With the start of the second half of 2010, it appears that experts were correct in predicting that recovery from the current recession would be a long, slow climb rather than a quick leap. Declines in project starts, which started four years ago, have created a murky marketplace complete with bidding frenzies, razor-thin profit margins and an unemployment rate over 20%. But, along with the bad, there is some good coming out of the current recession. The editors of Mountain States Construction magazine have compiled a list of 10 things that are getting better in 2010. We Built This City:
T.L. Roof & Associates Construction Co. broke ground on the Pascua Yaqui Multi-Justice Center for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. Designed by Phoenix-based Durrant Architects, the project consists of a two-story, 62,700-sq-ft structure housing office space, courtrooms, holding cells and training rooms for police and justice department functions. The project is scheduled to complete within a year. T.L. Roof also completed the addition and renovation project for the Ott Family YMCA in Tucson. The project houses a new 7,200-sq-ft gymnasium, new 1,400-sq-ft lobby addition including a new elevator and stairwell access to the existing lower level and a 975-sq-ft cardio room.
Arizona State University’s $160-million Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV is starting to come out of the ground on the Tempe campus and has been steadily progressing since starting construction in March. The project was previously on hold due to the state budget crisis. Arizona State University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV, Tempe. The 294,000-sq-ft structure will be home to the School of Earth and Space Exploration and will include space for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. It will house more than 160 labs, 60 faculty offices and a 250-seat auditorium. The building combines elements from an
Meridian Contracting broke ground on a $2.4-million, ARRA-funded project to build a pedestrian overpass at the Belen Rail Runner Station. It is expected to be complete by this November. A ramp and stairs will lead directly from the Rail Runner station to the overpass, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross Reinken Avenue and access First or Second streets via a lighted and completely ADA-accessible walkway. The design includes architectural features that reflect Belen’s history.
Granite Construction Co. was awarded a $29-million contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to rehabilitate approximately 62 mi of rural highway in the Navajo Nation. The ARRA-funded project will be divided into six sections spread out over 100 mi in San Juan and McKinley Counties. Work began in August and will take approximately 11 months to complete.
Crews celebrated the hoisting of the final two steel beams atop the D-backs and Rockies clubhouses at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, just five and a half months after the first concrete pour for the new spring training home for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. Mortenson Construction is constructing the 140-acre project within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale. Designed by HKS Architects, the project contains an 11,000-seat ballpark, 12 practice fields, as well as Major and Minor League clubhouses, training facilities and offices for each team. The facility will open in February 2011. The
Empire Power Systems successfully installed the first 5,000 solar panels on Arizona’s largest commercial rooftop solar power system. Solar panels being installed in southwest Phoenix. Photo courtesy Empire Power Systems Located on an 850,000-sq-ft building near 27th Avenue and Buckeye Road in Phoenix, the new solar power system will allow the building’s owners, Cowley Cos., to provide tenants with renewable energy at a 25% reduction in price over typical industrial electric rates. The SunPower T-5 panels are being installed as quickly as they are received. The integrated design of this ballasted system allows the Arizona-based contractors on the project to
Intel is now using clean power generated from a solar photovoltaic installation, designed and installed by SolarCity. The installation is located on Intel’s Chandler Campus, and the firm is about to break ground on a new project at the Ocotillo Campus. The two systems were aided by incentives from the SRP EarthWise Solar Energy program and make Intel the SRP customer with the third-most photovoltaic capacity. The Chandler roof system is capable of generating approximately 10% of the building’s peak demand. The Ocotillo campus project will add solar support structures in the parking lot to provide 200kW of electricity, plus
Rio Rancho developer Geringer Capital and Cinemark Holdings Inc. began grading and infrastructure to open a new Century-branded theater in Rio Rancho at The Village at Rio Rancho in Summer 2011. It will initially feature 12 screens, with the ability to expand and add another 4 screens. The Village at Rio Rancho is conceived to include a Main Street-themed, pedestrian-friendly retail experience adjacent to the new Presbyterian Hospital.
Los Alamos National Laboratory began demolishing a cluster of 65-year-old buildings that once housed the world’s first full-scale plutonium processing line. ARSEC Environmental LLC, of White Rock, N.M., won a $2-million task order in April to perform this work. Material Disposal Area B digging house at Los Alamos National Laboratory The buildings, known as “DP West,” housed plutonium processing for nuclear warheads from late 1945 through 1978. They are the second generation of Lab buildings, replacing those built during World War II for the Manhattan Project. DP West is located within the Lab’s historic Technical Area 21. The work is
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