($5 million-$10 million)
Tahoma Market
Architect: Helix Design Group
Engineers: Bargreen Ellingson, BCE Engineers, Heffron Transportation, Barghausen Consulting Engineers, GeoEngineers, Theis Engineering
Owner: Marine View Ventures
ABC members: Sound Glass Sales, Specialized Landscaping
Tahoma Market and car wash was built for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians in Fife. The $10 million project was designed and built on an 11-month fast-track schedule, with construction completed in six of those months.
With 28 fueling stations, an automatic car wash, market-style store and liquor store, it is the largest Shell Station in North America.
To complete the project on schedule, Rushforth began demolition on the site, ordered three 30,000-gallon tanks and developed detailed bid packages prior to design completion. The $300,000 signage and the $255,000 furniture, fixtures and equipment package included all signage, interior shelving, produce displays, six flat screen TVs and a large self-serve beverage station.
Even small items such as a smoothie machine, wine racks and baskets were included. Since these items are not typically included in the scope of work, it was a challenge to price out three competitive proposals for every item, order and install them in time for vendors to stock shelves.
Placing the underground tanks required special expertise because of the high water table. Excavation was a minimum of 16 feet into the ground water, requiring 14 dewatering wells. Site contractor RG Construction suggested using a slide-rail shoring system, which saved $150,000 and three weeks.
Mitigating environmental impacts was a high priority for the owner. Several areas of the site were within the floodplain of the Puyallup River, necessitating raising the store and special construction for the car wash building. The existing 500 tons of concrete foundations and 2,300 tons of asphalt were crushed and used as fill.
A rain garden and dry creek bed with large landscape boulders are used for storm water filtration. The car wash uses a filtering system to recycle water.
At the end of the project, work was going around the clock and included installation of a turn lane to Highway 99. Paving was completed at 5:30 a.m. and the new market opened on schedule at 6 a.m., with steam still rising off the new pavement.
Because design and construction were happening simultaneously, plans were constantly updated, with the team using color-coded paper to identify the most current plans. The last set of plans was printed on pink paper, which inspired the team to develop a fund-raiser to benefit Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure.
The project was completed on-time and under budget by $650,000. There were no recordable incidents in the 47,871 hours worked.