Photo courtesy AGC of Washington The first phase of Kent Station included nine buildings on an old chemical plant site.

Phase 1 of Kent Station includes 103,100 square feet of retail and built-to-suit space for Green River Community College, and 10 acres of pedestrian-oriented site development. The project is designed to resemble an open-air market.

The construction schedule was challenging because of the project’s nine separate buildings using multiple materials in various combinations. Another challenge: The project’s cinema was built on-site simultaneously by another contractor.

General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis coordinated design of a composite dry utility plan with four different utilities. Due to schedule restrictions, dry utilities were installed concurrently with building construction.

The project’s 18-acre site was previously home to a Borden Chemical plant. The city of Kent removed the plant and had the soil remediated prior to construction. The contractor had to follow a contingency plan in the event contaminants were encountered.

Petroleum- and creosote-contaminated soils were found during utility installation and foundation excavation, requiring an environmental consultant to test and remove the contaminated material.

During building envelope framing, Enviro-Beams were used as an alternative to box beam construction, which not only simplified construction, but provided a pre-insulated cavity. To minimize the cost of site work, a plan was developed to use only native material as structural fill.

The project had 42,356 worker hours with no lost-time injuries and only one recordable incident, a back strain.