Mark Shaw is the former editor-in-chief of ENR Mountain States, co-editor of ENR Southwest, and the senior editor in charge of ENR's Contractor Business Strategy. He serves as ENR's Rocky Mountain bureau chief in Denver.
Congress’ Sept. 30 approval of an additional $625 million to complete the bloated Veterans Affairs hospital project in Aurora, Colo., also came with a big stick: the VA must relinquish management of all construction projects over $100 million, preferably to the Army Corps of Engineers. That stipulation arose after allegations that VA officials have “fundamentally mismanaged” the Aurora project—now estimated to cost $1.675 billion, more than three times its original budget—and failed to control runaway costs on VA hospital construction in Orlando and New Orleans, among others. The Corps has already taken over project management in Aurora.The down-to-the-wire vote in
Congress' Sept. 30 approval of an additional $625 million to complete the bloated Veterans Affairs hospital project in Aurora, Colo., also came with a big stick: The VA must relinquish management-preferably to the Army Corps of Engineers-of all construction projects over $100 million.
Motorists in many U.S. cities are already familiar with the perks of intelligent transportation systems. Depending upon their degree of sophistication, ITS technologies include variable message signs, traffic signal and lane controls, real-time weather information, ramp metering and video monitoring of traffic and highway security. ITS data can be sent to first responders and mobile apps to help drivers navigate around accidents and peak-period snarls. Photo courtesy of CDOT Intelligent transportation systems are already in place on some Colorado highways in the form of real-time highway messaging signs and ramp meters. But the Colorado Dept. of Transportation aims to take
More contractors across the Mountain States region are smiling these days, with reports of ample available commercial work and healthier backlogs in most markets.
In the thirsty West, where there is a growing need to find new water supplies, large water-diversion schemes have returned to the forefront of planning.The controversial Yampa Pumpback project in Colorado proposes to divert 2,000 cu ft per second of water, or around 97 billion gallons a year, from the Yampa River into a new 500,000-acre-ft reservoir near Dinosaur National Monument in the northwestern part of the state.From there, it would be pumped through a pipeline and tunnels nearly 250 miles east into a storage reservoir near Fort Collins, Colo. Cost estimates for the project range from $3.9 billion to
The leaders of regional design firms say they are seeing more work in nearly all market segments, with the possible exception of federal projects. The strongest sectors are multifamily, hospitality, offices, manufacturing, K-12 projects and water infrastructure; as Kevin Miller, a principal with Utah's GSBS Architects, notes, the improvement is "across the board." Photo courtesy of Josh Allred, Architectural Nexus The BYU Life Sciences Building in Provo, Utah, was designed by Architectural Nexus. Image courtesy of (right) courtesy of CTA rchitects Engineers Most design firms report strong market diversity, including an upscale private mountain residence designed by CTA Architects Engineers.
ENR's "Low & Slow" tour stopped in Denver in early June to see first-hand some of the key public-private transportation infrastructure partnerships that are transforming the Denver area.
