shimmick is doing a great job with the schedule on that. current work in the western zone, the focus on the upper left was getting the lower concourse cleaned out after the train box level all cleaned after placing the lower concourse work. on the right-hand side you may wonder what we're using styrofoam for? that is the beginning of the form work and that is much further along here in june. that is also within the shimmick 6.0 contract to complete the ramp up to the surface and the first portion of it, the form work is done with the styrofoam. moving along in the central it's all about steel and steel erection taking apart -- disassembling the trussful. the steel erection. with the arrow, to point to the progress from the day of the ceremony to the beginning of november to now it's three complete bays. steel above has been filled in and they have the deck on the park level. so three complete bays of steel now. in the eastern zone, it's level one and two walls. you can see the waterproofing in the upper left-hand photo, the waterproofing wa

and essentially the shimmick contract will be completed this year. so that essentially wraps up a lot of that. and then mep showing up. bus ramps we'll complete all the cidh pile and complete utilities and complete retaining walls and bridge abutments and excavation and install the false work and we're going to see a lot of false work in the very near future and we're going to see the cable-stayed bridge pile-on rise out of the ground now that the foundation itself is down and cured out and the pile cap is being poured. we'll come out of ground for the bus ramp, the cable-stay bridge pylon. i want to leave with where we'll be at 2016 at this time. most of the steel will be installed by the end of this year, with only leaving the eastern side, that would be beale street at the far eastern end still to remain. of all of that steel, there will be a lot of concrete poured on it and mep, all as we get what it looks like from a year from now. thank you for listening to all of us and if there are any questions, we're happy to entertain those. thank you. >>

so we continue to work with our -- which is mostly shimmick al at this point, but it's really made up by operators. there is way exceeding the goal of apprentice operators at this point that. is an overview view historical, the blue being the total and the reddish line just tracking the apprentices and how it's worked over time. our last slide is the work is load from a labor standpoint. those spikes up are 2015. so we're hitting a major workload at this point and we'll be up there for a while. then it will start trending down in 2016. so 2015 is one of our biggest years for the trades and the projects. so with that, that is my pla quarterly report. thank you. >> director harper? >> what is the problem with the laborers on the apprentices? it seems the opposite. an operator can hurt a lot of people quickly. laborers, it should be reversed. there should be many more apprentice laborers than operators. >> they definitely need to do more out reach for laborers, because quite frankly the halls are empty and the challenge of getting more apprentices in the program. i think the carpenters a

the contractor was awarded to shimmick back in may. the dem mission of the underground structures are completed. we have drilled and poured out 10 of the 29cidh, those 29 range in size from smaller is 2', but all of the 9'ers are almost completed today. coordinated with caltrans for the sterling street substation and a lot of utilities at the bay bridge as part of this contract and we completed and installed and tested out our barrette piles for our pile finds and making sure those piles are behind us. utility relocation, completed construction of all six utility relocations. 100% sbe utilizization or participation and basically completed the awss system. finally. i know steve and i reported on that many, many times, but we finally got it by the end of the year. and also strengthened the pg&e conduits and duct banks and cleared block 5, which is of the gas and primary electrical services. now the workforce itself, 160 construction workers on-site on average every day. that is growing and i will show that in the detail of the p & l quar

i think the carpenters and electricians and shimmick who would be our major source at this point would have been with the concrete has had a challenge. now maybe with the bus ramp as we get into the bus ramp project should have another big opportunity and the 7.2 package. obviously the steel package won't have as much and when we get to the site civil, which will be coming here in the springtime . that is probably a great opportunity to bring more laborer apprentices to the program. >> director reiskin. >> so that issue aside, the apprenticeship numbers are fantastic, which is great. it's just great legacy and ancillary benefit from the project that we're getting so many people apprenticed in their trade as we're building the project. when we were contemplating the pla, there was a fair bit of discussion on the board -- i don't think there was much if any opposition, but it was mostly around apprenticeship. my question is, how much of the success in apprenticeship would you say is attributable to the fact that we have a pla in place, if you can estimate that in any way? >> it's tough t

. >> item 10 is approving amendment to the contract with webcor/obayashi to award a contract to shimmick with the lowest bidder in the amount of $5,875,000 and the bollards and barriers and increasing the direct costs by the same amount

. >> item 10 is approving amendment to the contract with webcor/obayashi to award a contract to shimmick with the lowest bidder in the amount of $5,875,000 and the bollards and barriers and increasing the direct costs by the same amount and authorized construction services fixed fee by $446,500. >> we will report on this item. >> on the suggestion from board members we're open to questions since the contracts are fairly straightforward and we do have a question. director reiskin. >> just two questions. one, should we be concerned at all about the wide range of bids or the fact that given that every other bid is coming in above estimate this was one quite below estimate which of course is good news? and any concerns with that? and the second question is about operationally all of this bol lards and blocking mechanisms and explain how they actually function and only when the facility is closed or how is it going to work in terms of buses coming in and out of the facility all the time and perhaps why we even need them. >> the fact that we have the bids under budget that's a [inaudible] all