Ames Construction with design engineer Alliant Engineering found ways to go beyond MnDOT requirements in completing this design-build project ahead of schedule and with reduced impacts on vehicular traffic.

Still hampered by pandemic-related uncertainly, Midwest construction starts fell in 2021 even as signs of a return to normalcy bolstered markets near the end of the year.

All of ENR Midwest's coverage of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the regional construction industry.

Projects across ENR's 11-state Midwest region are being postponed or shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no real certainty in sight as to when they might continue. The wide-ranging secondary effects of the novel coronavirus and the shutdowns it caused include loss of sales tax and revenue for state incentives.

Davenport, Iowa and the Quad Cities area prepares for expected flooding, while the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened in Louisiana.

Construction in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin is seen as essential infrastructure, so work continues on most sites in those states. Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas's orders broadly exempt outdoor activities. Michigan's order includes public works construction as essential.

Metropolitan Council, the regional policy-making and planning agency for the Twin Cities region, achieved a milestone in the long planning process for the proposed $1.77-billion Southwest Light Rail Transit Line project.

In a typically close vote, Mortenson Construction has been named the ENR Midwest Contractor of the Year.