The U.S. Dept.of Transportation has awarded $185 million in grants to 45 projects that aim to undo the harm done to neighborhoods years ago by highways and other types of infrastructure that cut residents off from jobs, schools, food stores and health care facilities. 

The group of awards, formally announced on Feb. 28, represents the first installment of the $1-billion Reconnecting Communities program launched in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Of the 45 grants,

The U.S. Dept.of Transportation has awarded $185 million in grants to 45 projects that aim to undo the harm done to neighborhoods years ago by highways and other types of infrastructure that cut residents off from jobs, schools, food stores and health care facilities. 

The group of awards, formally announced on Feb. 28, represents the first installment of the $1-billion Reconnecting Communities program launched in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Of the 45 grants, six, totaling $138.2 million, are for capital construction; the rest are for planning projects.

DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, “Transportation should connect, not divide, people and communities.”

As with other U.S. DOT discretionary grant competitions, including those that pre-date the IIJA, demand for the Reconnecting Communities money far outran the $185 million available.

In all there were 369 unsuccessful applicants, which altogether sought about $1.7 billion from DOT.

The six new capital construction grants include: $55.6 million to the New York State DOT, to help construct a new highway cap and tunnel for Buffalo’s Kensington Expressway; and the City of Long Beach, Calif., which was awarded $30 million to redesign West Shoreline Drive, converting a freeway into a lower-speed roadway.

Among the other construction grants are: $21.7 million to the Michigan DOT to remove and replace a deck over Interstate-696 in Oak Park, a suburb of Detroit; and $13.2 million to the New Jersey Transit Corp. for a pedestrian tunnel for the Long Branch commuter rail station on the north Jersey Shore. 

A $12.3-million construction grant went to the City of Kalamazoo, Mich., for a pilot project to upgrade Kalamazoo and Michigan Avenues with traffic-calming features; and the City of Tampa, Fla., received $5.4 million for a project to lower an interchange ramp to street level, thus restoring a connection harmed by I-275.

The project receiving the largest grant, the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo, involves capping about 4,100 ft of the highway and restoring features of the earlier Humboldt Parkway, which was designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the project would help to correct a "50-year-wrong" and would "help reunite Buffalo's East Side and adjacent neighborhoods that were wrongly divided by the Kensington Expressway."

The federal grants only finance a portion of the selected projects' total costs. States, cities and other grant recipients can use other types of federal highway funds, including money from other IIJA programs. The recipients also can contribute their own funds toward the projects.

For example, the new federal Kensington Expressway grant only accounts for about 5% of the project's estimated $1.05-billion total cost.

A Washington state dam owner has agreed to pay $1 million in restitution and fines after a maintenance project polluted a river with unpermitted crumb rubber and threatened the Chinook salmon population the project was designed in part to assist. 

The payment, which is still pending court approval, would be the largest for an environmental crime in state history, officials say. 

Electron Hydro LLC, which operates a 26-MW hydroelectric dam on the Puyallup River in Pierce County,

A Washington state dam owner has agreed to pay $1 million in restitution and fines after a maintenance project polluted a river with unpermitted crumb rubber and threatened the Chinook salmon population the project was designed in part to assist. 

The payment, which is still pending court approval, would be the largest for an environmental crime in state history, officials say. 

Electron Hydro LLC, which operates a 26-MW hydroelectric dam on the Puyallup River in Pierce County, and its chief operating officer Thom Fischer, pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor violation of operating an unlawful hydraulic project, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Feb. 27.

Of the proposed $1-million payment, $745,000 is earmarked for river restitution, with the rest set as a fine paid to the county. The settlement was reached just ahead of a scheduled trial for Fischer, who had faced 30 gross misdemeanor charges out of  36 filed by the attorney general in early 2022. A county superior court judge is set to rule May 5 on the settlement terms. 

The Electron Dam dates to the early 1900s. Electron Hydro has owned it since 2014. The firm undertook efforts to modernize the facility to withstand large flow volumes during storms. That work involved repairing a diversion, rebuilding shoreline protections upstream and downstream as well as replacing the spillway, project documents show. The plan also called for installation of a sediment and fish exclusion system at the intake. 

According to the attorney general’s office, Electron Hydro obtained county, state and federal permits for the $3.6-million project and began work on a temporary bypass channel in mid-2020. But he company’s applications had not included its plan to use segments of artificial turf. A video shared on social media by an Electron Hydro construction employee-turned-whistleblower shows rolls of artificial turf with football yard markings at the site. 

The attorney general’s office says the company placed about 2,400 sq yd of unpermitted turf material containing 16 to 18 cu yd of crumb rubber, which contained millions of individual rubber beads. Crews then covered the turf with a plastic liner and diverted the river over it. 

The liner ruptured days later, causing artificial turf and crumb rubber to discharge into the river. Pierce County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a stop-work order, but the river remained diverted through October 2020, officials say. The project remains unfinished.

A chemical analysis of crumb rubber recovered from the river revealed the presence of a chemical compound called 6PPD-Quinone, which is “extremely toxic” to salmon, according to the attorney general’s office. 

“Electron Hydro and Thom Fischer’s reckless conduct damaged this waterway and put species like salmon at risk,” Ferguson said in a statement. 

Neither Fischer nor attorneys that have represented the company immediately responded to inquiries. 

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ tribal council said in a statement that they were grateful for prosecutors’ efforts to hold Electron Hydro accountable, but criticized the settlement as a “token of dollars” that “won’t bring back salmon or habitat.” The tribe says members continue to find pieces of artificial turf downstream in the river.

“This is not accountability,” the tribal council said in its statement. “This is a mere operating expense for the company. The health of our people and the residents of Washington is worth a lot more than that.”

In addition to the criminal case, Electron Hydro had also faced lawsuits filed by environmental conservation groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The company settled two cases with the conservation groups last year. The EPA case is currently scheduled for a federal bench trial starting Oct. 10.  

While Clayco Corp. was constructing the Cubes at Glendale, a 335-acre industrial park in Glendale, Ariz., Paul Fries, photographer and owner of drone services firm UAVision LLC, Mesa, Ariz., documented the project’s progress. “I was the pilot that flew the monthly progress photos and mapping missions,” Fries says.  

One day in October, Fries was in the midst of his monthly flight when weather conditions began creating a magnificent rainbow in the near distance.

“This was

While Clayco Corp. was constructing the Cubes at Glendale, a 335-acre industrial park in Glendale, Ariz., Paul Fries, photographer and owner of drone services firm UAVision LLC, Mesa, Ariz., documented the project’s progress. “I was the pilot that flew the monthly progress photos and mapping missions,” Fries says.  

One day in October, Fries was in the midst of his monthly flight when weather conditions began creating a magnificent rainbow in the near distance.

“This was the last flight, and the mission was to capture images of each cube from multiple angles,” Fries explained in an entry, entitled Rainbows and Cubes, for ENR’s annual photo contest. “I had noticed that a large storm was forming, so I took the opportunity to capture the entire campus. This was the result.”

Carrie Perrone has rejoined design firm SmithGroup as higher education studio leader in Phoenix. She had been director of higher education at RSP Architects in Tempe. Perrone had previously served as a principal and education strategist at SmithGroup, with a focus on planning and designing learning environments. The firm has 1,300 employees in 19 offices in the U.S.

Carrie Perrone has rejoined design firm SmithGroup as higher education studio leader in Phoenix. She had been director of higher education at RSP Architects in Tempe. Perrone had previously served as a principal and education strategist at SmithGroup, with a focus on planning and designing learning environments. The firm has 1,300 employees in 19 offices in the U.S. and China, ranking at No. 62 on ENR’s current Top 500 Design Firms list.

Larson Design Group, a Williamsport, Pa., architecture and engineering consultant, has hired Bruce Preston as senior vice president and operations manager of its federal group based in Phoenix. He joins the firm from TSK Architects in Tempe, where he was vice president and manager of its Arizona operations and federal division. LDG’s federal group was started in 2019. Preston also is Southwest regional vice president of the Society of Military Engineers.

Switch Inc., the Las Vegas data center and technology developer, has elevated Joshua Ewing to chief construction officer. Joining the firm in 2015, he was executive vice president of construction. He previously worked for electrical construction and engineering firm GSL Electric Inc.

Sundt Construction Inc., the Tempe, Ariz.-based general contractor, announced recent staff hires and promotions. Dan Howard recently joined the company as director of information technology, managing the IT department and overseeing the corporate strategic technology plan. He had been vice president of information technology at Arrivia Inc., an international travel and lifestyle organization, according to a LinkedIn profile. Sundt also has named Kelsey Weimerskirch as a senior talent acquisition specialist to support workforce development in its Eastern and Midwest regions. She is based in Nashville, Tenn. Sundt’s building group also recently promoted Mike Hill and Courtney Hoyt in Tucson. Hill, a 20-year Sundt veteran, was elevated to project director, focused on aviation projects in the West and Southwest U.S. Hoyt was promoted to assistant project manager.

Parametrix, an engineering, planning and environmental sciences firm, has elevated Nathan Johnson to senior vice president and head of its Southwest region, which includes offices in New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. He joined the firm last year as vice president and previously had been a vice president and West region structures manager at WSP USA. Terry Doyle also joined Parametrix as vice president, leading its Albuquerque-based operations. He had been director of the Rio Metro Regional Transit District, overseeing commuter rail and bus operations, and previously was transportation director for the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

Shuya Wei, an assistant professor in the department of chemical and biological engineering at the University of New Mexico, has been awarded a $110,000 grant by the American Chemical Society to research ways to transform methane gas emissions into usable methanol fuel, the university announced in February. The two-year funding will end in 2025. “It is crucial to find more sustainable solutions for the use and conversion of methane to fulfill the growing energy demand,” she said. Wei, who joined the university faculty in 2019, also is starting research under a separate grant to boost the capacity and longevity of rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries used for energy storage.

Since before Arizona became a state, the University of Arizona has served as a center for learning and discovery, over time becoming a leader in scientific research and space exploration. From the 1891 opening of Old Main, the Tucson school’s first building, to the more than 800 buildings and over 19 million sq ft of space it now has, the university’s planning, design and construction department shapes the vision for campus growth, functionality and aesthetics.

With more than 51,000

Since before Arizona became a state, the University of Arizona has served as a center for learning and discovery, over time becoming a leader in scientific research and space exploration. From the 1891 opening of Old Main, the Tucson school’s first building, to the more than 800 buildings and over 19 million sq ft of space it now has, the university’s planning, design and construction department shapes the vision for campus growth, functionality and aesthetics.

With more than 51,000 current students, the university has an ever-growing need for new state-of-the-art facilities. “But at the same time, we need to reinvest in some of the old buildings that we have, as the oldest campus in the state, to get more utilization,” says Peter Dourlein, university architect and associate vice president of planning, design and construction.

Crews installed the massive thermal vacuum chamber early in construction.Photo courtesy McCarthy Building Cos.

Like many large campus owners, the University of Arizona builds to last, with optimal life expectancy for buildings ranging from 50 to 100 years. “What really drives us is not just building things that facilitate a function, but that also inspire,” Dourlein says, whether that is creating a healthy workspace or a space that boosts productivity or one that increases scientific discovery. “In the beginning, we shape a [new] building, but eventually the building shapes our own behavior,” he says. “Looking at the long haul, we can best serve our constituency, our professors, our faculty and staff on campus by providing something that not only works today, but will work for a very long time.”

The chamber simulates conditions in the stratosphere and space. Photo by Scott Blair/ENR

For its dedication to collaboration, service to many stakeholders and commitment to better the campus built environment, the University of Arizona planning, design and construction department (PDC) has been named ENR Southwest 2023 Owner of the Year.

Many of the 50 or so department employees have had extensive experience in the construction industry. “We’ve got the secret sauce going on at U of A,” says Lorna Gray, PDC director of construction. “We bring folks on and they get with it. For a lot of them, it’s probably the best job they’ve ever had, because it’s a real collaborative environment. Our motto is: We’re all going to cross the finish line together. That means we’re trying every day for everybody [on the project team] to be as successful as possible. ”

The university recently completed a $42-million revitalization of its historic chemistry building. Photo courtesy U of A PDC

Grand Challenges

Two projects currently under construction showcase many PDC department strengths in working to deepen the bench of cutting-edge facilities for university researchers to delve into some of the biggest questions and issues facing the Earth and beyond.

The $99-million Grand Challenges Research Building will expand the school’s optics research programs, which include lasers, lenses, spectrometers, medical equipment and massive mirrors required for telescopes, satellites and other space exploration functions. It will also house a new quantum networks center to create new methods to transmit information and boost computing power. Other researchers will track space junk, experiment with sound and delve into bioinformatics, which uses the power of statistics to analyze biological data and help improve health outcomes for patients.

A planned 50,000-sq-ft facility for Arizona Public Media will modernize the region’s not-for-profit media production facilities.Photo courtesy U of A PDC

The seven-story project was awarded under a progressive design-build contract to Kitchell Contractors, ZGF Architects LLP and BWS Architects. Work began in July 2021, with substantial completion set for February 2024.

To avoid the dramatic escalation of materials pricing and shortages that impacted the construction industry in 2021 and 2022, the PDC department allowed Kitchell to preorder key materials and bill for those stored items.

“PDC has been an excellent steward of the university by creating new environments and repurposing others to help keep the university in the top ranks. It’s also an excellent steward of the state’s money,” says Brian Brown, Arizona regional executive at Kitchell, adding that a “willingness to collaborate is a big plus.”

The university’s “willingness to collaborate is a big plus.” —Brian Brown, Arizona Regional Executive, Kitchell Construction

Nearby, the $85-million Applied Research Building will support some of the more specialized research at the school. The three-story building includes high-bay payload assembly areas for high-altitude balloons, space exploration and other experiments, plus a large-scale thermal vacuum chamber, anechoic chamber to suppress sound or electromagnetic waves, clean rooms, labs and offices.

Also being built under a design-build contract, the team, led by McCarthy Building Cos. with SmithGroup, will wrap up construction this month.

Debra Johnson, PDC director of design, credits much of the project success to the flexibility it has to employ a variety of delivery methods. The department can select construction manager at-risk (CMAR), various levels of design-build, job order contracting and traditional design-bid-build, depending on project size and requirements. The delivery methods “allow us to select qualified firms, both from the design side and the construction side,” she says. “That really starts us off in the right direction, because we’re bringing in teams that we believe are highly qualified to do the specific projects.”

Occupying a former parking lot, the Grand Challenges Research Building provides research space for optics and quantum computing. Photo courtesy Kitchell Contractors

Dourlein emphasizes a “people-first” approach to awarding project contracts. “When we select the team, we’re really looking at the people who are going to be working on the project day to day, not necessarily the shiny magazine cover that was completed a while back or by another office, but rather the people to be actively engaged in the project.” Reflecting the motto of crossing the finish line together, “If somebody falls down, we’re going to stop and pick them up, so to speak,” he adds.

PDC culture “is one of mutual respect and trust where everyone on the team feels they are in a true partnership,” says Michael Gonzalez, vice president of McCarthy’s Southwest region education business unit. “The university’s unique approach allows the design-build model to function at its best, where egos are on the sideline and every member of the team feels equally valued for their expertise. Because of this people-focused approach, everyone is invested in a project’s success and part of bringing it to life.”

The $165-million Health Sciences Innovation Building won the national ENR Best of the Best award for health care in 2021. Photo courtesy CO Architects

Stakeholder Engagement

The university also is currently constructing the $23-million Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, a CMAR project designed by Line and Space and built by DPR Construction. The contractor also is slated to build the $45-million Arizona Public Media facility, which is still in the design phase by SmithGroup and Swaim.

On all of its projects, PDC interfaces with a broad array of stakeholders—from other departments including facilities, groundskeeping, transportation, lab safety and risk management to students, staff, faculty and researchers—and even those in the larger Tucson community.

Currently under construction, the $23-million Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine will focus on research into holistic health and well-being.

To foster communication and reduce potential clashes with the community, the department employs “impact control planning” to carefully plan and notify stakeholders and the public about anything that may happen outside of the boundaries of the project site.

“We’re trying to be really forward looking, proactive in our communication and sharing the experience with the community, and it’s done wonders,” Gray says. “I personally am really proud of it.”

As someone who has never had much interest in education in the traditional sense — I lasted about five weeks before dropping out of college — most of my valued knowledge and experience has come from working with and around people.

So I believe there is no substitution for collective innovation that comes from people collaborating in a shared space. A work-from-home

As someone who has never had much interest in education in the traditional sense — I lasted about five weeks before dropping out of college — most of my valued knowledge and experience has come from working with and around people.

So I believe there is no substitution for collective innovation that comes from people collaborating in a shared space. A work-from-home only policy doesn’t support that or the goals of inclusivity and diversity that we believe in.

One of the key differentiators for Clayco, which I founded and serve as executive chairman, is that the culture is actually developed by contributions from the people directly. The culture and contributions are built on an open-book platform with a focus on people first. To attract and retain the best and brightest, there has to be accountability and shared ownership in the strategy, the profit, and the culture. Since Clayco’s founding, there has been an enormous amount of listening. This has led us to "safety, inclusivity, and community" as our core tenets. Companies cannot build this type of organization with a WFH-only policy

According to the Harvard Business Review, much information sharing happens through short, informal discussions between people throughout a typical workday. That’s been my experience. These underrated office opportunities are the backbone of corporate culture and improve work satisfaction. No application or technology can imitate the connection and creativity sparked by being together and learning from each other face-to-face. Teams do their best work when they’re together in the office and where everyone can be represented and add to the company culture.

In Microsoft’s 2022 New Future of Work Report, researchers found that while remote work may improve job satisfaction, it can also lead to employees feeling socially isolated, guilty, and trying to overcompensate. After years of forced isolation due to the global pandemic, we have witnessed the negative impact on mental health when people cannot gather and share experiences. Feelings of isolation create emotional distress and can worsen existing health problems.

Developing connections between people takes time and effort and simply can’t be effectively done through a screen. Conducting all business and operations remotely online can also lead to digital burnout, feelings of anxiety, exhaustion, and apathy caused by spending too much time on digital devices. Returning to a physical workplace would mitigate this issue with more in-person interactions and a balanced workday. People feel safer.

Moving from traditional places of employment to home offices decreases productivity and further isolates individuals who are already struggling — whether that is mentally, physically, or for those who have difficulty achieving equitable representation. Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion should be a fundamental of any venture. Giving people a voice, especially those who belong to underrepresented demographics in construction in every aspect of operations is the only way to foster innovation and positively transform our communities. Multicultural professionals, including Hispanic, Asian, and Black individuals, only hold 14% of senior executive and manager positions in corporate America. For the minorities who have fought so hard to have a seat at the table, WFH is another barrier and setback on their journey to find belonging. At Clayco, we are a melting pot of people from all over the world (46 languages are spoken across our teams). We are folks from all different backgrounds and educations and we cannot reach our full ambitions via virtual chat rooms in kitchens — we need each other and the offices, collaborative spaces and teammates pulling for each other to reach our full potential. 

Black and Hispanic students entering the workforce also felt significantly less comfortable with remote jobs than White students, according to a WayUp survey in April 2020. This discrepancy could be due to limited space or access to technology, but digital inequality is becoming yet another hurdle in our quest to expand inclusivity. As employers and leaders, we must work diligently to close the gap in equity and resources throughout our communities, not widen it. People are not able to show their best selves while working from the grocery store line.

If we are to create meaningful opportunities for our employees and people within the neighborhoods we serve, we must do so by taking the time to get to know each other and combining our ambitions and resources to facilitate meaningful change. Leaders need to build diverse, respectful, and safe workplaces for all where individuals can accomplish their dreams with the support and innovative tools around them. For better health, opportunities, and business, it’s time to get back to the non-virtual office.

Bob Clark is founder and executive chairman of Chicago-based Clayco, Inc.

Most fatal accident investigations find precursors or missed opportunities that could have prevented the tragedy. But the death of a Chicago suburb public works employee who became trapped in an underground vault that filled with water may qualify as one that could never have been foreseen.

 A watermain break while the worker, Matt Heiden, was in the vault, flooded the chamber and drowned him.

In a press release, the Village of Westmont said Heiden was unresponsive when he was removed

Most fatal accident investigations find precursors or missed opportunities that could have prevented the tragedy. But the death of a Chicago suburb public works employee who became trapped in an underground vault that filled with water may qualify as one that could never have been foreseen.

 A watermain break while the worker, Matt Heiden, was in the vault, flooded the chamber and drowned him.

In a press release, the Village of Westmont said Heiden was unresponsive when he was removed from the underground water main vault about an hour after the accident was reported at 11:45 a.m. on Feb. 23. 

Larry McIntyre, a spokesperson for the Village of Westmont, said Heiden was performing scheduled maintenance on the water system beneath a manhole 

“He was doing repairs when a freak accident occurred and water rushed in,” McIntyre said. 

McIntyre said state labor officials will take the lead in investigating what occurred. Heiden had worked as a seasonal employee in the village’s public works department between 2019 and 2021. He was hired as a part-time water maintenance worker in September 2021 and had recently become full-time, according to the village.

Few confined space accidents have involved drownings.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2020 that there were 41 deaths in sewers, manholes, or storm drains between 2011 and 2018. All were related to inhalation of a harmful substance. 

In those years, there were also 203 deaths in ditches, channels, trenches and excavations that were due to collapses. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. Dept. of Labor called the incident that killed Heiden “something of an anomaly.” 

Erik Kambarian, chief, Division of Occupational Safety and Health for Illinois OSHA, said the agency inspected the site the day after the accident and would report the results of its investigation within six months. 

Contracts, Bids, Proposals

FLORIDA

Florida East Coast Realty Inc. is in the planning phase of a design-bid-build project for a $1-billion, 92-story, 2-million-sq-ft mixed-use tower in Miami, the One Bayfront Plaza Mixed Use Tower. With a target construction start date of September, plans call for the demolition of an existing 19-story building and construction of 1,361 apartments, 200 hotel rooms, a parking garage for 2,117 vehicles and an associated

Contracts, Bids, Proposals

FLORIDA

Florida East Coast Realty Inc. is in the planning phase of a design-bid-build project for a $1-billion, 92-story, 2-million-sq-ft mixed-use tower in Miami, the One Bayfront Plaza Mixed Use Tower. With a target construction start date of September, plans call for the demolition of an existing 19-story building and construction of 1,361 apartments, 200 hotel rooms, a parking garage for 2,117 vehicles and an associated pedestrian bridge as well as more than 100,000 sq ft of retail space on 3.35 acres. Florida East Coast Realty Inc., 100 S. Biscayne Blvd., Ste. 1100, Miami, 33301. DR#07-00734692.

FLORIDA

Immocorp Capital and the city of West Palm Beach are in the design phase of the Northwood Square apartments-grocery-retail development, a $70-million to $75-million design-bid-build project set to start construction in April. Plans call for three nine-story reinforced concrete buildings housing 382 condominiums, 28 studio apartments, 191 one-bedroom apartments and 163 two-bedroom units on 3.3 acres alongside 63,200 sq ft of retail space, a 58-space parking garage and an amenity deck with swimming pool, fitness center and game room. Immocorp Capital, 18851 NE 29th Ave., Miami, 33180. DR#17-00761738.

SOUTH CAROLINA

BMW Manufacturing Corp. is designing the 1-million-sq-ft BMW Hi-Voltage Battery Assembly Facility near Spartanburg, expected to cost $700 million. Construction by Evans General contractors is set to begin in May for the single-story, structural steel building to house a high-voltage electric vehicle battery assembly facility. Site clearing is underway. BMW Manufacturing Corp., 1400 Highway 101 S, Greer, 29651. DR#22-00800571.

GEORGIA

The Georgia Dept. of Transportation is planning a $5.5-billion, three-part design-build project to add two new elevated, barrier-separated express lanes in both directions of Interstate-285 in Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties, which it says is the one of the most heavily traveled and congested interstate highways in the country. The project proposes the new lanes in three main areas: on I-285 from Interstate 20 to Paces Ferry Road, on I-285 from Henderson Road to I-20 and on Interstate 75 from Ga. 155 to Interstate 475. The work schedule for bridge replacements over railroad tracks and roads and collector-distributor lanes is still to be determined. Georgia Dept. of Transportation, 600 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, 30309. DR#17-00625020.

FLORIDA

Triple Five and PCL Constructors are revising the master plan for a new amusement park in Miami, the American Dream Miami Retail and Entertainment Master Report, detailing a 225-acre amusement park with 7.2 million total sq ft of building space including indoor ski slope, water park, man-made saltwater lake, artificial reef, 3,000-seat movie theater, performing arts center, ice skating rink, museum, bowling alley, 2,000 hotel rooms, 3 million sq ft of retail space and 2 million sq ft of entertainment space. Reviews and approvals are pending for the estimated $3-billion to $4-billion project. Triple Five, Attn. Debbie Patire, Sr. VP of Marketing, Ste. 3000 West Edmonton Mall 8882, 170th St., Edmonton, Alberta, T5T 4M2. DR#15-00457084.

NORTH CAROLINA

The North Carolina Dept. of Transportation is evaluating bids for a $621.5-million design-build paving project to construct improvements to Haywood Road in Asheville. NCDOT is expected to award the project to one of three bidders by March 17 and start work April 1. NC Dept. Transportation, 1020 Birch Ridge Drive, Raleigh, 27610. DR#21-00821476.

FLORIDA

Moss & Associates has started construction on the $450-million One Ashley condominium and hotel tower project located along Tampa’s Riverwalk. Work includes a 39-story structural steel building totaling more than 1.4 million sq ft with 207 condominium units, rooftop swimming pool and café. Off-site improvements include modification to the alignment of Ashely Drive South, sidewalk improvements and 719-space parking garage. Two Roads Development, 1217 S. Flagler Drive FL 2, West Palm Beach, 33401. DR#15-00584411.

Cheryl Lang has been promoted to president of precast concrete manufacturer Tindall Corp. She joined the Spartanburg, S.C., firm in 1990 as a controller and was most recently senior vice president of administration.

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp., a unit of SNC-Lavalin Group, has named Jim Rugg president, based in Oak

Cheryl Lang has been promoted to president of precast concrete manufacturer Tindall Corp. She joined the Spartanburg, S.C., firm in 1990 as a controller and was most recently senior vice president of administration.

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp., a unit of SNC-Lavalin Group, has named Jim Rugg president, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Most recently, he was operations manager for defense and space at Bechtel. Rugg has waste management experience at several major federal nuclear sites. He succeeds Tom Jouvanis, who is retiring from the company.

Joey Duncan has been hired as a principal engineer at Dewberry in Jacksonville, Fla., He previously worked for the city of Jacksonville and for city-based electric utility company JEA.

Susan Osterberg has been elevated to president of Nashville-based design firm Smith Seckman Reid Inc. Currently chief operating officer, she succeeds Steve Lane, who is retiring. Osterberg also is set to succeed Lane in the CEO role on Sept. 1. Lane will continue as board of directors chair through 2023. Osterberg, who became COO in April 2021, joined the company in 2011 as vice president of human resources. She previously held multiple executive roles at a publicly held hospitality company, the firm said. Employee-owned SSR, an engineering, commissioning and technology services firm, ranks at No. 200 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, reporting about $87 million in 2021 revenue. Lane has been CEO and board chair since 2018.

Joy Riley has joined infrastructure firm HNTB Corp. as a senior project manager in Columbia, S.C. She had been a senior engineering project manager at the South Carolina Dept. of Transportation.

Architecture and engineering firm Goodwyn Mills Cawood has appointed to the board of directors John Bricken, executive vice president of landscape architecture, and Steve Jernigan, regional vice president of its Florida operation. Lee Walters, regional vice president of the Gulf Coast, has been named board chairman for 2023 and 2024. The firm also hired Daniel Mosher in Columbia, S.C., to support its work on water and wastewater projects. Also joining is Jason Bennett, who is responsible for aviation project management and business development across Tennessee.

Nashville-based civil engineering firm Barge Civil Associates, formerly Barge Cauthen & Associates, announced Feb. 7 its name change and the appointment of three new owners: John Gore, Jeff Hooper and Liza Rivers. All are principals at the nearly 30-year-old company and have worked at the firm for 22, 23 and 29 years, respectively, it said.

John Battaro and Andy Kaminski have announced their March 31 retirements from architecture, engineering and consulting firm RS&H. Battaro, executive vice president, building strategy leader, has been with the firm since 1983 and on its board of directors since 2008. Chief people officer Kaminski joined RS&H in 2019 as executive vice president overseeing the firm’s administrative functions.

Barton Malow has promoted Larry Arndt to vice president in its commercial and institutional division. He will now oversee all operations in the company’s South region and will work from Barton Malow offices in Tampa and Orlando.

Ed Baro has been promoted to executive vice president of construction management company Moss in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He leads its Miami-Dade County-based operations. Baro also is a member of the Industry Advisory Council for Florida International University’s Moss School of Construction Management.

Daniel Hammond has joined professional consulting firm Freese and Nichols as a water resource specialist in Tampa, handling environmental services projects across Florida. He has experience in resource management, habitat restoration and marine and freshwater ecological evaluation, says the firm.

Alec B. Metzger has been promoted to senior vice president by EMC Engineering Services Inc. He is a 23-year company veteran based in Savannah and Rincon, Ga.

Design firm McKim & Creed has hired Rob Stout as senior vice president and water business unit manager based in Charlotte, overseeing water and wastewater sector work. He had been Southeast water sector lead at Stantec.

Kelsey Weimerskirch has been hired by Sundt Construction as senior talent acquisition specialist based in Nashville, supporting the company’s recruiting needs in the Eastern region. She was a corporate recruiter for Ryan Cos. US.

California-based DPR Construction has named Mark Whitson as president. Working from Cary, N.C., he has been with the contractor since 2001. Whitson relocated to North Carolina in 2013 to serve as business unit leader in Raleigh-Durham, then led the company’s Southeast region.

Design firm FK Architecture project manager Kelly Dawson has been elected to the board of directors of the Orlando chapter of the American Institute of Architects, holding the role of treasurer. She has worked at the Winter Park-based firm since 2018.

Geneva Dowdy has been hired by engineering and architecture firm Barge Design Solutions as a Knoxville, Tenn.-based traffic engineer.

Engineering and environmental consulting services firm Langan has promoted Eric Schwarz to senior principal, based in Orlando, and Lenny Rodriguez to principal in Miami.

John Westphal has joined engineering firm COWI North America Inc. as section head and associate project director, based in Florida, to support its Southeast transportation work. Most recently, he was Florida transportation lead and senior project manager at S&ME Inc.

Jeffrey J. Stash has been hired by engineer-consulting services firm Matern Professional Engineering in Fort Myers, Fla., as a plumbing and fire protection senior designer. He had been a project manager and firmwide instructor in solar and rainwater harvesting system design at TLC Engineering for Architecture Inc.

Forrest Ray has been elevated to director of environmental health and safety at Manson Construction Co., based in Jacksonville, Fla. He has been with the firm for 12 years, joining as a field engineer.

EnSafe, an environmental, engineering, health and safety and technology services firm, has hired Brooke Sinclair as senior environmental, health and safety regulatory specialist. She will also serve as national market sector lead for utilities, based in Knoxville, Tenn.

Caddell Construction, Montgomery, Ala.. has promoted three maanagers. Mike Ranieri is now executive officer; Isaac Sneeringer is vice president-international; and Landon Hoppe is vice president, field operations and support-international.

Construction firm Impetus has promoted Ryan Nash to serve as field team leader based in Nashville. He was formerly a senior superintendent.

OBITUARY

Shaik Jeelani, graduate school dean of Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Ala., who also had been interim dean of its School of Engineering and Architecture and vice president for research and sponsored programs, has died, the university said Feb. 15. A former mechanical engineering faculty member at Tuskegee, he founded its materials science and engineering program and created strong student mentoring and scholarship ties with industry as well as innovative programs to identify, motivate and recruit K-12 students into science and engineering, the school said. Among other recognitions, Jeelani received the Presidential Award for Mentoring from President Barack Obama in 2011.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy seeks proposals for both demonstration and large-scale projects that use “transformational” carbon capture technologies in the power and industrial sectors, DOE announced Feb. 23. The agency plans to spend up to $2.5 billion across two new programs established by the federal infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS) projects have had a complicated past, with some notable failures caused

The U.S. Dept. of Energy seeks proposals for both demonstration and large-scale projects that use “transformational” carbon capture technologies in the power and industrial sectors, DOE announced Feb. 23. The agency plans to spend up to $2.5 billion across two new programs established by the federal infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS) projects have had a complicated past, with some notable failures caused by runaway cost overruns, along with successes, such as Shell Canada’s C$1.3 billion Quest CCUS project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, one of the first and largest successfully operating carbon capture power projects in the world. 

DOE says the new programs have been set up to spur investment of private capital on CCUS projects by “de-risking” the use of emerging and transformational carbon management technologies. 

The Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilots program will award up to $820 million for up to 10 projects that demonstrate promising technologies at commercial scale in both the power and industrial sectors.

The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects program will award up to $1.7 billion for about six projects to demonstrate commercial-scale carbon capture technologies integrated with CO2 transportation and geological storage infrastructure. Two of the six must be for new or existing industrial facilities not related to electricity generation. 

"This program focuses on funding demonstration projects that can be readily replicated and deployed at power plants and major industrial sources of carbon emissions, such as cement, pulp and paper, iron and steel,” DOE said in its funding announcement. 

“There is somewhat of a chicken and egg challenge with large commercial scale CCUS projects. The costs/economics of the projects have been a challenge for them to move forward, but at the same time the absence of large-scale commercial plants can also hinder the continued technical and economic development and advancement that allows for further implementation," says Justin Schnegelberger, Burns & McDonnell energy group manager of development engineering. "This phenomenon is exactly what the federal funding is intended to address.”  

Some technologies have existed for years and evolved over time, but there are newer promising technologies as well. Both could benefit from the DOE funding, he says.

Curt Graham, vice president of technology at Fluor Corp., describes the Inflation Reduction Act’s boost in the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture projects—from $50 per ton of captured CO2 to $85 per ton—as a game-changer. The credit, coupled with the infrastructure law funding, will help more commercial-scale carbon management projects come online, he says. 

“We are definitely seeing a big upturn in funding inquiries and study requests,” Graham adds. DOE grants "around front-ends of projects and even some construction and implementation are fantastic, but I think 45Q has fundamentally changed the revenue situation and return on investment. I think these are economical projects now.” 

Doug Cowin, Burns & McDonnell CCUS/environmental services business development manager, says that one hurdle that prevents some CCUS projects moving forward is the lengthy process for Class IV CO2 injection well permits. This process “continues to slow the startup schedule for many—if not most—CCUS projects,” he says. 

Fluor’s Graham adds that the permitting process varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, depending on whether one is already set up to issue necessary permits. “I don’t believe that there are a lot of technical questions around the ability to sequester, it’s more [related to whether] permitting regimes are in place," Graham says. "If you have to come up with a regime when the project is trying to permit, it takes a long time.” 

Concept papers for the pilot projects are due April 5; letters of intent for the demonstration projects program are due March 28. 

In a study of DOE CCS demonstration projects released in 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office called for more program oversight after several failed attempts to demonstrate funded technologies and accelerate commercial deployment. GAO said the agency spent about $1.1 billion since 2009 to demonstrate 11 large-scale projects at coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities but demonstrations ended with just three of 11 projects being built.

City Grill

John Harris Executive Vice President Balfour Beatty

The sustained momentum and growth in tourism is keeping Orlando’s construction industry in high demand, says John Harris, Balfour Beatty vice president.

“It's strong demand

City Grill

John Harris Executive Vice President Balfour Beatty

The sustained momentum and growth in tourism is keeping Orlando’s construction industry in high demand, says John Harris, Balfour Beatty vice president.

“It's strong demand is expected to drive further development into the hospitality and attractions sector, a very competitive market locally,” he says.

Balfour Beatty is currently working on several large attraction and resort projects tied to Orlando’s theme parks, but in the midst of the continued demand, Harris says contractors are navigating unprecedented supply chain and labor issues as well as high interest rates for developer-led projects.

Some forecasts say unprecedented material and labor costs will stabilize or even become more favorable throughout the rest of the year. But with lingering unknowns, he says, Balfour Beatty is committed to working with clients through preconstruction to build out certainty, secure volatile materials and get ahead of supply chain and escalation risks.

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Labor demand remains a challenge, Harris says, one that Balfour Beatty is tackling by partnering with Osceola County to recruit, train and retain local apprentices through a two-year Florida Dept. of Labor apprenticeship program requiring participants to complete 5,200 hours of on-the-job training and 120 hours of classroom instruction at Osceola Technical College.

“[Tourism’s] strong demand is expected to drive further development into the hospitality and attractions sector.” —John Harris, Executive Vice President, Balfour Beatty

Along with Orlando’s stream of hospitality and hotel projects, Harris says the Balfour Beatty team is focusing on corporate office, education and renovation/expansion work locally. Amid the challenges of recent years, the firm has found ways to meet clients’ needs with capital improvements to existing facilities instead of more traditional, large, ground-up projects.

“Our teams are gaining great traction in the special projects and interior build-out market to meet these client needs, specifically in tenant improvement, renovations, resort amenity space and guest room refresh work,” he says.

One hospitality project in the works for Balfour Beatty is the 81,000-sq-ft Rollins College Alfond Inn Hotel expansion and renovation, an addition to the existing luxury hotel that includes 71 guest rooms, a spa and amenity deck to address the increasing need for social venues in historic Winter Park.

Outside hospitality and confidential theme park projects, Balfour Beatty is currently constructing the SchenkelShultz-designed Lake Highland Preparatory School Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics, a 71,000-sq-ft, four-story educational facility set to open in the 2023-24 school year after 14 months of construction.

Balfour Beatty recently completed the AdventHealth Training Facility, a 35,000-sq-ft outpatient clinic and a 100,000-sq-ft training facility for the NBA’s Orlando Magic. Photo courtesy Balfour Beatty

Hospitality, attractions, education, corporate office, special projects and interior build-outs are the sectors keeping contractors busy, but looking to the future, local contractors are eyeing projects prompted by the further development of Brightline’s transit rail system coming to the Orlando airport, Harris says, where builders are starting to see positive indications of additional building resources being needed to support local transportation disbursement.

City Grill

Gary Creed CEO Edifice General Contractors

Contractors in Charlotte remain focused on working through project backlogs that have built up over the past few years, says Gary Creed, CEO of Edifice Contractors in Charlotte.

“Everyone

City Grill

Gary Creed CEO Edifice General Contractors

Contractors in Charlotte remain focused on working through project backlogs that have built up over the past few years, says Gary Creed, CEO of Edifice Contractors in Charlotte.

“Everyone is busy with an abundance of projects backlogged since the last recession,” he says. “We still hear design firms with plenty of pipeline as well as subcontractors working off backlog.”

Edifice is just starting to hear from some customers rumbling about uncertainty in the future lending environment, he says, and if lending does begin to retract, it will slow down the availability of projects that would impact contractors in 2024 or 2025. Creed feels that moving forward, the market may weaken somewhat, but it may not be a bad thing, as the big challenges he sees in the market are inflation in pricing, material supply shortages creating unpredictable delivery times and a shortage of craft labor leaving contractors struggling to keep up with the current construction demands.

“We need some cooling down of the market to get supply chain and inflationary pricing under control,” he says. “I’ve been telling our customers we need to get the predictability of what we do back in line.”

They need to be able to accurately forecast pricing and know accurately when they’ll be able to get materials, which wasn’t the case in 2022. It would help lenders get more comfortable with project cost risks, and in the Charlotte market, Creed doesn’t expect to see a huge change, but perhaps a needed moderate, healthy slowdown.

As with recent years, the market is still rife with opportunities. Other than a few months at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, all construction markets in Charlotte have been active, he says, with the biggest change in 2022 being the rapid increase in construction cost and delays in material deliveries.

The industrial sector is most active by far, according to Creed, including warehouse and distribution space and multinational manufacturing facilities. The Charlotte metro area always seems to have needed or in-progress projects because the metropolitan area of more than 2.6 million people continues to grow, creating the need for different facilities, he says.

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“For instance, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system (CMS) is still in need of additional classrooms and asking for bond referendums,” Creed says. “Affordable housing continues to get a lot of media press and is needed in the market. And industrial opportunities have not stopped, but may depending on the lending environment.”

The city’s future light rail lines could also spur continued growth along their routes, though that work could be way down the road, he says. Charlotte’s 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan shows extensions to its LYNX rail line to the west, north and southeast of the city.

At the ballot box in November 2022, election results from the state Board of Elections shows voters in Charlotte and nearby communities overwhelmingly approved new bond referendums for transportation, housing, parks and recreation projects, including three bonds in Charlotte that passed by margins of roughly 3 to 1.

Those bonds, totaling $198 million, are split between $127 million for transportation, $50 million for housing and $21 million for neighborhood improvements, according to the city’s Capital Improvements Plan.

Those funds mark the third consecutive $50-million allocation to the city’s affordable housing efforts—more than triple funds the city will put toward sidewalks and pedestrian safety—and support nearly $20 million in economic development partnerships. Transportation infrastructure efforts, including to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion in multiple areas of the city, will get more than $30 million over the next four years, according to the CIP.

In 2021 and 2022, a large number of e-commerce facilities were being constructed, including those for FedEx and Amazon. That rush is now coming to a close with many fewer projects in that realm being proposed going into 2023 and 2024, Creed says. In 2022, Edifice built multiple confidential e-commerce facilities and corporate offices like mixed-use developments The Square at South End and The Station at LoSo. The company also completed several multinational manufacturing facilities for confidential clients, and continues to value its long relationship with CMS, Creed says, having opened the new Palisades High School and other K-8 facilities.

Miami’s Wynwood Arts District is getting a new million-sq-ft mixed-use campus following the announcement that L&L Holding Co. and Oak Row Equities have secured $215 million in construction financing for the Wynwood Plaza. The Gensler-designed project will bring Class-AAA office, residential, retail and outdoor space to 95 NW 29th St. in Miami. According to a Jan. 20 statement, full project financing is now in place, and major construction is set to start immediately with full

Miami’s Wynwood Arts District is getting a new million-sq-ft mixed-use campus following the announcement that L&L Holding Co. and Oak Row Equities have secured $215 million in construction financing for the Wynwood Plaza. The Gensler-designed project will bring Class-AAA office, residential, retail and outdoor space to 95 NW 29th St. in Miami. According to a Jan. 20 statement, full project financing is now in place, and major construction is set to start immediately with full completion scheduled for 2025. Two full floors of the 12-story, 266,000-sq-ft office tower are pre-leased, according to the announcement. Two firms, investment firm the Claure Group and law firm Weitz & Luxembourg, are set to open offices at the campus totaling 43,400 sq ft.

Matt Knisely, managing director of project partner Shorenstein Properties, says the fast-growing population and business-friendly environments in Florida and Miami continue to drive corporate expansions and relocations, especially among prominent technology, financial and professional services firms. The project’s most distinctive characteristic will be a landscaped 26,000-sq-ft outdoor public plaza—set to be one of the largest in Miami—that will feature work from local artists. The project will build 509 luxury rental apartments and 32,000 sq ft of retail.

Photo courtesy Robins & Morton

Robins & Morton broke ground in January on a four-story, 80,000-sq-ft medical office building in Panama City Beach, Fla. Plans include space for clinical outpatient care on the first floor, medical practices throughout, an ambulatory care center on the fourth floor and operating rooms on the third and fourth floors. The facility is part of a new health care facility in Panama City Beach developed by the St. Joe Co. and Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. Plans are also included for the facility to serve in a teaching and research capacity through a partnership with Florida State University. Robins & Morton is the general contractor, and HuntonBrady Architects is serving as the architect for the structure, set to be complete in summer 2024.

Photo courtesy Housing Trust Group

Housing Trust Group celebrated the topping off of a $44-million affordable housing facility dubbed Tucker Tower on Feb. 1 in the West Perrine neighborhood of southern Miami-Dade County. Tucker Tower is age-restricted for seniors 62 and older, set to be completed in spring 2024 with apartments reserved for income-qualifying residents earning at or below 25%, 30% and 60% of the area median income. The project is the fifth affordable housing collaboration between Housing Trust Group and Miami Heat legend Alonzo Mourning’s nonprofit AM Affordable Housing.

Photo courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie

Contractor Brasfield & Gorrie has completed the concrete exterior of One North Hills, a 10-story, 266,000-sq-ft office tower with ground-level retail, part of the North Hills Main District Expansion Project in Raleigh. DudalPaine Architect is the project architect. Brasfield & Gorrie self-performed 60,000 cu yd of concrete for the project, calling it one of the largest pours the company has completed to date, allowing the company to keep more control over the project’s timeline and create training and career opportunities for employees. The North Hills Main Expansion Project also includes a 12-story concrete residential tower, a steel five-story office building and concrete parking deck below the development. One North Hills Tower is set for completion in the third quarter of 2023, and the overall project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2024.

Photo courtesy BDG Architects

Work has started in Tampa on the 210,463-sq-ft expanded headquarters for Feeding Tampa Bay, a move that will allow the organization to serve as West Central Florida’s core supplier of food for more than 1 million food insecure families when it opens in 2024. Ryan Cos., the design-build firm for the project along with BDG Architects, announced the official groundbreaking Feb. 2, saying the project will act as the organization’s primary distribution facility with more than 41,000 sq ft of cold storage warehouse space, an 11,000-sq-ft full production kitchen that will produce up to 6,000 hot and cold meals a day, an office and a mezzanine level.

The $231-million, 10-gate expansion of Concourse A at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) was nearing the end of its design phase in early 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic upended the passenger aviation industry.

Rather than proceed with bond sales to get the construction manager at-risk project underway that summer as scheduled, Jack Christine, CLT’s chief infrastructure and development officer, says the airport elected to “slow-roll” the 191,848-sq-ft expansion for a

The $231-million, 10-gate expansion of Concourse A at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) was nearing the end of its design phase in early 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic upended the passenger aviation industry.

Rather than proceed with bond sales to get the construction manager at-risk project underway that summer as scheduled, Jack Christine, CLT’s chief infrastructure and development officer, says the airport elected to “slow-roll” the 191,848-sq-ft expansion for a year.

“We wanted to get a little deeper into what we were going to face with financial implications before we finished the drawings and got started on construction,” Christie explains.

To meet completion targets, teams have worked day and night to make the most of dry weather during an unusually wet winter.Photo courtesy JE Dunn

As it turned out, the pandemic passenger slump at CLT was relatively short-lived. After dropping to about 50% of the previous year’s volume in early summer 2020, traveler counts regained sufficient momentum to allow the joint venture of JE Dunn and McFarland Construction to resume Concourse A’s preconstruction work in spring 2021. The project broke ground a year later.

Christine doesn’t second-guess the decision to delay, given the uncertainties of the time. But with CLT’s passenger volume now nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, he adds, “I wish we’d gone ahead, because we could use those gates today.”

Those trends are the driver behind Destination CLT, a $3.1-billion capital program of capacity enhancement projects begun in 2016, and funded via a variety of airport revenue streams, state grants and other sources.

In addition to supporting CLT’s role as American Airlines’ second-largest hub, the projects aim to accommodate a nearly two-decade-long uptick in the number of people boarding airlines at the airport, with total passenger volume topping 50 million in 2019.

In addition to the Concourse A expansion, the airport is also building a $608-million expansion of its existing 40-year-old main terminal lobby, providing much-need space for reconfigured security lanes, ticketing, baggage claim and circulation, as well as a new central energy plant and improved access to an adjacent hourly-rate parking structure.

Destination CLT has already delivered Concourse A’s $200-million first phase as well as renovations to Concourse B and a multiphase expansion of Concourse E, which wraps up this summer with a $50-million, 34,000-sq-ft addition. Grading for a new 10,000-ft parallel runway, the airport’s longest, will begin this spring, with other airfield and concourse renovations scheduled to begin work in the next few years.

“We have a lot going on,” Christine says, in what is perhaps a bit of an understatement.

Airport leaders say they haven’t been delayed by supply chain issues.Photo courtesy JE Dunn

Expanded Horizons

The JE Dunn/McFarland team encountered a capacity crunch of its own as it re-engaged the construction market to get the Concourse A expansion back on track in 2021.

“With a big job like this, finding the right trade partners and getting interest from those that are already really busy has been a lot of work,” explains JE Dunn senior project manager Nick Christoffersen.

A factor in the project team’s favor is that most of the work is located outside the airport’s secured area—a benefit for logistics coupled with continuing awareness to prevent dust and debris from blowing across the busy airfield.

“It’s a monumental task to do that while working in and around a facility that’s already at double its original capacity.” —Ben Goebel, Charlotte Office Leader, Gresham Smith

As of mid-February 2023, JE Dunn/McFarland had installed nearly 350 auger cast piles and more than 10,000 cu yd of concrete foundations for the two-story, 105-ft-wide barrel-roofed concourse and its 800-ft-long connector to the existing Concourse A, all of which were designed by C Design and Perkins+Will. The team was also one-third of the way into erecting 1,385 tons of structural steel framing.

Once the expansion tops out this summer, work will focus on installation of approximately 20,000 sq ft of dynamic auto-tinting glazing to help control interior temperature and sunlight as well as 35,000 sq ft of curtain wall, followed by dry-in and finishes.

At the same time, JE/Dunn/McFarland will be working to tie in a baggage system extension, “a task that will require a lot of phasing to be sure there are no disruptions,” Christoffersen says.

To meet the expansion’s planned substantial completion target of fall 2024, Christoffersen says the construction team has been working both day and night shifts, often overlapping each other. Weather has been less cooperative, however, with Charlotte experiencing an unusually wet winter.

“We’re ‘landlocked’ between existing apron paving around the site, so there’s nowhere for the water to go,” Christoffersen says. “We’ve been running a lot of hours to squeeze in as much work as we could between rain events.”

The terminal lobby expansion will increase throughput by consolidating five security checkpoints into three larger checkpoints.Rendering courtesy Charlotte Douglas International Airport

Positive impressions

Nearby at CLT’s Terminal Lobby Expansion (TLE) project, the major constraint has been implementing a multifaceted expansion and renovation project without affecting airport operations or compromising passenger convenience.

“The airport made it clear early on that [this] is an airport first and a construction site second,’” says Ben Goebel, Charlotte office leader for lead designer Gresham Smith. “It’s a monumental task to do that while working in and around a facility that’s already at double its original capacity.”

“So far, we’ve not had to take any type of delay due to supply chain.” —Jack Christine, Chief Infrastructure and Development Officer, CLT

Begun in late 2019 by the joint venture of Holder Construction, Edison Foard and R.J. Leeper, construction of the TLE continued largely unaffected through the pandemic, with the dip in passenger traffic too brief to make significant changes to the project’s six-phase, 60-month schedule, which is set for completion in fall 2025. Combining 175,000 sq ft of new facilities with 191,000 sq ft of renovations, the expansion will consolidate CLT’s five existing security checkpoints into three larger, more efficient stations, increasing throughput and streamlining Transportation Security Administration staffing. The project also includes new overhead and underground pedestrian walkways connecting the terminal with the parking garage and a new central energy plant housing the facility’s mechanical systems.

The signature feature of the TLE—and, perhaps, Destination CLT itself—is a 146,000-sq-ft steel truss and glass canopy stretching 155 ft across an elevated access road and terminal curb front.

Supported by sixteen 65-ft-tall columns adjacent to the garage and the TLE building envelope, the approximately 12-ft-tall trusses weigh approximately 45 kips each, Goebel says.

“Due to the weight and the complexity of the trusses, the erector elected to lift the trusses in two separate sections simultaneously and then secure them together in the air prior to unhooking from the crane,” Goebel says, adding that the steel truss erection is approximately half complete, with the entire canopy including glass and finishes slated to be complete mid-2024. “We performed extensive wind load analysis on the canopy design to ensure it could withstand gusts that might come through the expanded terminal and the garage.”

The first half of the TLE’s expansion phase opened in July 2021, with the second half set to be completed this coming November.

“We’re transitioning from working in the airport’s ‘front yard’ to its ‘living room,’—building new ticketing counters while existing ones remain in operation,” Goebel says. “Once those are complete, we’ll demolish the existing counters and begin work on one of the new security checkpoints.”

Goebel notes that the renovation also seeks to create more of a sense of place by incorporating elements that distinguish Charlotte as city, region and airport. For example, a 3,000-lb 15-ft bronze statue of city namesake Queen Charlotte is being rescued from near obscurity and relocated to a prominent “Queen’s Court” in the arrivals/departures area.

“We’re also incorporating wayfinding elements that reflect tie-ins to the area’s textile industry, topography and colors of the state’s well-known universities,” Goebel adds.

The airport’s Terminal Lobby Expansion includes 175,000 sq ft in new facilities and 191,000 sq ft of renovations, set for completion in 2025.Rendering courtesy Charlotte Douglas International Airport

Supply Chain Survival

While the two Destination CLT projects haven’t been immune from cost escalation and supply chain issues, they largely have been free of the disruptive effects that have played havoc with construction schedules and budgets nationwide.

Christine says that’s a credit to both design/construction teams’ proactive management skills.

“So far, we’ve not had to take any type of delay due to supply chain,” he adds. “That is definitely something to be proud of. Teams are doing a pretty good job of that.”

The key, says Christoffersen, has been keeping a close watch on trends from the outset.

“When we were pricing this job out, it was the worst material escalation period we’d seen,” he says. “We worked with our trade partners during the bid time to have some room in their numbers to carry the standard escalation that we’d seen. Because of that, we really haven’t seen much escalation from our end.”

Goebel says a similar approach by the Holder-Edison Foard-Leeper joint venture has also proved beneficial. “We had our long-lead items on order early, which put us at the front of the line in terms of the supply chain,” he says.

Christine says that the airport’s “over-communication philosophy” has also helped keep surprises to a minimum.

“With a program as complex as this one, you’re not going to catch everything,” he says, “but you want to be sure you’ve caught just about everything you can so it’s not really a surprise; it’s just the way it is.”

It’s an approach to design and construction that Goebel heartily endorses.

“Maybe ‘over-communication’ should be the baseline,” he says, “rather than the extreme.”