Sukut Kicks Off Construction of Southern California's Largest Master-Planned Community in Development

Santa Ana, CA (PRWEB) August 22, 2007 -- One of the biggest projects in recent Southern California history gets underway this month when Sukut Construction Inc. breaks ground on New Model Colony, an entirely new community encompassing 13 square miles within the city of Ontario.

Of 17 companies vying for the contract, only five were qualified by the city to be capable of managing such a massive job. Sukut, California's largest earthmoving company, won the $96 million contract to build the roads and underground infrastructure on the 4,000-acre first phase of New Model Colony. www.sukut.com

The project is rising from the largest remaining, centrally located and undeveloped area in Southern California, and as such is expected to become an important employment, cultural and entertainment center for the Inland Empire and east Los Angeles County.

"This development will have a long-lasting impact on California." Sukut CEO, Michael Crawford said. "That Sukut was chosen to work on it is a reflection of our many successes in completing challenging projects. It's an enormous development." http://www.sukut.com/expertise/publicworks.php

Consider the numbers. Sukut will be building six arterial roads totaling 13 miles. That equates to 4.8 million square feet of pavement, or 200,000 tons of asphalt, enough to pave one lane from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Sukut will excavate 900,000 cubic yards of dirt. In football terms, that's enough dirt to bury the field under a 385-foot mountain - the height of a 32-story building. Sukut also will lay 240,000 lineal feet of water, sewer and storm pipe; install 532 street lights and 23 traffic signals.

The target date for breaking ground is September, with completion in 16 months. Sukut will mobilize approximately 150 employees and 12 large excavating machines.

The land on from which New Model Colony will rise is primarily dairy farms and pasture. Sukut will build the arterial highways on existing roads: Archibald, Hamner and Mill Creek which run north and south, and Riverside, Merrill and Belgrave which run east and west.

The job involves clearing the path of the arterial; installing sewer, water, reclaimed water and storm water pipelines; adding conduits for gas, electric, fiber optic and cable utilities; and finishing with curbs, gutters, asphalt, street lights and traffic signals.

A consortium of 26 prestigious developers including Lewis Properties, Brookfield Homes, Stratham Communities, Richland Communities and Meritage Homes will then move in to build on the property.

The entire project is expected to take 20 years to complete and increase the population of Ontario by 120,000 people. New Model Colony will include 30,000 homes, plus commercial centers, schools and parks. New Model Colony will be developed in three phases, and Sukut intends to bid on all three.

Sukut Construction Inc. is California's largest mass excavation and grading contractor, moving 150 million cubic yards of earth a year. Founded almost 40 years ago and headquartered in Santa Ana, California, with offices in Oceanside, Los Angeles, and Riverside, California, the company is nationally recognized for its work on residential, commercial, industrial and retail development mass grading; public works; flood and storm water pipe and structures; highway, roads and infrastructure construction; golf courses and resorts; landfill construction and environmental cleanups; and emergency landslide repair and stabilization.

Sukut is ranked within the top 250 largest contractors in the nation, with revenues of $260 million for 2006. It also is among the nation's top 10 storm and floodwater systems contractors, and is the nation's #1 landfill and environmental cleanup contractor, according to Engineering News Record Magazine.

Information is available on the company's website at www.sukut.com or by calling Sukut headquarters at (888)-SUKUT01 or (888) 785-8801.

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