In niche markets such as renewable energy, political uncertainty and the pending national elections could stymie both public and private work. Firms riding the wave of wind and solar power projects, such as Helix Electric, are seeing work slow down as developers wait to see if Congress will intervene on the scheduled expiration of the renewable energy production tax credit at the end of the year. "Photovoltaic projects have been a big part of our business, but I don't know what's going to happen with the federal tax credits," Fuchs says.

Even more of a niche player is Phoenix-based KEAR Civil Corp., which could see changes in federal funding for construction of its specialized aviation fueling facilities after the elections. "Developing long-term plans for FAA funding past the current approvals will be important to the continued expansion of our fueling facility services division," says Mike Fossett, KEAR's president.

Participation in the top specialty contractors' survey was down from the 200 responses received during the boom years, indicating that many firms have merged, gone under or have become unwilling to divulge the extent of their revenue declines.

One such casualty was Trainor Glass, which closed its Southwest division in late 2011 and folded nationwide in early 2012. Chandler, Ariz.-based Kovach Inc. took advantage of the opportunity to acquire 100% of Trainor's assets, equipment and personnel in Arizona. "We aren't a company that wants to dive into something we don't know anything about; the only way we would have gotten into glass/glazing/curtain wall was the way we did it," says Stephen Kovach V, preconstruction manager and an owner. "Bringing on that operation really allowed us to provide a full building enclosure."

Tablet Takeover

Technology continues to change the face of construction at jobs across the Southwest, with tablets and smartphones showing up at every stage of a project. It's all about fast-tracking information to the field, says Derek Wright, vice president with Phoenix-based Suntec Concrete. "We expect to see more advanced applications in the next couple of years."

With BIM firmly entrenched in the industry, some firms are now pushing toward a single-model approach. Instead of switching between models created by the engineer and contractor, design-build firms such as Southland Industries take the same model through design and construction, Lynch says. These improvements help boost prefabrication and modularization capabilities and reduce time in the field installing systems.

High-definition laser scanners have been used on interiors in coordination with BIM for a number of years, but Kovach is taking the technology outside by scanning building skin systems to increase accuracy. "It allows us to be more accurate and takes a lot of the human error out of the manufacturing process of skin systems," says Kovach, whose firm owns a subsidiary laser scanning company.

On Sky Harbor International Airport's recently completed first phase of the Phoenix Sky Train project, Kovach employed laser scanning at one of the train stations in order to manufacture the aluminum composite panel system months earlier than what would have been possible with traditional technology.