It will take about two years but Rochester, N.Y., bus riders will have a new 87,000-sq-ft, enclosed transit center that promises to make their waits and transfers more comfortable and convenient, city officials say. Workers broke ground last November on the $50-million center, which is set for completion in spring 2015 and is projected to create 400 Rochester construction jobs and 50 new, permanent positions. Rendering Courtesy of Bergmann Associates The center is the first of its kind in Rochester, says Vince Press, spokesman for Rochester-based Bergmann Associates that, along with Rochester-based Pike Co., forms the design-build team on the

  Photo Courtesy of Bob Wallace Photography Former chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Joseph Lhota used the New York Building Congress (NYBC) luncheon today, Jan. 14, in New York to formally announce his plans to run for mayor."I would not have left the MTA—a job and a position that I love—if I was not going to run for Mayor of New York," says Lhota, who resigned from the agency on Dec. 31, 2012.Most of Lhota’s speech, however, focused on MTA’s restoration of the city’s 108-year-old transit system in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. “MTA is so

Industry merger and acquisition activity grew 14% to about 200 deals nationwide last year but was relatively flat in the tristate region, says Mick Morrissey, managing principal at A/E/C management consulting firm Morrissey Goodale, Newton, Mass. Even so, many buyers continued to view the tristate region as a good place to spend their M&A dollars. "New York tends to be a harder place [for an outside firm] to get into. That said, it tends to be one of the most popular states" for deals, Morrissey says. "That's because it is a significant economy—a world unto itself that's a very attractive

Congress's recently passed $9.7-billion aid package for flood insurance claims is a good start but is only a prelude to the $51-billion package that lawmakers need to pass in coming weeks to help Superstorm Sandy victims, say local industry and elected officials. While there is no guarantee that the larger bill will be voted on and passed soon, it is vital to recovery efforts, they add. A House vote on the $51-billion measure is expected on Jan. 15, with a Senate vote the week of Jan. 21. Photo Courtesy of Andrea Booher/FEMA Pile Up: Two months after Superstorm Sandy, debris

Thornton Tomasetti acquired Simon & Associates Inc. (S&A), a San Francisco sustainability consulting firm last month in a move that expands its West Coast and green practice footprint. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, follows Thornton Tomasetti's early 2012 purchase of Portland, Maine-based Fore Solutions, another green building consulting firm. S&A is a six-person firm that will become part of Thornton Tomasetti's Building Sustainability practice, created last year with the purchase of Fore and headed up by Fore's founder Gunnar Hubbard. S&A founder Lynn N. Simon will lead the West Cost practice, collaborating with Hubbard and the firm's California leadership."We've

Tri-state Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as industry representatives have sharply criticized the 112th Congress for its failure to pass a $60.4-billion Superstorm Sandy aid package before its Jan. 2 adjournment.

There were 224,878 men and women working in the New York City’s construction industry in 2011, about the same as in 2010, according to a recent New York Building Congress (NYBC) study. Photo by Luke Abaffy Post Sandy repair work will only temporarily show a spike in the workforce, says Lou Coletti, president and CEO of BTEA. To increase the number of workers in the city, it’s a “simple prescription,” says Lou Coletti, president and CEO of Building Trades Employers’ Association. “The only thing that is going to create more jobs is more projects,” Coletti says. "We hear that projects

The newly launched NYC Rapid Repairs program has attracted more than 2,000 contractors, Lou Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers' Association (BTEA), which was one of the groups hosting contractor registration. This is "more than enough" for the program, which launched Nov. 9 and in recent weeks began sending teams of contractors to homes severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Photo by Luke Abaffy The NYC Rapid Repair program is in partnership with FEMA and is aimed at helping residents, some of whom have had to abandon their homes due to Superstorm Sandy. The free city program, in

ENR New York's website was active this year as the number of readers that spent time viewing news and project pages grew from the prior year. Related Links: Bloomberg Unveils Post-Sandy Strategy; Names NYCEDC to Oversee 2 NYC Groups Granted FEMA's 1st Round of Post-Sandy Recovery Funds Recovery Work Takes Center Stage Some Tristate Projects Suffer Sandy's Blow City Puts Old Rail Cars to Use Sandy's Combined N.Y.-N.J. Damage Estimate Stands at About $62.8B Cuomo Forms 3 Groups to Improve NYS's Natural Disaster Preparedness Carpenters Nail Down Volunteer Work in Sandy-Stricken Areas Cuomo: Sandy Cost NYS about $33 Billion After

Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out a strategy on Dec. 6 to reexamine New York City’s major infrastructure in light of Sandy and how it can be protected from any future storms. He also announced that Seth Pinsky, president of New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC), will develop recovery plans for hardest-hit communities. Photo by Spencer T. Tucker Deputy Mayors Cas Holloway and Bob Steel will oversee Pinsky’s work, Bloomberg says. In addition, Marc Ricks, an infrastructure expert and vice president of infrastructure at Goldman Sachs but had previously served the Bloomberg Administration, will be taking a leave of absence