Daniel Hunyar was on the highway in his black pickup truck just after 6 a.m. He was hoping to make his 45-minute commute in time to grab coffee and maybe a bagel or doughnut before meetings with subcontractors and superintendents on a $265-million hotel, conference center and garage addition at an Ameristar casino on the bank of the Missouri River in St. Charles, Mo., just north of St. Louis.
The 57-year-old Walton Construction Co. LLC vice president and project executive, with 35 years of construction experience, was expecting to plan and coordinate the upcoming work week. But when his BlackBerry rang, it was a call from an onsite superintendent assigned to watch over rising river water levels after unusually heavy rain.