Lassen Volcanic National Park Awards Contract for New Visitor Center

Date: June 22, 2006
Contact: Mary G. Martin, 530-595-4444 ext. 5101

Lassen Volcanic National Park News Release June 22, 2006
For Immediate Release
Mary G. Martin
(530) 595- 4444, ext. 5101

Lassen Volcanic National Park Awards Contract for New Visitor Center

Lassen Volcanic National Park Superintendent Mary Martin announced a successfully awarded contract for the construction of the new Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center which will be located near the Southwest Entrance of the park. The contract was awarded to Slayden Construction Group Inc. of Slayton, Oregon. “We were very pleased with the quality of proposals we received for this project and believe we have selected a great company to implement our project,” stated Martin. The award amount was $8.15 million which includes both final design and construction.

The National Park Service awarded the project as a “design-build” contract. This type of contract requires the builder to complete a detailed design based on an NPS Schematic Design and then construct the visitor center according to that design. Slayden Construction Group Inc. has teamed up with a well respected California design firm, Ward Young Architects out of Truckee, California. Through their project proposal, the contractor has proven their abilities of creative design for cost savings and quality-enhancing solutions. “Slayden and Ward-Young have extensive experience designing and building visitor centers and similar facilities in remote, heavy snow country areas similar to our visitor center site,” said Martin. Once the final design is complete, construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2007 with a grand opening in late summer 2008.

A new facility was originally designed in 2004 and advertised for construction twice in 2005. Bids came in substantially higher than available funds both times. This project suffered significantly from a major national rise in construction costs from 2004-2005, which was especially acute in California. Consequently the National Park Service redesigned the project to meet available funds.

The current design provides significant cost savings over the previous design (e.g. single-story rectilinear design rather than two-story curved construction). The project scope includes enhancements to the water and wastewater systems, a parking lot overlay, an amphitheater, an auditorium, energy-saving technology, and other utility enhancements.

Lassen Volcanic National Park was established 90 years ago in 1916 and will now have its first year-round visitor center. The Loomis Museum located near the North Entrance of the park will continue to provide visitor information and orientation during the summer months. Please visit the park website at www.nps.gov/lavo/sw_facility_overview.htm for more information about this project The new Southwest Entrance Station project is separate from the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center project and is currently in the contracting process for construction this summer. It is a project funded through the Fee Program that the park retains 80% of the monies from entrance and camping fees at Lassen.

For more information, please contact the park at [phone] or for TDD at [phone], Monday through Friday, except holidays, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or visit the park website at www.nps.gov/lav0.

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