Denver’s Mortenson Construction marked completion of the concrete and steel-frame construction of the Exempla Saint Joseph replacement hospital with a topping-out ceremony at the jobsite in Denver on April 18. Photo courtesy of Mortenson Construction The 831,327-sq-ft, eight-story replacement hospital will be a full-service facility with 348 patient beds. The new Saint Joseph replacement hospital is located adjacent to the current hospital campus east of downtown. The 831,327-sq-ft facility will be a full-service hospital housing all standard-care departments and services. The facility is being built to accommodate 348 patient beds and has a freestanding central utility plant that will serve
Public-private partnerships (P3s) have burst onto the scene in the U.S. as a solution to help meet the overwhelming need for public infrastructure and the underwhelming public resources to pay for it. P3s, of course, are hardly new. Private funding sources have been used for decades to develop major infrastructure and social assets in Europe, Asia and Latin America. In the last decade, P3s have become common in Canada, and they were utilized in the U.S. in the 1970s to develop post offices. In many cases, these privately financed assets are well timed, developed and operated.They can also provide a
Prices for construction materials were flat in March, as plunging diesel fuel and metals prices offset increases in items used in new housing and nonresidential building renovations, according to a recent analysis of new federal figures released by the Associated General Contractors of America. “Thanks to a recent, sharp drop in diesel fuel prices last month—along with continuing declines in steel, copper and aluminum prices—overall construction costs were unchanged from February and up only 0.9% over the past year,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the construction trade association. “However, building contractors had to absorb another month of increases in
Thirty-eight percent of highway contractors had motor vehicles crash into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work-zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials added that the study found work-zone crashes are more likely to kill vehicle operators and passengers than construction workers. “Any time your jobsite is just a few feet away from fast-moving traffic, danger is never far away,” said Mike Hoover, chair of the association’s national highway and transportation division and executive vice president of Tempe, Ariz.-based Sundt Construction. “When you see construction
Public-private partnerships are alive and thriving in Colorado because of leadership from the Colorado Dept. of Transportation, the Regional Transportation District and the City and County of Denver. P3 projects benefit from Colorado’s Integrated Project Delivery statute, which was enacted in 2007 and permits all state agencies, municipalities and special districts to deliver capital projects through any combination of design, demolition, construction, operation, maintenance and finance. CDOTCDOT’s High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE), under the leadership of Director Mike Cheroutes, is expanding the Boulder Turnpike (U.S. 36) on a P3 basis. The turnpike originally opened in 1951 as a four-lane divided
MGM Resorts International is spending $100 million for an open-air entertainment promenade linking two of its Las Vegas Strip properties: New York-New York and Monte Carlo.
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation says that nearly 200 miles of highway and more than 24 bridges will be under construction in the northeastern section of Colorado, with costs totaling more than $130 million. That includes projects in Boulder, Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson, Larimer, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties. This construction work does not include routine CDOT maintenance projects, which are also under way on a daily basis. Major 2013 construction projects in northeastern Colorado are listed below.• I-76 Brush to Fort Morgan Reconstruction: The $37.6-million project will reconstruct I-76 in both directions from mile
After nearly four years of construction, the Utah Transit Authority and Salt Lake City have officially opened the six-mile light rail line linking Salt Lake City International Airport to the existing 20 miles of light rail and wider mass transit system along the Wasatch Front. Photo by Brian Fryer The $209-million light-rail project was brought in under budget and two months ahead of schedule. The $209-million project was brought in under budget and two months ahead of schedule by the joint venture team of Stacy and Witbeck and Kiewit Western. The project included the light rail tracks to the airport
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) is reflecting a steady upturn in design activity. The American Institute of Architects reported the March ABI score was 51.9, down from a mark of 54.9 in February. This score reflects an increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 60.1, down from the reading of 64.8 the previous month. “Business conditions in the construction industry have generally been improving over the last several months,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. “But as we have continued to report, the recovery has been uneven
Construction employment increased in 30 states in March as the industry expanded, but at a slower pace than in February, according to a recent analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of Labor Department data. Association officials cautioned, however, that many states remain vulnerable to construction cutbacks from newly enacted and proposed decreases in federal funding for infrastructure. “A majority of states are adding jobs month by month and year-over-year,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “The expansion appears poised to continue for residential and private nonresidential construction, but investment in infrastructure and public buildings is still on
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