Government and partners take steps to secure contracts, employee pay as lenders bail on deal to fix firm's $2.1 billion debt; some fears of industry-wide impacts.

Santa Ana, Calif.-based Salas O'Brien, a national facilities design and planning firm, has merged with Columbus, Ohio-based Varo Engineers, creating a combined firm with 16 offices and 460 employee-owners.

The nation’s contractors expressed a surprisingly optimistic view of the industry’s prospects for 2018 in a recent outlook survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and Sage Construction and Real Estate.

Resources (US) Inc. is planning to construct a 280-MW geothermal power plant, the Hell’s Kitchen Power Station, on a 1,900-acre site along the southern shore of the Salton Sea, near Calipatria.