Major projects booked before the recession allowed High Concrete Group of Denver, Pa., to more than double its revenue in 2009. The fabricator of precast and prestressed products for commercial buildings branched into the bridge business during the past year, tapping into the experience of sister firm High Steel. Related Links: Top Specialty Contractors “We’ve had to focus on the few segments were there is some money—the universities and schools,” says Tom McEvoy, executive vice president of High Concrete, which was founded in 1919. “And we’re doing more with the military. Those are markets that 10 years ago were not
Despite the dismal economy, electrical and electronics contractor M.C. Dean of Dulles, Va., shot to the top of the rankings this year. The firm’s substantial increase in revenue was largely a result of multiyear public and private work booked before the recession. Related Links: Top Specialty Contractors “We’re in some pretty strong markets, and we have a big design-build capacity,” says CEO Bill Dean, whose grandfather Marion Caleb Dean founded the company in 1949. “We are very competitive on large, complex projects. Fortunately, they still exist, but they are supercompetitive.” Military work contributed to M.C. Dean’s stellar performance. The company
Image Courtesy Eisenhower Memorial Commission A model of the planned Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, as designed by Frank Gehry. Gilbane Building Co. of Laurel, Md., is overseeing design and construction management of the memorial. Related Links: Washington, D.C., Report The ongoing effort to memorialize significant figures in U.S. history and honor the country’s diverse cultural traditions along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is ushering in several large design and construction projects in the coming years. Next year, crews expect to complete the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on a 4-acre plot along the Tidal Basin. The scope
No metro area has benefitted more from the uptick in federal spending on construction than did Washington, D.C., but the area hasn’t been immune from the woes of private-sector development. Contractors continue to see limited opportunities in commercial and multiunit residential work, making competition for federal work even more intense. One hope now is that once government projects start to slow down, the private sector can find its footing and begin to build again. Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., says he still sees a lot of hesitation in the
The new United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., will greet visitors to the nation’s capital with a sweeping white glass roof that evokes the image of a white dove of peace in flight. The 154,000-sq-ft, five-story office building, located in the northwestern corner of the National Mall near the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, respects the context of its historic surroundings while offering a striking modern addition to the National Mall. Moshe Safdie Associates of New York designed the project as three buildings connected with glass-enclosed atria. The base buildings are clad in precast panels that blend with their
Electrical contractor Gill-Simpson of Baltimore moved up the Top Specialty ranks in 2009, with a substantial jump in revenue. Related Links: Top Specialty Contractors “We benefited from the growth related to BRAC, health care and transit,” says Chris Odell, president of Gill-Simpson, which was founded in 1932. Odell expects several large public projects, not tied to BRAC, will move forward, although the volume is decelerating. Therefore, Gill-Simpson is focusing on infrastructure work, data centers and renewable electrical generation, such as waste energy, wind and solar. In 2009 Gill-Simpson installed the electrical systems for the 1.6-million-sq-ft, design-build, fast-track Command, Control, Communications,
Southeast Construction presents its third annual Top Design-Build Contractors ranking. Derived from information obtained during the Top Contractors survey conducted earlier this year, it documents the amount of revenue related to design-build activities by the contracting firms that participated in that ranking. Related Links: Top 50 Design Builders Ranking The Top Design-Build Contractors ranking is based upon 2009 regional revenue that each firm estimated came from design-build projects within the four-state region of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The ranking also includes more information about each firm, including the location of its main regional office, phone number and
In January, NCR awarded a $73-million contract to Turner Construction of Arlington, Va., for the modernization of Federal Office Building 8—a 547,000-sq-ft building constructed in the 1960s in Washington—into an FDA lab. With the economy still struggling, GSA is getting good value. Guerin says that bids nationally have averaged 8% to 10% below original estimates. In the NCR, Bush says it’s not uncommon to see bids between 15% and 20% below estimates. Fueled by the saving, GSA produced a list of additional projects that could be added to the program. “We looked at our existing inventory of projects that were
The Mid-Atlantic�s cash-strapped transportation departments continue to make the most of every dollar received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. �It�s been a welcome bridge in these economic times,� says Malcolm T. Kerley, chief engineer for the Virginia Dept. of Transportation, which has reduced its six-year project plan by more than $4 billion over the last few years. �The stimulus has helped create some jobs and probably allowed more than a few contractors to stay in business.� Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Allen Biehler agrees, calling his state�s $1.026-billion ARRA allotment �a godsend in terms of how it has helped
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