The Colorado Dept. of Transportation completed a complex bridge replacement on July 21 after crews rolled the new 2,400-ton Pecos Street Bridge over I-70 into place over one weekend. The highly coordinated bridge move allowed CCDOT to reopen I-70 through central Denver 4.5 hours ahead of schedule. The 4.8-million-lb bridge started moving onto I-70 at noon on Saturday, the 20th, and was placed in its final configuration around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. The project also added a new pedestrian bridge over the freeway on the west side of Pecos Street. “Our decision to completely close I-70 for one full weekend reduced
The Colorado economy continues to grow in 2013 at a rate that exceeds previous expectations going into the year, says economist Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. Midway through the year, Colorado’s job growth rate is up by about 2.3%, a gain of about 52,400 jobs from May 2012 to May 2013. Job growth is expected to continue to rise to about 2.5%, a figure revised from estimates last December when the projection was about 1.8%. “The performance of the Colorado economy has modestly exceeded our December 2012 forecast,” says Wobbekind, executive director of the
Fees often define a design firm’s ability to win work and execute a project profitably. With competitive pressures now higher than ever, setting these fees has been a difficult task for most architectural, engineering, planning and environmental consulting firms. Just over half of firms in the industry update their billing rates yearly, according to ZweigWhite’s recently released 2013 Fee & Billing Survey. Over the past three years, these rates have seen meager median increases of just 3%. Firms still felt some pressure to reduce or discount fees for various reasons, with 52% reporting discounting project fees over the past year.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently released the results of a survey of more than 4,000 landscape architecture firms about residential and hospitality design and product selection. “Among the most frequent requests we receive from landscape architects is for more information on outdoor furnishings for residential and hospitality projects,” said Ann Looper Pryor, managing director of publishing and resource development for ASLA.“This survey confirmed anecdotal evidence that most landscape architects now select the furnishings for their projects, from contract to custom. This is a new lucrative market for high-quality outdoor furniture, appliance and accessory companies.”Here are some highlights of
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) remained positive again in June after the first decline in 10 months in April. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine- to 12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects reported the June ABI score was 51.6, down from a mark of 52.9 in May. 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 62.6, up sharply from the reading of 59.1 the previous month. “With steady
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation and the city of Grand Junction are partnering to bring the state its first diverging diamond interchange. The DDI is an innovative interchange design that improves efficiency by eliminating some of the wait time for left-hand turns. Map courtesy of CDOT A DDI eliminates traditional left-hand turns by crossing lanes and shifting drivers to the left side of the road. This gives drivers direct access to a left-hand ramp to access the interstate without waiting at a traffic signal. The project represents a partnership between CDOT and the city of Grand Junction to improve safety
New construction starts in June receded 1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $489.5 billion, according to McGraw Hill Construction, a division of McGraw Hill Financial. Nonresidential building lost momentum in June after strengthening during the previous two months, and housing experienced a pause from its recent upward trend. Meanwhile, nonbuilding construction advanced in June, lifted by the start of several large bridge projects. For the first six months of 2013, total construction starts on an unadjusted basis were reported at $233.8 billion, down 2% from the same period a year ago. The 2013 year-to-date decline for total construction
The new NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) has won the 2013 Datacenter Dynamics North American Green Data Center award. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the facility operator; and Lakewood-based engineering firm The RMH Group accepted the award at a ceremony held in San Francisco on July 12.NWSC is a $70-million, 153,000-sq-ft facility located in Cheyenne that provides advanced computing services to scientists studying a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, oceanography, air pollution, space weather, computational science, energy production and carbon sequestration.The architect on the NCAR project was H+L Architecture, Denver, and the facility was built by Saunders
Salt Lake City officials unveil on July 19 what they say is the largest public-owned building anywhere to generate as much energy as it uses. In planning Salt Lake City’s new $125-million Public Safety Building, city officials came to the design team with a full slate of requests. They wanted a building that could withstand and continue to operate after a large-scale earthquake or terrorist attack.They asked for a building that would be welcoming to the public, could host city events and extend a three-block stretch of public buildings that includes the Matheson Courthouse, the historic City County Building, the
Total construction spending climbed modestly in May as growth in residential and public construction offset a drop in private nonresidential activity, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials predicted that spending would remain uneven through the second half of 2013. “Hesitancy by private owners to commit to new construction, along with continuing shrinkage in public budgets, will keep the recovery weaker than it otherwise would be,” said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. “On the plus side, both new residential spending and improvements to existing homes will keep some
RSS
