Houston Professor Gains Three-Year State Grant to Advance Bridge Safety Technology

Vedhus Hoskere, a University of Houston assistant professor in its civil and environmental engineering department, was awarded a three-year $500,000 grant from the Texas Dept. of Transportation to advance use of robots, data, digital twins and artificial intelligence to improve state bridge safety maintenance and inspection (pictured). Texas has more than 55,000 bridges, double the number of any other state, and they must be inspected every two years, he says. The Federal Highway Administration says 2% of state bridges are considered in poor condition. “Our project ... is about figuring out how to best leverage technology like drones, cameras, sensors and AI to gather a lot of data ... and use it to make high-quality decisions” about aging bridge infrastructure, Hoskere says. The project is set to finish in August 2026.

Flintco Focuses on Native Tribe Employment, Team Participation

Photo courtesy FlintCo

For general contractor Flintco LLC, buying local is more than a transaction. The Tulsa-based firm has worked with 77 Native American nations, out of 576 nationally, to deliver more than $2.6 billion in construction—including projects in health care, education, hospitality and gaming “that benefit local tribal members and families,” says Vernelle Chase, Flintco director of tribal relations. The firm says it was founded by a Native American family in 1908 and continued under that ownership for more than 100 years.

Flintco’s average use of tribal contractors and Native workforce on project work (pictured) since 2008 has been more than 50%, according to Chase, who is a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe in Fort Belknap, Mont. She joined the firm in 1994. In Oklahoma, one of Flintco’s largest tribal projects was the Cherokee Nation Outpatient Center in Tahlequah, finished in 2019. The $140-million, 470,000-sq-ft medical facility includes an ambulatory surgery center in Broken Arrow, Okla.

Flintco was one of the largest Native American-owned contractors in the U.S. until 2013, when St. Louis-based Alberici Corp. acquired it. Alberici-Flintco now ranks at No. 39 on ENR’s current Top 400 Contractors list, reporting $3.1 billion in construction revenue for 2022.

Developer Vesper Closes on $600-Million Financing for Swisher County Solar Energy Project

Dallas-based solar energy project developer Vesper Energy said Feb. 1 it has closed $590 million in financing to build the 745-MW Hornet Solar project in Swisher County, Texas. When completed in early 2025, it will generate enough power for about 160,000 homes annually. Contractor Blattner Energy is constructing the project, which is selling its output to four large users through power purchase agreements. Vesper said it expects to monetize more than $500 million of federal production tax credits over the next 10 years. The utility-scale project is set to interconnect with the Oncor Electric transmission system.