This year’s ENR MidAtlantic Top Starts ranking showed a dramatic increase in the value of total project costs. Counting only the first 21 projects on the list gives a total of $13.1 billion, a nearly 80% increase from the value of the 21 projects on last year’s ranking. The $3.1-billion Nucor Steel project in Apple Grove, W.Va., which was ranked first among 26 projects this year, equals almost half of the value of all the projects combined on last year’s list. The next 10 projects this year are worth nearly as much as the combined $7.2-billion value of all projects on last year’s list.

The ranking includes projects that began substantial construction in 2023 and are in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The rankings are compiled using information from Dodge Data & Analytics as well as details provided by industry firms and other sources.

The Spark Therapeutics Gene Therapy Innovation Center in Philadelphia, which was ranked No. 8, is one of the more challenging projects on the list. With a $575-million contract value, it is the kind of life sciences project that is typically built on a greenfield or brownfield site with room for future construction and additions.

“As Spark works to develop and manufacture gene therapies, and as the technology, platform, and development tools they use evolve, inherent flexibility and adaptability are critical," says Koti Vadlamudi, senior vice president at Jacobs. "The main challenge is how to build flexibility into a facility in a dense location in West Philadelphia in the heart of University City without space to expand outwards. As a result, Spark must be able to flex and grow within the facility. For this reason the design incorporates forward-looking modifications like the doubling of deck-to-deck heights, adaptable shell space, and high bay areas to allow evolving technology and manufacturing operations.”

Balfour Beatty’s design-build team is building the fifth-ranked project, the $698-million Kenny Center in Fort Meade, Md. Being built for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District and the National Security Agency, the job includes an 854,000-sq-ft building and multilevel modular parking structure that has more than 3,000 spaces. Dan Novack, Balfour Beatty’s president in the MidAtlantic region, said at the project’s groundbreaking that his firm, “along with our industry partners, looks forward to a successful delivery that provides USACE and the NSA with state-of-the-art facilities on the East Campus site, further enhancing the critical and vital work of our nation’s defense operations.”

The I-95/896 interchange improvements project in Newark, Del., is No. 16 on this year’s Top Starts ranking.
Photo courtesy Delaware Dept. of Transportation

Five transportation projects are on this year’s list, including the $284-million Interstate-95/896 interchange improvements in Newark, Del., which came in at No. 16. At the groundbreaking, Greg Andricos, Wagman Heavy Civil president and chief operating officer, said his firm had been tracking the project for more than two years. He said Wagman looked forward to working with the Delaware DOT, Century Engineering and the other team members “to make this vision come to life.”

The minimum value for a project on this year’s list was $157 million. Last year’s ranking, which had 21 projects, had a $163-million minimum. The values of this year’s 21st-ranked project—the Commercial Metals Co. Micro Mill in Martinsburg, W.Va.—is worth $225 million.