The joint-venture contracting team building the $1-billion-plus data center in Utah for the National Security Agency has been hit with a wrongful death lawsuit arising from a fatal accident near the jobsite in June 2012.Cathi Turner, 48, of West Riverton, Utah, was riding her bike with a friend on a Saturday morning along Redwood Road, which passes near the front entrance to the site, when she collided “with a large orange highway sign sitting in the bike lane and crashed her bike. She died later from injuries  sustained in the crash,” says attorney Robert Gilchrist with the Salt Lake City

This year's Best Projects competition in the Mountain States region featured more than 80 entries. As in past years, projects were judged on design and construction quality, their contribution to the community and industry practice, and how well teams overcame unusual challenges through collaboration and innovation.

Related Links: Works Starts on Record-Scale Carbon-Capture Powerplant Carbon Capture on Fast Track in U.K. Thailand-based integrated engineering firm Toyo-Thai Corp., or TTCL, has launched the first commercial-scale application in the U.S. of a new carbon-capture technology for industrial emissions.TTCL broke ground on Sept. 30 on the $120-million SkyMine project in San Antonio. The plant will use an electrolytic system, developed by Skyonic Corp., to collect CO2, acid gases and heavy metals from emissions and mineralize them into stable solids.TTCL is expanding the Capitol SkyMine facility to collect flue gasses from the nearby Capitol Aggregates cement plant and convert them

Related Links: Colorado Floods Leave Thousands Stranded, Infrastructure in Shambles Colorado Flood Waters Reach Historic Levels A week after heavy rains delivered what many in the area termed a 1,000-year-flood, state and local officials were still scrambling to complete rescue efforts in northern Colorado's devastated communities and begin initial cleanup and repairs that will take months, if not years, to complete.At least eight people died, tens of thousands were evacuated, and nearly 18,000 homes and 1,000 businesses were damaged or destroyed in the raging floodwaters that tore through the foothills and onto the northeastern plains. The rains, measured in Boulder

Related Links: Solar Sees Growth But Clouds Loom California Plant To Double U.S. Solar Thermal Power Production Minneapolis-based energy provider Xcel Energy wants to triple large-scale solar-power generation in Colorado and significantly boost wind energy and electricity from the company's natural-gas-fueled plants.Xcel filed a report with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Sept. 9 requesting approval of the new plan, which includes an additional 450 MW of wind energy beyond the current 2,650 MW, another 170 MW of solar power above the 80 MW already being produced and an additional 317 MW of natural-gas-generated power. The plan includes the expected

Related Links: After Colorado Floods, More Rain; Hundreds Unaccounted HCN: Front Range Flooding 'Inevitable' At least eight people are dead and many more are still unaccounted for after nearly a week of heavy rains and catastrophic floods that devastated communities along Colorado’s Front Range and northeastern plains.Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns cut off by rising rivers and streams, many by helicopter and National Guard convoys. Cities became islands, cut off on all sides by downed bridges, flooded highways and mudslides. Chinook helicopters rescued hundreds of residents from Lyons, Jamestown and other foothill areas inaccessible by car.But

Residents along Colorado’s northern Front Range were still battling at mid-day Friday the effects of what state officials are calling “historically significant” rainfall and “biblical floods” along the foothills and across the Denver metro area. Photo courtesy of CDOT The heavy rains pushed rivers and streams above their historic flood levels and washed out highways, like State Highway 72 in Coal Creek Canyon west of Denver. Photo courtesy of CDOT Highway 34 in the Big Thompson Canyon west of Loveland, Colo., will be closed "indefinitely." Some communities, including Boulder and those along the I-25 corridor north to Fort Collins, have

The cautious optimism and widespread uncertainty expressed by contractors in recent years have all but disappeared in 2013, as leaders of the region's larger firms say the industry's much-anticipated recovery is well under way. They report more available work, stronger markets and improving fees and margins, which are not yet back to prerecession levels. Related Links: Notable Recent P3 Success Stories in Colorado Institutional, Health-Care Work Lead List of Biggest New Projects "We are definitely excited and upbeat about 2013 and beyond," says Mark Reilly, senior vice president at Denver's JE Dunn Construction. "We have clearly bounced off the bottom

The renovated 180,000-sq-ft Cesar Chavez Memorial Building, located at the edge of the Golden Triangle neighborhood near downtown Denver, has been awarded LEED-Gold certification as a result of the $42.7-million modernization project completed last year. The project team was initially targeting LEED Silver.
 Photo by Fred Fuhrmeister, Time Frame Photography The Chavez Building no longer sits in isolation at the end of the city block but rather serves as a gateway into Denvers Civic and Justice Center and the Golden Triangle neighborhood. Photo by Fred Fuhrmeister, Time Frame Photography The project created a new state-of-the-art building exterior, an aluminum-and-glass curtain

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation completed a complex bridge replacement on July 21 after crews rolled the new 2,400-ton Pecos Street Bridge over I-70 into place over one weekend. The highly coordinated bridge move allowed CCDOT to reopen I-70 through central Denver 4.5 hours ahead of schedule. The 4.8-million-lb bridge started moving onto I-70 at noon on Saturday, the 20th, and was placed in its final configuration around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. The project also added a new pedestrian bridge over the freeway on the west side of Pecos Street.
“Our decision to completely close I-70 for one full weekend reduced