Article toolbar Solar module manufacturer First Solar Inc., Tempe, Ariz., has selected Mesa, Ariz. as the site of a new fabrication plant. The $300-million first phase is scheduled to break ground later this year, with operations beginning third quarter 2012. Photo courtesy First Solar The plant will produce 250 MW of thin-film photovoltaic modules per year, to be used in numerous solar generating facilities throughout the world. Photo courtesy First Solar First Solar�s manufacturing plant in Mesa will have a 3-MW rooftop solar array to generate power, similar to this one atop the company�s Perrysburg, Ohio plant. Photo courtesy First
WILSON David H. Wilson has been named chairman of the board and president of Gannett Fleming West Inc. Based in the firm’s Albuquerque, N.M., office, Wilson has 18 years of experience at Gannett Fleming. Wilson has also been named the regional office manager of the Albuquerque and Santa Fe offices. Wilson holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at University of New Mexico. He is a founding board member of the Intelligent Transportation Society of New Mexico. JMA Architecture Studios has hired several new employees. Patrick R. Hanson , intern architect,
Article toolbar The building teams of the largest 25 project starts in 2010 moved forward during the height of one of the worst recessions to hit the U.S. The Southwest was especially hard hit, as the total value of the largest starts makes clear. The value of projects on the list in 2008 was $14.8 billion; in 2010 it was only $2.9 billion. Photo Courtesy Of Visions In Photography Public Work Publicly funded projects dominate the Top Starts list, from the $84.7-million Santan Freeway design-build project in Chandler and Gilbert. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?
Article toolbar An effort to create wetlands out of dry chaparral in the Arizona desert has begun two new phases of work to support emergent marshes completed last year. The three-phase, $230-million Tres Rios Ecosystem Restoration and Flood Control Project is designed to improve a seven-mile-long section of the Salt and Gila rivers in southwestern Phoenix. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project is being built in coordination with the City of Phoenix. The wetlands are sustained using reclaimed water from the city’s 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant, near the convergence of the Salt, Agua Fria and Gila rivers. Last
Salt River Project has provided water and power to the Sonoran Desert for more than 100 years and is continuing to lay the foundation for a bright future despite formidable hurdles from the recession and increasing demands to reduce carbon emissions.
SnapShot March 21, 2011 Photographs chosen by our editors Submitted By: Shelly Dudley, senior historical analyst, SRP, Phoenix This photograph of Theodore Roosevelt Dam in Arizona was taken Aug. 1, 1908, by a U.S. Reclamation Service photographer identified only as ‘D.A.W.’ With camera and gear, it would have been a difficult trek to reach the site east of Phoenix through the untamed Superstition Wilderness. The masonry dam was approximately 42% complete here, at a height of about 75 ft above the Salt River. The dam turns 100 this month. Photographer: D.A.W.
The $11.4-million Green Valley Ranch Branch Library in east Denver celebrated its grand opening on March 12. The library, part of the Denver Public Library system, is the first of the newly constructed DPL branches to be completed or begin construction as part of the Better Denver Bond library improvements. The new 26,000-sq-ft facility incorporates the latest in library technology, including customer self-checkout stations and an automated handling system utilizing radio frequency identification technology, speeding the checkout of materials and ensuring better tracking and accessibility of library collections. The new facility boasts 50 public computers, wi-fi accessibility, a library lounge
The Associated General Contractors of America released a new national plan this week detailing measures to stimulate demand for construction. Officials said the plan was needed to reverse construction employment declines that have taken place in 317 out of 337 metro areas since January 2007, according to new data released by the association. “Our goal is to rebuild a devastated construction market that has left millions jobless, littered cities with incomplete projects and sapped much-needed revenue, commerce and customers out of our economy,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, AGC chief executive officer. “Considering the scope and impact of construction job losses,
Article toolbar On March 18, 1911, Theodore Roosevelt pressed a button, releasing the first flow of water from a dam bearing his name, deep within the Arizona Territory. �If there could be any monument which would appeal to any man, surely this is it,� Roosevelt told the crowd of 1,000 who had assembled in the remote Superstitions Wilderness, 76 miles northeast of Phoenix. The former president had ardently campaigned for and signed the 1902 National Reclamation Act, making the dam, today�s Bureau of Reclamation and an irrigated West possible. �Great things will take place in the Salt River Valley due
Currently, the construction industry is showing modest signs of a rebound. Architectural billings are starting to rise modestly, secondary commercial financing is beginning to give bankers an outlet for moving commercial real estate loans off their books and some of the Fortune 1000, spurred by a friendly bond market and low interest rates, are floating debt or simply spending their mountains of cash and beginning to invest in plant and warehouse expansions (Caterpillar, Whirlpool, Amazon, etc.) In addition, the automobile business is expanding again after two-plus years of contraction and consolidation. All in all, the industry outlook appears to be
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