Bradford Gatlin joins Lang Wyatt Construction as project manager. With a degree in civil engineering, he has 37 years of experience in planning, management, control and supervision for projects including commercial, mining, government and education. Gatlin most recently worked with Concord General Contracting for 12 years, and prior to that he was with T.L. Roof. Photo courtesy Rider Levett Bucknall Ward Simpson Sundt Construction Inc. has hired Scot Bennett as a business development representative. Bennett brings more than a decade of business development and design experience to Sundt, having previously served as a designer and then director of business development
Residents of two rural Southern Arizona towns are celebrating the reopening of a freeway bridge that had been severely damaged earlier this year after two semi-trucks caught fire during an accident. The bridge over Interstate 10 was demolished and rebuilt in only six months, alleviating a 10-mile detour for residents on either side of the freeway. Photo courtesy ADOT Crews install a new concrete box girder on the Mescal Road/J-Six Ranch Road Bridge over I-10 in southern Arizona as lighning lights up the night sky. Photo Courtesy ADOT The fire-damaged bridge was demolished just 24 days after the fire. Crews
Specialty contractors, whether steel or electrical or masonry, struggled through another year of steep revenue declines in the Southwest. The top 80 firms saw the value of work performed in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico drop 28% to $2.5 billion in 2010, compared with $3.4 billion in the previous year. And that was just the firms that were willing to report revenue—many chose not to, leading to the lowest participation for this survey in more than a decade. Arizona subcontractor revenue tumbled 28% to $1.4 billion in 2010, but it was Nevada that took the biggest blow, dropping below $1
Paul Eng-Wong has been named a principal of Watertown, Mass.-based engineer Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. following the firm's Sept. 6 acquisition of Eng-Wong, Taub & Associates, a New York City transportation planner of which he is president and co-founder. Martin Taub, the acquired firm's other co-founder and executive vice president, also joins VHB as a principal. Eng-Wong, Taub & Associates has 40 employees.Johnson, Miraman & Thompson Inc., a Sparks, Md., engineer-architect, has named Sharon J. Bland as vice president. She was president, CEO and founder of Clear Solution Management Group, a Washington, D.C., management consultant, and formerly vice president of
Photo courtesy chevron PRISTINE? Builders of the $45-billion Gorgon LNG plant in Australia face strict bio-security rules. Uncertainty and volatility will dominate development of large-scale projects in new markets and untapped locales, say attendees of the Engineering and Construction Contracting in Phoenix on Sept. 7-10.With uncertainty and volatility stifling large-scale capital investment in new global markets and pristine locales, project challenges attracted a record number of attendees to a key energy-industrial megaprojects conference in Phoenix on Sept. 7-10.As development encroaches on increasingly remote areas, jurisdictions are becoming more protective of threatened species and environmental risks, Chevron Corp. executive Johann Van
Rendering courtesy of Enviromission The temperature differential between greenhouse-heated air at ground level and the air atop the tower creates a tremendous updraft that drives turbines to generate 200 MW of electricity. Rendering courtesy of Enviromission The solar tower's design does not require any water during the power production cycle, an attractive quality in the desert Southwest. A solar tower planned to rise just 100 ft shy of the world's tallest building took a major step forward with the selection of Phoenix-based contractor Hensel Phelps Construction Co. as construction services provider under a guaranteed maximum price.EnviroMission USA, a subsidiary of
Waiting for this year's top general contractors list was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It was a foregone conclusion that Southwest contractors would report precipitous revenue declines. But the damage, based on 2010 revenue, was worse than many expected. Related Links: Southwest Top Contractors Ranking This year's 90 survey participants earned $8.1 billion in total revenue in 2010 across Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, down more than 42% from the level reported by the top 90 firms in the year-ago period and nearly 60% below the peak market in 2008.All three states were down in 2010 by
A vocal group of local residents has spurred a debate over the route of a new, seven-mile stretch of road in north Phoenix being built to access an area of Sonoran Desert preserve. Opponents claim the new thoroughfare will draw unwanted traffic to a quiet neighborhood. Photo courtesy of Haydon Building Corp. Three traffic bridges and 10 steel truss pedestrian bridges are included in the project. Bridges over normally dry washes are built to withstand flash floods. The Phoenix City Council on June 14 placed construction of the contentious west third of the project on temporary hold, pending mediation. Work
With the first phase of PHX Sky Train from the 44th Street Metro Light Rail in Phoenix to Sky Harbor Airport’s Terminal 4 on track for a 2013 opening, many wondered why the second stage to connect the airport’s other terminals to the system wasn't set to open until 2020. That changed earlier this month after the Phoenix City Council voted to move up completion of a .6-mile section to connect Terminal 4 with Terminal 3, along with a walkway for passengers to access Terminal 2, to early 2015. This portion was originally part of a second phase that would
Spring is in the air for two firms selected to construct a new spring training and western headquarters facility for the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team in Mesa, Ariz. Populous, Kansas City, Mo., beat out nine competing firms to win the design contract, while Hunt Construction Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., bested eight others for the general contractor job. Image courtesy City of Mesa Conceptual drawings show possible layouts for the Cubs' new spring home. Image courtesy City of Mesa The new spring training venue pictured here in a concept drawing will replace the Cubs' existing facility in Mesa, Hohokam Park.