Midwest Construction News

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Midwest states with large-population, metropolitan areas mostly plan to extend stay-at-home orders, while smaller population states never had a stay-at-home order to begin with or are planning to let them expire as reported cases of COVID-19 decrease.

Work at some sites will decrease as updated agency modeling shows they won't be needed.

Projects across ENR's 11-state Midwest region are being postponed or shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no real certainty in sight as to when they might continue. The wide-ranging secondary effects of the novel coronavirus and the shutdowns it caused include loss of sales tax and revenue for state incentives.

Davenport, Iowa and the Quad Cities area prepares for expected flooding, while the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened in Louisiana.

Corps Chicago District Commander Col. Aaron Reisinger and Walsh Construction Project Manger Tom Caplis detail how convention center will transform into an alternate care facility in days, including upgrade of Hall B mechanical system to produce negative air pressure for care of contagious patients.

As the Army Corps of Engineers planned and built alternate care facilities in Chicago's McCormick Place and Detroit's TCF Center, its public health strategy shifted to using convention centers for COVID-19 patients without severe symptoms rather than just for non-COVID-19 patients to take the strain off hospitals.

As cases increase in Illinois, the state has fast-tracked a 200-bed veterans home to be used as a hospital. McCormick Place convention center also is undergoing a $71-million rehab to become an acute-care treatment facility.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will allow COVID-19 halted projects extra time to finish without being responsible for liquidated damages.

Construction in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin is seen as essential infrastructure, so work continues on most sites in those states. Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas's orders broadly exempt outdoor activities. Michigan's order includes public works construction as essential.

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Inititiative has given environmental opportunity grants to Memphis and New Orleans and lobbied congress for resilience projects.