Photo courtesy of Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science An internal Suffolk Construction email provided exclusively to ENR asserts that the construction manager's staff was frustrated with the project's coordination challenges. + Image Email Supplied by Suffolk Construction Click email image to enlarge. Related Links: CEO John Fish has 'Big, Audacious' Goals for Suffolk Construction Suffolk Construction Diversifies, Streamlines to Survive Tough South Florida Economy After enduring eight months of stalled construction and recently rejecting Suffolk Construction's latest claim for cost and schedule adjustments, the owner of a Miami science museum project terminated the construction manager "for convenience" and
Duke Energy says it will build a $1.5-billion, 1,640-MW natural gas-fired powerplant on a Citrus County, Fla., site adjacent to its damaged Crystal River nuclear facility that the utility officially shuttered 15 months ago. Image courtesy Duke Energy Duke Energy announced plans to locate a $1.5-billion, 1,640-megawatt natural gas-fired powerplant on a site adjacent to its Crystal River complex in Citrus County, Fla. Related Links: Duke Decides to Shutter Damaged Crystal River Nuke Plant Duke Study: Crystal River Nuke Plant Repairs Could Hit $3.4B The Charlotte, N.C.-based utility stated that, after “a months-long request-for-proposals process,” it has decided its "self-build"
Builders of a glass-sheathed Florida college building—topped by a 250-ft-long skylight shading system with 94 louvered arms that raise and lower to track the sun—say they could not have successfully executed the unusual design without intense consultant-contractor cross-pollination. The $60-million building nearing completion in Lakeland, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, is on time and on budget thanks to the teamwork, they say. Related Links: As Design Activity Picks Up, Industry Sentiment Follows Commentary: Give Calatrava a Chance Designed as the signature element of Florida Polytechnic University's still-emerging campus, the 162,000-sq-ft Innovation, Science and Technology Building (IST) stretched the team's envelope
With a few exceptions, construction activity in the four-state Southeast region remains less robust than many builders would like. But the region's design firms are starting to sense a change in the market. Related Links: ENR's Top 500 Design Firms Overview: A Recovery in Need of Speed Southeast Top Starts Ranking Reveals Stop-and-Go Recovery Responses to ENR Southeast's annual survey of Top Design Firms, which generates the ranking published here, increased significantly from a year ago, as did the firms' collective revenue. And industry sentiment appears to be on the rise."We're feeling much better and seeing much stronger activity in
Map courtesy Fla. Dept. of Transportation In addition to the rebuilding of general-use lanes, the 21-mile-long project includes reconstruction of 15 major interchanges, construction of roughly 140 bridges and the addition of four variable-priced toll lanes. Related Links: FDOT Officially Names Short-Listed Groups for I-4 Ultimate Job Interstate 595 Widening Mark's Florida's First P3 Effort A concessionaire headed by Skanska Infrastructure Development will lead the Florida Dept. of Transportation's largest public-private partnership project to date: the $2.3-billion rebuild of Orlando's Interstate 4.A joint venture of Skanska USA Civil Southeast, Granite Construction and Lane Construction will lead construction. HDR Engineering and
Related Links: View Recent GAO Bid Protest Decisions ENR Story History on Corps of Engineers- New Orleans PCCP Project Bid Protest, 2011-2013 No end in sight to $22Billion, Y-12/Pantex contract squabble (Knoxville News) GAO Bid Protests: No Small Business Size Challenges (Usually) Attorney Steven Koprince, April 15 post Dissecting GAO's Bid Protest 'Effectiveness Rate', by Daniel I. Gordon (2014) Bid Protests: The Costs are Real, but the Benefits Outweigh Them By Daniel I. Gordon (2013) GAO Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2013 Congressional Research Service GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis (August 2013) In 1924, the
Photo Courtesy of Wilson and Company Ceremony Wilson and Co. and Kansas State University christened their UAV before its very first flight. Photo Courtesy of Wilson and Company While mapping a nearby landfill, Wilson and Co. officials used their UAV to document winter conditions surrounding a spillway at Tuttle Creek Dam, north of Manhattan, Kan. Related Links: Drones Find Their Way to Southeast Construction Sites Research Ramping Up For More Drones on Jobsites The Federal Aviation Administration is pressing its effort to restrict use of unmanned aerial vehicles after it lost a legal ruling regarding regulatory authority over smaller drones.
The Dept. of Energy's $7.7-billion Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., isn't dead yet. But the Obama administration's March budget request to put the unfinished plutonium disposal facility into "cold standby" could sound the bedeviled project's death knell. Photo courtesy of the South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club With construction costs soaring, and long-term operational costs doing the same, the Obama administration recommended halting the project and studying other alternatives for plutonium disposition. Related Links: DOE Looking at Cost, Schedule Problems at S.C. Nuclear Site Cold War Cleanup The lack of an
Related Links: Cold War Cleanup DOE Looking at Cost, Schedule Problems at S.C. Nuclear Site The Dept. of Energy's $7.7-billion Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., isn't dead yet. But the Obama administration's March budget request to put the unfinished plutonium disposal facility into "cold standby" could sound the troubled project's death knell.The lack of an official cost and schedule estimate, lax oversight by the project owner and suspected unforeseen design challenges sent construction costs soaring, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Long-term operational costs have more than
After braving a "perfect storm" of construction challenges—including mucky conditions and seismic- and wind-load concerns—the builders behind Clemson University's first-of-its-kind wind-turbine drivetrain testing facility in North Charleston, S.C., have finally found safe harbor as the university prepares to begin commissioning. Related Links: Clemson Facility to Drive New Grid, Wind-Energy Research Getting Schooled in the Art of Net Zero "We had heavy loads on muck in a seismic area with flooding potential and high wind loads due to hurricanes on a brownfield site," says James Tuten, program manager for the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI), the project owner. Indeed, project officials
