Miami Report: Public Projects are Metro's Saving Grace
...perhaps 50 competitors for a single job. Suffolk recently received a $25-million Miami Dade College West campus renovation and remodeling project.
“The opportunities are mostly on the public side,” Kirby adds. “There is little private work.”
Suffolk continues constructing the $325-million Met 2, a 47-story office and 42-story hotel project in downtown Miami scheduled for completion in late summer, and the $40-million Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs building, set to wrap up in November.
Transportation Projects Miami International Airport remains a hub of activity, continuing to build approximately $14 million a month in construction, with an average 1,400-person workforce. The North Terminal was 82% complete at the end of 2009, with most of the balance of the gates and other areas opening this year.
“We are going to have a huge year,” says Juan Carlos Arteaga, North Terminal program director for the Miami-Dade Aviation Dept.
Odebrecht Construction of Coral Gables, Fla., in a joint venture with Parsons Corp. of Pasadena, Calif., continues work on the $ 1.1-billion, 1-mi-long North Terminal. The project will wrap up in 2011 with the opening of new federal inspection facilities. The department has saved approximately $13 million on the terminal due to aggressive bidding on projects let in 2009.
In addition, the $134.9-million, 1-mi-long, rooftop people mover, also being built by the Parsons-Odebrecht joint venture, is scheduled to begin operations in September, but Arteaga expects it could start sooner.
Turner continues work on the Miami Intermodal Center for the Florida Dept. of Transportation. The multiple-phased project has a total program cost of $1.7 billion. The company has substantially completed the 7,000-car Miami Rental Car Center set to open in May, continues work on the $40-million MIC/MIA people mover station and planned to start construction in 2010 on the $90-million Miami Central Station for ground transportation.
Odebrecht is working on pile caps, columns and beams on the $526-million, 2.4-mi Metrorail extension from Earlington Heights to the MIC and has begun tilt-up panel erection on the line’s substations.
In November, FDOT, in partnership with the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, began a $559-million reconstruction of the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826) and Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) Interchange. Community/Condotte/de Moya, JV—a partnership of Community Asphalt OHL Group of Miami; Condotte America of Medley, Fla.; and De Moya Group of Miami—received the design-build contract.
FDOT expected concessionaire Miami Access Tunnel to begin construction this summer on the $607-million design and construction Port of Miami Tunnel Project, which includes building two 3,900-ft-long, 41-ft-diameter tunnels, reaching to depths of 120 ft below Government Cut in Biscayne Bay.
The Future There are some bright spots, especially the existence of major projects that will allow contractors to survive the next couple of years, but Moss says many jobs remain on hold due to funding, with banks asking for 40% or more equity, as well as due to the region’s declining tax base.
“The good news is now the owners are in a preferred position,” Fraser adds. “The projects that do come out have a high level of competition and aggressive cost structures.”
Everyone Southeast Construction spoke to expects activity will remain down for the foreseeable future.
“The scariest thing is talking with architects,” Murphy says. “Very few architects are doing much. If they are not drawing now, we’re not building for a long time, except for the stuff that has been shelved.”
Useful Sources:
Florida Marlins Ballpark Construction Web site http://www.huntmossjv.com/
St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort http://www.stregisbalharbour.com/
1450 Brickell http://www.1450brickell.com/
826-836 Interchange http://www.826-836.com/