A Minnesota-based miner's $350-million investment in a new taconite pellet plant in Reynolds, Ind., is giving a much-needed boost to central Indiana's economy after a painful downturn that sent skilled tradespeople bolting across the state line, employers say. The project also forecasts further labor crunches in the region as employers continue to seek skilled labor amid upticks in activity. Related Links: Planned Projects Could Drive Up Craft Demand in Great Lakes and Midwest ENR Midwest Regional Forecast 2014 "This particular project has opened up a lot of jobs in the construction field," says Scott Potter, project manager for Logansport, Ind.-based

Construction employment showed continued signs of stabilization in several Midwest states in November, with Missouri (9.8%, 10,000 jobs) and Wisconsin (4.3%, 4,000 jobs) leading the way in year-over-year comparisons, according to data compiled by Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Illinois, a leader in job losses during the recession, also fared well (2.6%, 4,700 jobs), as did Michigan (2%, 2,500 jobs), despite ongoing fiscal crisis in Detroit.On a percentage basis, employment gains in Missouri were the third greatest in the nation.Indiana (-3.4%, -4,100 jobs) and Ohio (-2.9%, -5,200 jobs) logged employment declines in November, continuing a trend begun

Evanston, Ill.-based Northwestern University has selected architect Perkins + Will to design a $370-million, 600,000-sq-ft biomedical research center for its medical campus in downtown Chicago. The Chicago-based firm was selected from a field of three contenders, including joint-venture teams Goettsch Partners and Ballinger, of Chicago and Philadelphia, respectively, and Chicago-based Gordon Gill Architecture, which partnered with Payette, a Boston-based architect.The facility will be constructed on a site occupied by Prentice Women's Hospital, a 1975 structure designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg, designer Chicago's Marina City, a pair of multifamily high rises constructed in 1964. Although preservation groups lobbied Northwestern to adapt

A planned privately funded tollway linking Illinois and Indiana cleared a key hurdle Thursday when a regional planning board in Indiana approved the project following months of debate. A similar board in Illinois approved the project in October. Next step for Illinois and Indiana Departments of Transportation (IDOT, INDOT) is to secure federal approval for the $1.5-billion “Illiana” Expressway, a 47-mile corridor that would connect I-65 in northwest Indiana to I-57 and I-55 in northeast Illinois, about 58 miles south of Chicago.If built, Illiana would be the first project of its kind in Illinois financed under a public-private partnership. As

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday urged baseball's Chicago Cubs to begin work on a $500-million overhaul of Wrigley Field the city approved last summer. “They need to get started,” Emanuel told reporters. “The city has lived up to everything it said it was going to do in a timely fashion...and I expect them and other invested interests to resolve their issues so the whole city can benefit.”Since July, Cubs management repeatedly has expressed reluctance to proceed with the project until it has resolved complaints that renovations would block views of neighborhood rooftop owners, who have contracted with Cubs to

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Libertyville, Ill.-based Aldridge Electric Inc. for one serious safety violation following the June death of a worker who developed heat stroke at a job site in Chicago. Aldridge was installing electrical conduit in a trench on a mass-transit line when the worker became ill on his first day on the job. The worker was carrying heavy piping in unshaded conditions when he collapsed. He died the following day.“This tragedy underscores the need for employers to ensure new workers become acclimated and build a tolerance to working in

The City of Chicago is undertaking a $492-million, four-year program to overhaul a mass-transit line extending between downtown and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Beginning in mid-2014, the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Blue Line will undergo track and infrastructure improvements, in addition to signal, power and station house upgrades. Rather than complete track replacement, plans call for a series of track improvements along the 12.5-mile line, which consists of subway tunnels, elevated structures and ground-level track along I-90, an expressway linking O'Hare to downtown.Unlike recent renovations to a line extending between downtown and Chicago's South Side, the Blue Line will remain

Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin continued to see improving construction employment conditions in October while Illinois, Indiana and Ohio suffered setbacks during the same period, according to year-over-year comparisons compiled by Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Indiana lost the greatest number of jobs (-11,800, -9.5%) in the nation in October, both in raw numbers and on a percentage basis. Neighboring Ohio lost 1,100 jobs (-0.6). For months, both states have endured job losses due to slackening global demand for manufactured goods, according to industry economists.After several months of stabilization, construction employment dipped precipitously in Illinois (-4.500 jobs, -2.4%),

A civil jury on Thursday assigned  the majority of blame to manufacturer Advanced Cast Stone (ACS) for the June 2010 collapse of a concrete panel that killed one and injured two others at a Milwaukee parking structure. The jury also ruled that Random Lake, Wis.-based ACS intentionally concealed and misrepresented a defect or deficiency in its installation of the panel to the O'Donnell Park structure, owned by the County of Milwaukee. During the trial, ACS indicated it received approval to employ an alternative method to install the 30-ft, 13-ton panel to the structure's facade. It also maintained that something must

Midwest Construction backlogs declined by 11.7%, from 6.97 months to 6.15 months, in the third quarter of 2013, according to year-over-year data compiled by Arlington, Va.-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). The period also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of declining backlogs for the region, a trend ABC attributes to softening activity in the industrial sector. Nevertheless, construction momentum is becoming increasingly divergent in U.S. regions, the Midwest included, according to ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The middle states continue to be associated with the shortest average backlog at 6.15 months, even though construction activity has been robust in North