The new $135-million Energy Systems Integration Facility includes 15 labs that will do cutting-edge energy research and explore how to add renewable resources to the power grid. ESIF, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus in Golden, Colo., will perform tasks ranging from fuel-cell development to smart-power testing. But the entire facility is also a sustainability laboratory. Related Links: NREL Facility Earns Perfect Green Marks Golden Road Upgrades Improve NREL Access Even its construction is an experiment in how far contractors could take green building practices. Instead of building concrete retaining walls outside, for example, general contractor JE Dunn
Transportation, medical facilities and university upgrades dominated this year's ranking of the biggest projects in the Mountain States, although a handful of commercial and office projects made the list, good news for an area in need of a private-sector boost. Related Links: Design-Build Team Selected for Phase 2 of U.S. 36 Project Denver Union Station to Become a New Regional Hub To be ranked, projects had to be located in any of five states that comprise the Mountain States region. They could be any type of construction, from energy, heavy-highway and infrastructure work to new buildings and renovations. The list
The confidence of Colorado business leaders has surged going into the second quarter of 2013, according to the most recent Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, recently released by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. With waning uncertainty giving way to a stabilizing economy, the second quarter LBCI posted a reading of 58.1, a sharp increase from last quarter’s 51.3 reading. Expectations measured positive—at 50 or higher—for all of the metrics measured by the index. They include hiring and capital expenditures, the state and national economies, and industry sales and profits.For the first time, index participants were
Nonfarm payroll jobs in Colorado increased 10,800 from January to February to 2,352,900 jobs, according to a recent survey of business establishments by the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment. Private-sector payroll jobs increased 10,100 and government increased 700. According to the survey of households, the unemployment rate decreased one tenth of one percentage point over the month to 7.2%. The decrease in the unemployment rate was caused by a larger increase in the number of people reporting their status as employed than in the number of people actively participating in the labor force. The last time the Colorado unemployment
Construction spending rebounded in February with gains from depressed January levels in residential, private nonresidential and public investment, according to a recent analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials cautioned that the rise in public investment was likely to be short lived and urged policy makers in Washington to make infrastructure investment a priority. “It is encouraging to see growth in both monthly and year-over-year totals in private residential and nonresidential construction spending,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “There are increasing signs that 2013 will be a good year for
Effective in March, the Insurance Services Office (ISO) revised its forms and endorsements for commercial general liability. This latest round of CGL changes is the largest the industry has seen in years. Major and minor modifications, along with new endorsements, could significantly impact, and in some cases, narrow the scope of CGL coverage moving forward. While insurance companies are obligated to notify insureds about changes that affect policy coverage, as always, the burden of due diligence ultimately falls on contractors to understand their coverage and its possible exposures. “ISO forms are not used by everyone, but a lot of the
For a place that gets sunshine nearly 300 days a year, you can now find a lot of clouds in Las Vegas. One of the economic bright spots in a city laid low by the recession and real estate bust is a spate of new data centers and cloud computing facilities in development and recently brought online to serve clients such as Google, eBay, DreamWorks, Sony and Cisco. Photo by Levin Ellison/501 Studios Burke Construction Group completed the Cobalt Data Center Project in Las Vegas. Image courtesy Cushman & Wakefield Electricity rates far below California and the national average are
The new 5th Street Parking Structure project on the Auraria Higher Education Campus in Denver involves a 350,000-sq-ft garage that will hold more than 1,200 stalls, plus retail space on the ground level. Construction on the $17-million parking structure is expected to start in mid-May, with work continuing for about 12 months until July 2014. The garage, at 5th and Walnut streets, will be built north of the AHEC administration building and sited near the existing Elm Lot. Rendering by Pahl Architecture pc The five-story, 1,200-stall garage is one of the campus first projects planned for the 5th Street corridor.
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation and the High-Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE) selected Plenary Roads Denver in early April as the concessionaire for the second phase of the U.S. 36 Express Lanes/Bus Rapid Transit project between 88th Street and Table Mesa Drive. It will complete improvements to the entire U.S. 36 corridor between Denver and Boulder. Corridor map courtesy of CDOT The second phase of the U.S. 36 Express Lanes project is expected to begin construction late this year. The project is CDOT’s first public-private partnership, where the public and private sectors team to provide transportation improvements and services to the
Construction companies are increasingly allocating more money for labor-saving items that reduce man hours in the field while limiting liability risks. Handheld tools and devices can enhance worker performance and reduce owner overhead costs for increased market competitiveness. Greater productivity can be achieved through safer, ergonomic devices that increase efficiency while reducing health insurance-related claims. Photo by Southwest Photography Manually tying rebar involves rapid, repetitive and forceful body movements that limit the amount of time workers can do the task safely. Innovation, in part, has been driven by companies forced to do more with less during a deep recession. The
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