A May-December romance is drawing cheers from Salt Lake City residents. Salt Lake City's historic Capitol Theatre celebrated its centennial in 2014 with some cosmetic touch-ups, but then also emerged with a new companion next door: the Jesse Eccles Quinney Ballet Centre. The newcomer is infusing energy into downtown and breathing life into the historic theater, though the structural balance of pairing the old and new "performers" had engineers keeping a close eye on the choreography. Image courtesy of HKS Inc. - Jack E. Madsen III The ballet center provides Utah's Ballet West with larger rehearsal space and a headquarters
Construction employment across the Southwest dipped by 3,400 jobs in January compared to December, led by a month-over-month decline of 1,800 construction jobs in Nevada, a loss of 1,700 jobs in New Mexico and tempered by a very moderate gain in Arizona, according to data by the states and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.In the three states that comprise the Southwest, preliminary statistics reveal there were 230,400 working in the construction industry in January 2015, compared to 233,800 in December 2014.While the month-over-month totals show a decline, year-over-year construction employment in the Southwest states has increased by 6,900, once
Costs for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs replacement hospital in Aurora, Colo., have ballooned to $1.73 billion, more than five times the project’s original cost and twice the spending cap set for it by Congress. VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson delivered the bad news about revised cost estimates to congressional leaders in March 17 phone call. The new price tag, up sharply up from the $800 million claimed by the VA in early March, comes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is advising VA on the project. USACE will assume full management of the project this summer. The
Average construction backlogs in the South, including Texas and Louisiana, surpassed nine months during the final quarter of 2014, a feat regional builders haven't achieved since the first quarter of the year, according to data compiled by Washington, D.C.-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). Backlogs in the region rose .30 months, to 9.29 months, in quarter-to-quarter comparisons but declined .36 months, from 9.65 months, in year-over-year comparisons for the same period, data indicate. The Midwest and Eastern regions also logged increases in quarter-to-quarter comparisons, though a 21% decrease in the West, from 9.42 months to 7.42 months, contributed to a
Phillip A. Washington, general manager of Denver’s Regional Transportation District since 2009, will leave the agency to become CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the third-largest public transit system in the U.S. Courtesy of RTD Phil Washington, RTD General Manager Washington, a 2014 ENR Newsmaker (ENR, 1/27/14), garnered national attention for managing RTD’s $5.3-billion FasTracks transit construction program, which is building 122 miles of new commuter rail lines and dozens of stations across the Denver metro area.He led the launch of the agency’s first public-private partnership, the $2.2-billion Eagle P3 project, which is building a
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation has selected the team of Kraemer North America LLC and Tsiouvaras Simmons Holderness (TSH) to reconstruct the Interstate 25/Cimarron interchange in Colorado Springs. At $116.1 million, it will be the second-largest highway construction project in the Pikes Peak region since COSMIX (Colorado Springs Metropolitan Expansion)—the reconstruction of I-25, which was completed in 2008. More than 150,000 vehicles travel through the interchange daily, making it one of the region’s busiest.CDOT says contractor selection was a lengthy process, with three teams shortlisted in May 2014. The shortlisted teams were then asked to provide proposals through the request for
As is widely known to the Colorado construction industry, the number of new condominium projects being developed in metropolitan Denver and elsewhere in the state is few. The reason is largely attributable to lawsuits against condo developers, designers and contractors. It is no secret that many new apartment projects are being designed with the prospect that once those lawsuits can no longer be brought, they will be converted into condo units and sold. Under Colorado law, construction defect suits cannot be brought more than six years after substantial construction completion (with few exceptions).In an attempt to solve the problem, a
The February Confidence Index from the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation says that confidence in the equipment finance market is at 66.3, a slight increase from the three-year high level reached by the January index of 66.1. The index is designed to collect leadership data on prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $903-billion equipment finance sector.Here is a summary of the February survey results:• When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 30.3% of equipment finance executives who responded said they believe business conditions will improve over
RSS
