Hatch Mott MacDonald expanded its footprint in Lousiana with the aquisition of New Orleans-based Lambert Engineers, May 14. The deal enables Hatch Mott MacDonald to bolster it suite of engineering services, covering the transportation, environmental, coastal, oil & gas, and water sectors. Company executives noted that the acquisition also adds experienced staff, who are members of the local community and understand its needs. “Joining Hatch Mott MacDonald offers our local staff the expertise and resources that we need to undertake significant engineering and environmental projects in southern Louisiana,” said Dennis Lambert, a principal owner of Lambert Engineers, in a statement.
By building a research laboratory to develop technologies to reduce the earth's carbon footprint, the Georgia Institute of Technology hopes both to help solve a nagging environmental issue and to provide a construction industry model for the production of "no-frills" net-zero energy-use buildings. Related Links: Clemson Architecture Building Schools Contractors in the Art of Net Zero Apple Gets Boost From Sun for iCloud Data Center The $22.4-million Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory in Atlanta, targeting completion this fall, will develop technologies aimed at reducing global warming, such as carbon sequestration. From the start, though, the university faced an ironic twist.
There's a new giant in the No. 1 position of ENR Southeast's annual Top Design Firms ranking this year, and even though it's the firm's first time atop the charts, the company's success is anything but a big surprise. AECOM Technology Corp. soared past its Southeast competition in 2011 by grabbing a big share of the major projects throughout the region. Related Links: Perkins+Will Envisions New Future for Design More Southeast Firms While many other Southeast firms struggled over the past year to eke out a mild increase, or else suffered a decline, AECOM surged, posting a gain of roughly
Designers in the Southeast are continuing to face market uncertainty, but as 2012 unfolds, more of them are starting to see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel as the region's owners move more project plans off the shelf and into the field. It's not a boom, but architects and engineers seem ready for any kind of improvement. Related Links: Southeast Design Firm of the Year: AECOM Technology Corp. The cause for optimism starts with a look back at the recent past. A year ago, ENR Southeast's Top Design Firms ranking revealed that 2010 revenue had declined again
The value of contracts in two of South Carolina’s three broad construction categories declined sharply in March, resulting in a 40% overall monthly decline in activity, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, publisher of ENR Southeast. Related Links: Tar Heel State Contracts Kick Up in March Nuclear Project Boosts Georgia Contracts Total Again in March In Florida, March Sees Building Markets Soar, Infrastructure Sour Overall, projects totaling about $462.4 million moved ahead in March. Residential proved the only positive sector for the month, as housing contracts totaled $344.5 million, or 17% better than the previous March.Nonresidential fell 81% in March. This category’s
North Carolina contractors saw a 50% increase in the value of new construction contracts during March, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. The company estimated the state’s new contracts at nearly $1.5 billion, well ahead of the year-ago figure of $990 million. Related Links: In Florida, March Sees Building Markets Soar, Infrastructure Sour Nuclear Project Boosts Georgia Contracts Total Again in March All three construction categories posted solid gains. Most notable was the nonresidential sector, which totaled $528.4 million for the month—or more than double the amount tallied last March.Nonbuilding—which includes infrastructure projects—jumped 47% during the month, for an estimated total of
The start of construction at Plants 3 and 4 for Southern Co.’s Vogtle nuclear power plant project boosted Georgia’s contract totals to great heights in March, with McGraw-Hill Construction reporting the state’s latest monthly total at more than $9.3 billion. Related Links: In Florida, March Sees Building Markets Soar, Infrastructure Sour As a result, McGraw-Hill tallied Georgia’s nonbuilding category—which includes energy and infrastructure projects—ended up at nearly $8.6 billion for the month. A year ago, the nonbuilding sector recorded $123.5 million in new projects. (McGraw-Hill Construction previously reported $1.5 billion of Vogtle-related site work as starting last October.)The other two
After a federal jury took just four hours to rule that HDR Engineering’s design did not cause the cracks at Tampa Bay Water’s six-year-old reservoir, the utility was left with nothing for its gamble on a $30-million settlement offer but an estimated $24 million in legal bills.
Even as government agencies appear to be showing more austerity in their construction budgets, public projects are still making up the vast majority of big new projects in the region. Public projects outnumber private work 2-to-1 on the ENR Texas and Louisiana Top Starts ranking for 2011. More than $12.1 billion worth of projects, each valued at more than $50 million, broke ground in 2011, an increase from 2010. Many contractors reaped the rewards. "In Texas, we are having the best year we've ever had," says Gary Nauert, regional manager in Texas for DPR Construction Inc., Austin. He says DPR
It was an imposing task: to connect the remote but windy areas of Texas to the state's power grid with modern, efficient transmission lines that would carry needed wind energy to population centers. The Texas Legislature took on the task in 2005, passing a law establishing the state's competitive renewable energy zones (CREZ). Seven years later, a dozen companies and hundreds of contractors and subcontractors are close to finishing the work.When complete next year, the $6.95-billion CREZ project will have 3,500 miles of new 345-kV transmission lines that will move up to 18,500 MW of wind power across the state.
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