Midwest City Scoop: Construction Starts in Columbus

Overall construction spending expected to climb almost 4% in 2020 after slight gain in 2019

Gains in non-residential and non-building work will more than offset weakness in residential activity.

City Grill

Jeffrey Coffey
Director, Water Practice
DLZ Corp.

“We’re working on an extension to the OARS tunnel [OSIS Augmentation and Relief Sewer, completed in 2017] called the Lower Olentangy Tunnel, and it’s going to be similar,” Coffey says. “We’re extending it about three-and-a-half miles north of the Ohio State University from where ORS ended at the north side of downtown, so that’s going to be a soft ground, 12-ft-diameter tunnel. We’re hoping to bid that next spring, early summer, so that’ll get started by the end of next year or early 2021. That’s a big exciting one for us. We’re on to the next one.”

Firm in Focus

DLZ Corp.
6121 Huntley Road, Columbus, Ohio
CEO: Vikram ‘Raj’ Rajadhyaksha
Employees: 600
Founded: 1978
Recent project: Completed in 2017, the OSIS Augmentation and Relief Sewer (OARS) won an Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Ohio.