Yates Construction – with offices in Fort Worth and San Antonio – was awarded a contract by the Corps of Engineers to build an Army Reserve Center in Sinton. The new $8.5-million, ARC consists of a 31,600-sq-ft training center with a combined 4,700-sq-ft organizational maintenance shop with an attached 1,300-sq-ft storage building. The scheduled completion date is May. This is one of three ARC contracts awarded to the company in the past six months including two in Arkansas. All are designed to achieve LEED-silver certification. Related Links: McCarthy Building Completes $240M Houston Hospital Expansion Armed Forces Reserve Center Under Construction
Twenty-five projects out of the 55 that made the print issue of our annual Top Projects Starts. The list here includes those as well as the additional 30 in order of total construction cost. Topping the list is the $1.3-billion-plus Central Texas highway project, SH 130, segments five and six. The list of 25 highlighted projects in this feature, with a total combined value of $4.4 billion, is dominated by transportation and military construction. Higher education, research and health-care projects are also frequent in the mix, while K-12 and is also keeping contractors busy across the region. All Top Project
After receiving tips, Bay County, Fla., Sheriff’s deputies arrested 11 undocumented workers at the Panama City Marina on May 19, 2010, for using stolen social security numbers to obtain employment cleaning up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Bay County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Ruth Corley indicates BP subcontractors hired the men, who most recently came from South Carolina, Mississippi and other parts of Florida. The men are citizens of Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Bolivia. BP contracted with Eagle-SWS of Panama City to complete the oil clean-up work. According to BP spokesperson Vani Rao, Eagle-SWS hired CCI (Containment
Although construction activity has slowed in the Panhandle and West Texas, new projects continue to surface and work continues. “We’re not nearly as busy as we have been the past five or six years, but we have some nice school projects starting in 2010,” says Wiley Hicks III, vice president of Wiley Hicks Jr. Inc., a general contracting firm, and president of the Panhandle of Texas Chapter of the Associated General Contractors, both in Amarillo. “It’s not great, but it’s not horrible.” Wiley Hicks Jr. is finishing up a new building for the Cardiology Center of Amarillo, and Hicks says
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has expanded the list of organizations whose crane-operator certification programs it formally recognizes, with an agreement with the National Center for Construction Education and Research, Gainesville, Fla. Related Links: Ten Minutes With OSHA Chief David Michaels OSHA chief David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, and NCCER President Don Whyte signed the voluntary agreement on May 17 at the Dept. of Labor headquarters in Washington. In March, OSHA finalized a similar agreement with The Crane Institute of America Certification Inc. OSHA's first such crane-operator program agreement came in 1999, with
Delays in developing large power projects in Florida are bad news for contractors in a state already hurt by sharp construction downturns, says the Greater Florida Chapter of Associated General Contractors president. Photo: Florida Power and Light Power plans FP&L says Riviera gas plant will proceed on schedule, but nuclear units face delays. Florida’s biggest utilities, Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light (FP&L) and Progress Energy Florida, “stopped work on everything but the essentials” after the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in January rejected most of the big rate increases the utilities had sought, said Richard Marshall, who also is
Photo courtesy BE&K/Turner In early May, the joint-venture team of BE&K Building Group and Turner Construction Co. celebrated the setting of the first steel trusses at Boeing’s Charleston 787 Final Assembly facility project in North Charleston, S.C. Kenny Anderson, BE&K/Turner’s construction manager, said the first two trusses were set May 10 and May 13, with the western half placed first and the eastern half three days later. Each half weighs 221 tons and is 307 ft long. Fully assembled, each truss measures 614 ft long and has a 464-ft clear span. The project broke ground in November. BRPH of Melbourne,
Suffolk Construction Co. of Miami was awarded a $25-million contract to build a classroom/student union facility at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus. The six-story, 110,000-sq-ft facility will include classrooms, a film archival library, wellness center, student union/student life center, and a food court and general eating area. Suffolk and architect Zyscovich of Miami will work together to design-build the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in December, and is targeted for completion 12 months later, in December 2011.
Gordon Chew, a handyman in remote Tenakee Springs, Alaska, needed a 12-volt coil to get his Case 686G telehandler up and running again. He called a dealer and was told the part was not in stock. “Case couldn’t find it,” says Chew, who notes the price quoted to him was $230. Not wanting to wait for a special order, he typed the part into a search engine and found GCIron.com. Chew had never heard of the site before, but that didn’t matter. He called up the company, and the operator cross-referenced the part and quickly located it in inventory. “They
The Lane Construction Corp. has been contracted to repave Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Connecticut-based Lane will begin repaving the Daytona NASCAR track on July 4, with a target completion date of January 1, 2011. Since 2003, Lane has paved several NASCAR tracks, including Talladega Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Darlington Raceway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. Lane officials stated it will have a crew of roughly 50 workers repaving the 2.5-mile “tri-oval” track, skid pads, apron and pit road. The project calls for removing all of the existing asphalt, down to
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