Despite the gloomy construction employment climate, one New Orleans contractor has established a new safety and craft training facility and will hire several hundred people to bring its workforce to 1,000 by summer.

Gulf IntraCoastal Constructors, a joint venture of Kiewit Corp, Omaha, Neb., and Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind., is gearing up to deliver the $854.8-million Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect from storm surge three parishes on the western side of New Orleans. “We’ll be at peak for about six months, beginning July,” says John Proskovec, GIC project manager. “We’re bringing people in from all over the country with the right experience.”