Mountain States & Southwest

RSS

New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory will shed 400 to 800 people through voluntary layoffs this spring, or about 10% of its permanent staff, to cut $300 million from its budget. It will leave the 69-year-old, 36-sq-mi. laboratory with 11,271 students, post-doctoral, term and union workers, which is the same staff number as four years ago. Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Lab has a current annual budget of $2.2 billion. The site is managed by Los Alamos National Security LLC, comprised of Bechtel National, the University of California, Babcock & Wilcox Co., and URS for the

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney energized a crowd of construction industry executives by promising to undo much of the regulatory and labor initiatives of the Obama administration, during a speech Thursday in front of members of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. in Phoenix. Just hours later, ABC announced its endorsement of Romney's candidacy during its board of directors meeting. Photo courtesy ABC Romney won the endorsement of the Associated Builders and Contractors following his address to the group's board of directors on Thursday in Phoenix. Romney, who had sparred the night before with Republican primary opponents at the party’s

HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Al., has acquired land in Phoenix and plans to construct a new 48,000-sq-ft inpatient rehabilitation hospital. Located at the intersection of N. 91st and Pinchot avenues, construction is expected to begin at the site in the fourth quarter, with completion by the third quarter of 2013. Image courtesy HealthSouth The new 48,000-sq-ft rehabilitation hospital is expected to be completed by third quarter 2013. Image courtesy HealthSouth Similar to HealthSouth's Mesa hospital completed in 2009, the Phoenix facility will include specialized rehabilitation programs using advanced technology to help patients recover from major injuries and surgeries. Plans for the

Educare Arizona, an early-childhood preschool designed to give a leg up to at-risk children, opened on the campus of the Brunson Lee Elementary School in Phoenix. Photo by Tom Spitz Four buildings cluster around a large central courtyard play environment, serving 191 children from low-income families. Image courtesy Urban Earth Design The project's unique landscaping includes both edible gardens, shade trees, hummingbird and butterfly habitat and children's play fields. Located on 48th and Culver streets, just south of McDowell Road, the $9-million, science-based school serves approximately 191 mostly at-risk infants, toddlers and preschoolers from the low- to moderate-income community served

A federal judge in New Mexico has ruled in favor of plaintiffs who contended that the portions of the 2007 Albuquerque Energy Conservation Code are preempted by federal law. The Jan. 25 decision by U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez essentially rejected the city’s attempt, through its building code, to impose heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment-efficiency standards in commercial, multi-family and single-family residential buildings that are more stringent than federal standards. The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 30, 2010 by a group led by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute. In another move late last year, the Albuquerque city

Southern Nevada’s long simmering plans for a sports arena took a step forward with a funding pact that could see the $650 million, 17,500-seat Silver State Arena break ground this summer. A memorandum of understanding between United Arab Emirates-based International Development Management and Shenzhen, China-based China Security & Surveillance Technology (CSST) was unveiled Feb. 10, calling for CSST, with support from its Chinese banking partners, to fully fund construction of a 750,000-sq-ft sports arena in Henderson, about 12 miles south of Las Vegas. The deal covers only the indoor arena portion of a potential $1.3-billion project that calls for a separate

McCarran International Airport's new $99-million air traffic control is readying for lift-off. Archer Western Contractors, a unit of Chicago-based The Walsh Group, has been constructing the 352-ft-tall structure for the Federal Aviation Administration since June 2011. Image courtesy McCarran Intl. Airport McCarran's new air traffic control tower will be almost twice the height of the existing tower. Designed by WHPacific out of its Albuquerque, N.M. office, the project includes a four-story, 52,800-sq-ft base building for radar approach control, air traffic control training simulators, administrative offices and other navigational equipment. The 22-level concrete tower is topped by a two-level 850-sq-ft cab—or controller work area—with 14-ft-tall angled

A new 1-MW solar power plant is being planned for Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus in Mesa, Ariz. The project will be built as a partnership between the school, Phoenix-based utility Salt River Project and San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower Corp. Photo courtesy SunPower SunPower's C7 Tracker technology is designed to concentrate the sun's power sevenfold by combining single-axis tracking with rows of parabolic mirrors. SunPower will engineer, construct, operate and maintain the plant on the southeast corner of the ASU Polytechnic campus. SRP has agreed to buy the entire output of the solar plant, and ASU will purchase an equivalent

The annual World of Concrete show opened its doors in Las Vegas this week with better moods and traffic. The estimated attendance of 50,000 was an improvement over 2011, but 10% less than just two years ago. Photo by Tudor Van Hampton Attendance at this year's World of Concrete is expected to reach 50,000, slightly higher than last year's 48,554. Photo by Tony Illia While some longtime large exhibitors were missing this year, smaller independent dealers picked up the slack. "There is a tinge of optimism," said Ed Sullivan, chief economist for the Skokie, Ill.-based Portland Cement Association, on the first day of