On The Scene March 21, 2011 Our editors are everywhere�at all the industry events that matter most. When They're not speaking on panels, they're busy taking notes�and snapping photos�so they can inform their readers about what was said and who was there. Arizona Builders’ Alliance The Arizona Builders� Alliance hosted its annual Auction and President�s Party on Feb. 4 at the Phoenix Airport Marriott. The auction included dozens of items donated by local industry companies and several resort vacation packages that were raffled off, helping the group raise $17,000 to benefit the American Cancer Society and ABA education programs. The
NV Energy is making a power play by more than quadrupling the output of its 16-year-old southern Nevada powerplant, the 144-MW Harry Allen Generating Station. Once used as a facility for peak-time power use, the simple-cycle natural gas-fired plant is now undergoing a $600-million expansion that will increase capacity to 628 MW. “After California's energy crisis, we needed to become self-sufficient and not dependent upon others,” says Andrew McNeil, NV Energy's new generation corporate executive. “At the time, we had been buying about 75% of our power from the grid.”Las Vegas-based NV Energy's service area covers 44,424 sq miles and
Article toolbar On March 18, 1911, Theodore Roosevelt pressed a button, releasing the first flow of water from a dam bearing his name, deep within the Arizona Territory. �If there could be any monument which would appeal to any man, surely this is it,� Roosevelt told the crowd of 1,000 who had assembled in the remote Superstitions Wilderness, 76 miles northeast of Phoenix. The former president had ardently campaigned for and signed the 1902 National Reclamation Act, making the dam, today�s Bureau of Reclamation and an irrigated West possible. �Great things will take place in the Salt River Valley due
Southern Nevada�s Nellis Air Force Base is trimming construction costs of a new child development center by nearly 4% by using a unique aerated plastic-riser foundation system. Graphic: Courtesy USAF Cobblestone Construction, Las Vegas, broke ground on the $7.2-million design-build project in August 2010 and later discovered that the six-acre site along the northwest edge of the base was contaminated with radon. The 26,000-sq-ft block building consequently required a gas ventilation system, which typically comprises a vapor barrier consisting of a membrane of washed rocks and liquid as well as perforated pipe and fans. Wright Engineers, Las Vegas, proposed a
Students will be able to skip the university experience altogether and go straight into the workforce after attaining an education from an innovative new school being constructed in Glendale, Ariz. Image courtesy DLR Group A new aviation maintenance school in Arizona will help students proceed directly to the workforce by utilizing hands-on curriculum. The Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC) Aviation Technology Program will allow high school students and adults to partake in two years of training in aircraft maintenance. They will be separate programs, but following the same curriculum. �We will have approximately 100 juniors and seniors [at a time],�
The triennial CONEXPO-CON/AGG exhibition is thought to be the largest construction event of the year and the largest trade show in the Western Hemisphere. This year’s show, scheduled for March 22-26 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, already is booking up its 2.2 million square feet. Last time the big show came to Vegas, in 2008, the industry and economy were in a much different place. Then, manufacturers couldn’t crank out the machines fast enough. The show set all-time records for attendance and exhibits, with more than 144,000 people perusing nearly 2.3 million sq ft. Soon after, investment bank Lehman
The Southern Nevada Water Authority�s largest single contract to date just got a little pricier. Photo: Tony Illia for ENR Southwest Drier days Workers in 2010 in staging vault that later flooded twice. Photo: Tony Illia for ENR Southwest Tunnel-boring machine head will drill for three miles. A starter tunnel for a third raw water intake at Lake Mead flooded three times in six months last year, prompting its contractor, Vegas Tunnel Constructors LLC �a joint venture of S.A. Healy Co., Lombard, Ill., and Impreglio S.p.A., Sesto San Giovanni, Italy�to drill in a drier direction. Costs for the design-build project,
Fluor and Boeing have made their desire known to take over management of the government-owned, contractor-operated Dept. of Energy Sandia National Laboratory facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif. Photo courtesy Sandia National Labs Announcing a “teaming agreement,” Irving, Texas-based Fluor and Chicago-based Boeing say they are “ready and willing to bid” to manage the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration facilities, if the opportunity comes up, according to Keith Stephens, Fluor spokesperson. The current Sandia contract, held by Lockheed since 1993, expires in September 2012. “We thought it important to announce our intentions,” Stephens says. “While there is not an
Article toolbar Developer Chris Milam is proposing to build a $1.57-billion three-arena sports complex, on 70 acres, in downtown Las Vegas. The project, designed by Kansas City, Mo.-based ThreeSixty Architecture, calls for a 17,500-seat basketball/hockey arena, plus a 9,000-seat ballpark and 50,000-seat football stadium, both partially covered with tensile roof structures. Romani Group Inc., Greenwood Village, Colo., is program manager, with Turner Construction Co., New York, as general contractor. The Las Vegas National Sports Center would be located on city owned land within the Symphony Park master-plan, northeast of the World Market Center near the Interstate 15/ U.S. 95 interchange.
In an attempt to prevent a Las Vegas-style resort/casino from being built near Glendale, Ariz., Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a bill into law allowing Glendale to annex the 54-acre site. Casinos can be built only on tribal land, according to the state�s Indian Gaming Compact. However, as the law takes effect in 90 days, the window is open for legal maneuverings by the project�s developer, the Tohono O�odham Nation. Photo courtesy of Hnedak Bobo Group Despite a scaled-back design, West Valley Resort still faces opposition. The bill, HB 2534, was pushed through the Republican-controlled Legislature last month but failed