Heavy equipment began descending today upon the Save Mart Center site at California State University, Fresno with the first phase of excavation under way the next two days.

The first of four earth moving scrapers arrived this morning and the big dig of the 33-foot deep hole is expected to begin as early as Monday (Dec. 17), reports David Simonton, Clark Construction Group senior project manager.

Four 57-yard earth scrapers are being transported to the site for the big dig of the arena bowl as major construction activity of the CSU system’s largest privately financed event center continues in high gear.

All the activity can be seen live at the new Save Mart Center web cam that went online last week and can be viewed through www.fresnostatenews.com.

Simonton said that today and tomorrow disc tractors are scarifying, or plowing, the surface 12 inches down and re-compacting the dirt. On Monday, it’s full steam ahead for the next four to six weeks when 260,000 cubic yards of dirt will come flying out of a hole that will be 33-feet deep and 550-feet by 300 feet. The scrapers will be aided by two compactors and two water trucks.

Some of the dirt, 150,000 cubic yards, will go back into the hole to backfill the concrete structure but otherwise the Save Mart site will become an instant mountain range, Simonton said.

The public will be able to observe the project thanks to a Web cam donated by Pelco of Clovis, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of surveillance cameras.

The sophisticated camera allows visitors to the www.savemartcenter.com Web site to see construction from a variety of views. The camera also rotates and zooms in on various areas of the Fresno State campus.

The camera sits atop the five-story Peters Business building on campus, northwest of the Save Mart Center site. The camera’s site is one of the highest locations on campus.

The Web cam currently shows four campus views; two of the Save Mart Center construction site, one of the main campus and another view of the campus farm and the Sierra Nevada.

Mark Aydelotte, assistant vice president for University Relations, said Web users can watch the construction live as the camera builds a visual record of the center’s construction over the coming months.

“We should be able to produce time-lapse video segments of the progress of the builders,” Aydelotte said.

Pelco is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of closed-circuit television systems and equipment.

Earth mover cutline

The first of the 57-yard earth scrapers that will start digging up 260,000 cubic yards of dirt over the next four to six weeks has arrived!

SMC site comes to life with scarifying this week; excavation begins next week

A workman for Foster and Sons, a Clark Construction Group subcontractor, digs to confirm location of fiber optical lines while a tractor and disc begins scarifying the Save Mart Center site today in preparation for the full excavation next week by four earth moving scrapers that began arriving today. The campus is in the background with the Kremen Education Building in sight. The SMC site activity can also be viewed live on the new Pelco web cam available at www.fresnostatenews.com.