Communications Hill 

DGC Role: Excavation, Grading & Paving Subcontractor 

Client: KB Homes 

Location of Project: San Jose, CA 

Project Dates: November 2017 – August 2019

By the Numbers 

• • Contract Value: $40,465,000  
  • 4,400,000 CY of Excavation  
  • 30,000 CY of Dirt Moved Per Shift  
  • 55,000 TN of Class II AB  
  • 16,000 TN of HMA 

 

Communications Hill quickly transformed from a large open hill side to an area in which many San Jose residents now call home. Since the land was acquired by our client KB Home, DeSilva Gates Construction has employed nearly every resource in our company to complete one of the largest developments in the Bay Area. When complete, Communications Hill will consist of approximately 4,700 residential units, 67,500 sq. ft. of commercial space and nearly 1.5 million sq. ft. of industrial park uses.  

For this project, DeSilva Gates Construction excavated approximately 4,400,000 cubic yards of dirt, and during peak production times, 30,000 cubic yards were moved per shift. 

To complete this massive grading project, DeSilva Gates Construction used an equipment fleet of twelve Cat 657 scrapers, various dozers, compactors, water pulls, and water trucks. 

This project site also had several existing environmental hazards that were dealt with during the construction process, including rock containing naturally occurring asbestos (NOA). Due to this presence of NOA, our dust mitigation plan held us to a standard that went beyond normal air quality regulations. To comply with extremely strict regulations, DeSilva Gates Construction operated one water truck per piece of equipment during each shift, and during shifts of heavy excavation, up to 15 water trucks were used to keep dust down to an absolute minimum.    

Along with the presence of NOA, an abandoned mercury mine and several other unknown mines were encountered during the process of deep excavation. These mines were abandoned by filling them with a slurry concrete mix.