building.

Milliken's comments came following a meeting last week with commissioners to update them on efforts to put in place a financial package to pay for the construction of the building, which opened in April.

The 76,000-square-foot, two-story building houses the county Department of Job and Family Services, the Board of Elections, One-Stop agency (county unemployment agency) and the Veterans Services Commission.

Rent from the JFS and One-Stop, plus the money commissioners were saving from no longer have to rent space for Veterans Services, was supposed to cover about 80 percent of the annual bond construction payments. The elections board does not pay rent since it is a county agency.

The remaining 20 percent was to be paid with money from the county's general debt service account, which comes from 0.2-mills in property taxes commissioners are allowed by law to collect. The debt service money is used to fund debt payments on construction projects.

The debt service account generates about $300,000 per year, according to Chief Deputy County Auditor John Goempel, and $160,000 of that is currently obligated to meet existing debt payments, leaving $140,000 to cover any new construction debts.

"Anything beyond that we would be in trouble," he said.

County officials determined late last year the county would have difficulty affording its share of the debt because of the way the financing package was structured. The two construction bonds obtained to provide the up-front money to start the project were front-loaded and for shorter terms, which required higher bond repayments over the first 12 years.

Goempel said this required a higher share of money from debt service account beyond the $140,000 that remained uncommitted. "This would have killed us because the general obligation debt was going to require we put up more than we cold afford," he said.

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CES office relocating

KABUL The United States is spending $92 million to build Afghanistan a new Pentagon, a massive five-story military headquarters with domed roofs and a high-tech basement command center that will link Afghan generals with their troops fighting the Taliban across the country.

But when Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak asked for a bigger office in the building a change that would cost about $300,000 he got a firm no in response. These types of changes cost time and money, U.S. military officials said, and in Afghanistan, both are in ever-shorter supply.

We could do them, but were not going to do them, Col. Andrew Backus, the director of engineering for the NATO command in charge of training and equipping the Afghan security forces, said of the Afghans proposed revisions. What were going to do is finish the project with strict change control and turn it over to the Afghans. And if they want to change it, then they can change it.

The military headquarters building is one of the most prominent public symbols of Americas ongoing financial commitment to Afghanistan. Even at this late stage of the war, with American troops beginning their withdrawal, the U.S. government is still working its way through a $10 billion menu of construction projects aimed at bolstering the Afghan security forces. Of the 1,150 buildings planned, more than 600or more than halfhave been completed, with a total value of $4 billion.

In addition to the Defense Ministry headquarters, the United States is building a $54 million Kabul headquarters for the Interior Ministry, which oversees the Afghan police, as well as a $102 million base for the militarys 201st Corps in eastern Afghanistan.

But with strict timelines and eroding domestic support for the war, U.S. military officials say theres little room for revising what remains to be done.

We are taking a firm stance with a set of disciplined business rules on change control, Backus said. Thats our approach.

That policy has already been tested at a high level with Afghanistans Pentagon. Rising amid Kabuls dusty streets, the 516,000-square-foot edifice, still cloaked in scaffolds and cranes, dwarfs other buildings in town.

Once its finished, it will be a permanent and a very significant illustration of the U.S. support for Afghanistan, Wardak, the defense minister, said in an interview. And we needed it.

But Wardak said he asked for two changes to the plan, one involving a conference room and the other his office. The current configuration, with his staff situated in an adjacent room, would require dignitaries to wade through a crowd of people to get to him, he said. I have 100 or something staff. They wanted all of them to be crowded near my office. I didnt want them close, he said. That was one objection.

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US building $92M military HQ for Afghanistan, nixes larger office for defense minister

BUILDING PERMITS

Boulder

Building construction permits over $10,000 in value that were approved in Boulder between June 18 and June 24, 2012.. Listed below are: the case number; address; total project valuation; owner name; contractor (if applicable); and description.

PMT2012-01350; 4621 Sunnyside Place; $325,000; North Boulder; Coast To Coast Residential Development; New single-family residence on Lot 12, Northfield Village, Two-story residence with unfinished basement, two and a half baths, three bedrooms with main level office/bedroom, attached two-car tandem garage.

PMT2012-01646; 2115 Linden Ave.; $600,000; Margaret and Andrew Pemberton; Treeline Homes Inc.; Significant remodel and addition to single-family residence including additions totaling 2,459 square feet, attached 576-square-foot garage. Resulting residence to have four bedrooms, five baths.

PMT2012-01916; 4570 Sprucedale Place; $350,000; Gary Calderon; Revielle Custom Carpentry; Construction of a new single-family dwelling. Main level of 1,324 square feet, upper level of 1,675 square feet, unfinished basement of 1,211 square feet and two-car attached garage.

PMT2012-02390; 1089 13th St.; $75,544; UFC Boulder; Milo Construction Corp.; Tenant remodel of 1,349 square feet to create a Cost Cutters hair salon in the newly renovated Flatirons Theater.

PMT2012-02430; 3136 Ninth St.; $55,405; David Gottlieb; One-and-a-half-story detached two-car garage with unfinished storage above, and associated electrical work. No plumbing or mechanical work in the scope of this permit.

PMT2012-02438; 607 Mapleton Ave.; $150,000; David Morton; Quinn's Carpentry LLC; One-story addition of 209 square feet comprised of a master suite and addition of three-quarter bathroom, remodel of 690 square feet to include remodeled kitchen, removal of solid fuel fireplace replace with a decorative gas fireplace, modified windows and a 15-by-15-foot pergola off the rear of the structure. (See BOZA for setback variance) (See HIS2012-00006 for supplemental information.)

PMT2012-02447; 619 Arapahoe Ave.; $31,753; Graham and Rosalind Timms; Conversion of an existing 260-square-foot garage into a kitchen area and addition of a 144-square-foot front porch. Parking to be satisfied in driveway. See LUR2012-00004 for supplemental information.

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Boulder building permits: July 2, 2012

LISBON - The local office of the Cooperative Extension Service is being relocated to the new Columbiana County Government Services Building to help pay off the project's debt.

County Auditor Nancy Milliken said that adding the CES as a rent-paying tenant will provide enough extra money to ensure commissioners have sufficient revenue left in the county's general debt service account to make the construction bond payments on the new government services building.

Milliken's comments came following a meeting last week with commissioners to update them on efforts to put in place a financial package to pay for the construction of the building, which opened in April.

The 76,000-square-foot, two-story building houses the county Department of Job and Family Services, the Board of Elections, One-Stop agency (county unemployment agency) and the Veterans Services Commission.

Rent from the JFS and One-Stop, plus the money commissioners were saving from no longer have to rent space for Veterans Services, was supposed to cover about 80 percent of the annual bond construction payments. The elections board does not pay rent since it is a county agency.

The remaining 20 percent was to be paid with money from the county's general debt service account, which comes from 0.2-mills in property taxes commissioners are allowed by law to collect. The debt service money is used to fund debt payments on construction projects.

The debt service account generates about $300,000 per year, according to Chief Deputy County Auditor John Goempel, and $160,000 of that is currently obligated to meet existing debt payments, leaving $140,000 to cover any new construction debts.

"Anything beyond that we would be in trouble," he said.

County officials determined late last year the county would have difficulty affording its share of the debt because of the way the financing package was structured. The two construction bonds obtained to provide the up-front money to start the project were front-loaded and for shorter terms, which required higher bond repayments over the first 12 years.

Goempel said this required a higher share of money from debt service account beyond the $140,000 that remained uncommitted. "This would have killed us because the general obligation debt was going to require we put up more than we cold afford," he said.

Read more:
Office relocating to help with debt

LOS ALTOS, CA--(Marketwire -06/29/12)- DPR Construction, one of the nation's leading technical builders focused on highly complex and sustainable projects, today celebrates the ribbon-cutting of The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's new Bay Area office building, which joins a growing trend of net-zero energy facilities in the United States. Designed to use less energy as well as generate its own power on-site, the new building, which is also targeting LEED Platinum certification, offers a replicable model for attaining the highest level of sustainable development in a commercial office building setting and is one of the first of its size and type in the nation.

"Today marks the celebration of a traditional milestone for what has been anything but a traditional project," said Mike Humphrey, project executive for DPR Construction. "A lot of people think and act green, but we commend the Packard Foundation for its leadership in taking sustainability to the next level. The project is not only targeting 95 LEED points -- well above the minimum 80 required for Platinum level certification -- but also includes some of the most advanced and efficient systems and materials available today."

The 50,000-square-foot, two-story wood and steel structure, designed by architect EHDD, seamlessly blends into the surrounding natural environment, presenting an understated yet elegant aesthetic that belies the complexity of the design components and construction processes that went into the project. From the diverse array of exterior building materials, including aluminum, glazing, copper panels, stone, stone veneer and wood siding -- all carefully overlaid to form a highly thermal rated exterior skin -- to the highly energy-efficient mechanical and electrical systems, to the rooftop photovoltaic panels that generate on-site energy, every building component contributes to the net-zero energy goal.

DPR began the project in early 2010 with the deconstruction of six existing structures and diverting 98 percent of the waste from landfill. According to DPR Project Manager Mike Messick, the team also worked closely with major trade contractors to correctly sequence the construction of the exterior skin.

"The waterproofing system as well as the thermal insulation of the exterior skin were really crucial and extremely complicated, because there were so many different materials and intersections coming together," he said. To accomplish that, DPR first constructed a full-sized mock-up section. "We were able to ferret out a lot of the sequencing issues of putting together such a complex skin system designed specifically to help achieve the zero-energy goal," Messick noted.

In addition to the Packard Foundation project, DPR has completed construction of two other net-zero energy buildings: DPR's San Diego office and DPR's Phoenix office. "By building and operating our own net-zero buildings, we can better understand what goes into achieving net zero on projects for our clients," said Humphrey.

DPR's 33,600-square-foot San Diego office, completed in 2010, is the first and only commercial office in San Diego to achieve both LEED-NC Platinum certification and net-zero energy status. DPR's 16,000-square-foot Phoenix facility, completed in fall of last year, is targeting Platinum certification and is on track to be the first net-zero energy private office building in Arizona.

About DPR ConstructionDPR Construction, currently ranked No. 13 on FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list, is a forward-thinking national general contractor and construction manager specializing in technically complex and sustainable projects for the advanced technology/mission critical, life sciences, healthcare, higher education and corporate office markets. Founded in 1990, DPR is a privately held, employee-owned company that has grown to a multi-billion-dollar organization with 17 offices around the country, making it one of the largest general contractors in the nation and a great story of entrepreneurial success. For more information, visit http://www.dpr.com.

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DPR Construction Completes Ground-Up Net-Zero-Energy-Designed Facility for The David and Lucile Packard Foundation