Turner halts work at $1.5B Meta site for recurring racist graffiti

Abstract

Dive Brief: Turner Construction and Meta kept a massive data center construction jobsite idle in Nebraska for a third day Wednesday after two consecutive incidents of racist graffiti were discovered on the project last week. "So the decision was made with Meta and with principals and trade partners to pause and do a bit of a reset on the path forward here." Turner has been outspoken against hate as numerous racist displays have appeared on construction sites nationally in recent years. "I'm not confident that's universal at this point, others may choose to deal with it differently. But we, collectively, have chosen to take very public action." Meta told Construction Dive it is being proactive with its construction vendors to address the issue. "At the Sarpy County site, we are working closely with Turner Construction and trade leaders to identify the perpetrators of these acts." McFadden said Turner notified local law enforcement of the incident, but couldn't confirm whether a reward was being offered in the case. At a Meta construction site in Utah, where M.A. Mortenson was the general contractor, a $100,000 reward ultimately resulted in a worker being fired from the job. An anti-racism 'playbook' In a move that shows how widespread these racist incidents are in construction, Meta said it is developing a playbook on how to respond to such events, in partnership with the contractors who build its data centers in the U.S. The document includes guidance on what to do when an incident occurs, including site preservation and notifications. McFadden said Turner had shared with Meta its own anti-bias toolkit, a copy of which was emailed to Construction Dive.