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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.

Are capital-intensive subcontractors with substantial fabricating operations the most likely not to make it through to the end of the construction recession?That’s a question prime contractors could ask in light of the latest major subcontractor default.Austin Industries, the big commercial and industrial contactor, says of its four projects on which Trainor Glass Co. was serving as a subcontractor, three were nearly completed and are running on schedule and the fourth is in a very early stage and is unlikely to be affected.Based in Farmers Branch, Texas, Trainor Glass shut its doors at nine locations where it had operations Feb. 22

McKim & Creed, an engineering, surveying and planning firm with offices throughout the Southeast, announced that it has acquired a 31-person AECOM survey operation based in Texas, formerly known as SURVCON. The Texas group will operate under the name SURVCON, a Division of McKim & Creed. The acquisition allows McKim & Creed and SURVCON to bring innovative Geomatics technologies to clients in the transportation, energy and institutional industries, according to a company announcement. SURVCON’s operations were established in Houston during 1974 and provide surveying and aerial mapping services from offices in Houston, Austin, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Georgetown, Texas.

DFW International Airport revealed plans for a new $175-milion Terminal A Parking facility, March 1. The Terminal A Parking structure is a new component of the Terminal Renewal and Improvement Program (TRIP), the seven-year $1.9 billion program which will renew DFW’s four original terminals.The 3-million-sq-ft, five-level parking facility, designed by Jacobs, falls under the scope of the BARC joint venture, which consists of Balfour Beatty Construction, Azteca Enterprises, H.J. Russell & Company, and CARCON Industries. With BARC serving as construction manager-at-risk, a general contractor will be selected to build the parking facility. The winning bidder should be announced within the

A $1.7-billion expansion of Formosa Plastics’ Point Comfort, Texas, site could create an estimated 1,800 construction jobs, according to the company. The Chinese petrochemical company announced the project this week, noting that the expansion would enable it to “take advantage of the increasingly reliable and low-cost domestic natural gas.” The investment consists of a new 800,000 MT/Y olefins cracker, an associated 600,000 MT/Y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit and a new 300,000 MT/Y low density polyethylene (LDPE) resin plant. It will create an estimated 1800 construction jobs and, once completed, an additional 225 long-term operating and maintenance jobs, according to the

Texas is showing a friendlier attitude toward subcontractors. The American Subcontractors Association named Texas the state with the most improved public-policy environment for construction subcontractors in 2011. Related Links: The Policy Environment in the States Drawing from the American Subcontractors Association's (ASA) report, "The Policy Environment in the States," Texas’ ranking among states rose to No. 10 from No. 29 in terms of the public-policy environment in all 50 states.“Texas succeeded in driving legislative reforms in five major areas: electronic reverse auctions, payment bonds on public-private partnerships, risk allocation, lien claims for retainage and statutory lien forms,” said 2011-12 ASA

Three years into the economic downturn, many specialty contractors aren't sure what to make of today's market, much less where it is headed. Although the construction industry has weathered its fair share of cycles over the years, top brass at the region's largest firms have never been through a down period that lasted quite this long. This is new territory, even for the industry's most-seasoned executives. With private dollars still squeezed and public money running low, there is no clear path to long-term recovery, says Harold MacDowell, CEO of TDIndustries, Dallas.“It's a muddle-through economy,” he says. “It's going to be

The heavily traveled Interstate-35 corridor is infamous for areas of congestion; fortunately, for motorists and contractors, significant highway funding is speeding along to bring needed relief. Under current plans, the Texas Dept. of Transportation (TxDOT) is investing more than $1 billion to widen the interstate—with more than a half billion in work under way and nearly $400 million in projects scheduled to bid this fall. The agency, which has at least another $500 million in additional work on the horizon and more in planning, has launched unprecedented outreach programs to shape the future expansion of the corridor. After nearly five

The federal team investigating last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 men in the Gulf of Mexico will conduct a week of hearings on April 4-8 in Metairie, La., to focus specifically on a forensic examination of the failed blowout preventer on the well. Conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement as well as the U.S. Coast Guard Joint Investigation Team, the hearings follow the March 20 release of a report by Norwegian risk-management specialist Det Norske Veritas on the blowout preventer. DNV tested, examined and investigated the failure of the 50-ft, 300-ton BOP in