The holidays came early for riders of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail system. DART opened the first 5.4-mile phase of its new Orange Line in July—five months ahead of schedule. Nine miles of the 14-mile project were set to be completed in December, but the design-build team—in DART's first use of the approach—rallied for an early delivery. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record The opening coincided with the 15th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Summit and 5th Annual Global High-Speed Rail Forum held at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas on Aug. 14-17. The new section includes
George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. president, made his mark in Texas earlier in his career through oil exploration. Now under construction, the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas seeks to become a landmark of energy efficiency. Dedicated to preserving the artifacts and history of the Bush presidency, the $250-million library complex is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, a rare honor in the state. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record "We opted to go for platinum, partly because we wanted to do it as a challenge and due to the high profile
Despite a strong assortment of megaprojects around the region, most top design firms continue to struggle in a soft market. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record Combined revenue for the top 75 design firms in Texas and Louisiana dipped 7.7% last year to $2.571 billion from $2.786 billion in 2010. Still, a few top firms have found success in troubled times.Energized Market The booming oil and gas sector, fueled largely by development in the Eagle Ford shale areas of south Texas, is providing a wide range of opportunities for designers.Hatch Mott MacDonald built its presence in the region in
Even as government agencies appear to be showing more austerity in their construction budgets, public projects are still making up the vast majority of big new projects in the region. Public projects outnumber private work 2-to-1 on the ENR Texas and Louisiana Top Starts ranking for 2011. More than $12.1 billion worth of projects, each valued at more than $50 million, broke ground in 2011, an increase from 2010. Many contractors reaped the rewards. "In Texas, we are having the best year we've ever had," says Gary Nauert, regional manager in Texas for DPR Construction Inc., Austin. He says DPR
It was an imposing task: to connect the remote but windy areas of Texas to the state's power grid with modern, efficient transmission lines that would carry needed wind energy to population centers. The Texas Legislature took on the task in 2005, passing a law establishing the state's competitive renewable energy zones (CREZ). Seven years later, a dozen companies and hundreds of contractors and subcontractors are close to finishing the work.When complete next year, the $6.95-billion CREZ project will have 3,500 miles of new 345-kV transmission lines that will move up to 18,500 MW of wind power across the state.
In a jobsite trailer that serves the Terminal Renewal and Improvement Program at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, managers have created a memorial to construction site excess. A dozen rolls of outdated design development documents, each weighing 70 lb, are unused relics of how information was originally managed on the TRIP program when it kicked off just over a year ago. During the past year, a construction joint venture that oversees $800 million in projects within the $1.9-billion TRIP program has gone completely paperless. Most notably, the initiative extends beyond office-bound designers, consultants and construction coordinators to include field staff. Rather
Begun in June 2010 and completed in just six months, the LEED- Silver-targeted Denbury Resources headquarters building includes offices; a Tier 2 data center and server room with raised flooring; and an executive boardroom featuring a 2,000-lb jumbotron with six 40-in. LED monitors.
Miner-Dederick Construction completed 17 floors of tenant build-out including the president's floor, conference rooms, a fitness center, the Lantern Café and a distance learning center at MD Anderson Cancer Center Pickens Tower and Faculty Center.
The Houston office of Austin Commercial served as construction manager for the six-story Methodist West Houston Hospital, built along with a six-story, 170,000-sq-ft medical office building.
The largest design-build civil works construction project in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers history, the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Surge Barrier in New Orleans is designed to provide a robust and sustainable post-Katrina flood-protection system for the city and surrounding area.
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