Dubbed “The Ugly 3” by opponents, Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 on the Colorado ballot propose statewide cuts in taxes and fees that could cost the state billions of dollars in revenue and force severe cuts in social services, road repairs and capital building programs. Related Links: Getting to the Bottom of Amendments 60, 61 and Prop. 101 All three measures are being pushed by an anti-tax group called CO Tax Reforms, which says they are the result of “taxpayers’ revenge” for motor vehicle fee increases voted by the legislature last year and a mill-levy freeze enacted in

Wally Prebis knows as much about structural concrete as one person can. Related Links: Back to Gold Hard Hat Awards Prebis has spent his entire career, 41 years, telling anyone who would listen that prestress concrete is one of the best building materials around and why it should become a staple of the construction industry. PREBIS Now, Prebis, 79, who founded and led the Colorado Prestressers Association as its executive director for four decades, retired from the job this fall, and his calm, confident voice will be sorely missed. As the CPA leader, he convinced an entire industry, from owners

Denver architect John B. Rogers will be remembered for his dynamic leadership as well as his dedication to his clients. But his legacy also includes a devotion to the firm he co-founded in the 1950s and to its current and future leadership. Photo Courtesy of RNL One of Rogers’ favorite projects was his work on the original Colorado History Museum and Colorado Supreme Court Building in downtown Denver. Photo courtesy of RNL For Rogers, an architect was much more than his drawings. It was about meeting and exceeding his clients’ needs. Rogers, co-founder of Denver-based architecture firm RNL, died July

Divers installing new control gates 150 ft below the surface of Cheesman Dam continue to blast, chop and saw-cut through granite to bring water-control systems on the 105-year-old dam up to modern standards. The dam, in the foothills 25 miles southwest of Denver, stores 80,000 acre ft of water to help meet the needs of Denver Water’s 1.3 million customers. When it was built in 1905, the 221-ft-tall brick-and-granite dam was the tallest in the world, but its cast-iron valves are rusty and unworkable, giving engineers no reliable upstream controls to shut the water off if something happens at the

With the start of the second half of 2010, it appears that experts were correct in predicting that recovery from the current recession would be a long, slow climb rather than a quick leap. Declines in project starts, which started four years ago, have created a murky marketplace complete with bidding frenzies, razor-thin profit margins and an unemployment rate over 20%. But, along with the bad, there is some good coming out of the current recession. The editors of Mountain States Construction magazine have compiled a list of 10 things that are getting better in 2010. We Built This City:

The anticipated cost to build a controversial water-supply project in northern Colorado has increased 15% from 2006 estimates, to $490 million, project officials say. That total is up sharply from the original $350-million estimate at the project’s 2003 inception. The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy is coordinating the Northern Integrated Supply Project, or NISP, for 11 funding cities and four water districts in Weld and Larimer counties. At completion, NISP will supply 40,000 acre-ft of water per year to area residents. Additional capacity is critical: A recent water study says that, by 2050, Colorado’s population will double, and 80% of the

Denver’s Regional Transportation District says it will need about $2.4 billion more than expected to build all components of the city’s FasTracks rail expansion. The agency, which released its 2010 FasTracks budget in January, puts the total at $6.6 billion, well beyond the $4.2 billion it can collect from taxes in the near future. RTD oversees bus and rail transit for the six-county Denver metro area. In 2004, the agency spearheaded an election in which voters approved $3.95 billion in new taxes for FasTracks. The program aims to build 122 miles of new commuter-rail and light-rail lines, 18 miles of

The Mentor Retired contractor Ed Wambsganss sees life parallels where others might not—like the motivation he got from helping his mother wash chicken eggs on the family farm in Kansas when he was a boy, because “we got two cents more per egg if they were clean when she took them to the hatchery,” he says. Related Links: 2009 Legacy Award Architectural Design Project Engineering Design Project Project Managemen Project Civil/Public Works Project Cultural Project Project Environmental Project Government/Public Project Green Building Project Healthcare Project Higher Education/Research Project Industrial Project Design/Tenant Improvement Project K-12 Education Project Multifamily/Hospitality Project Renovation/Restoration Project

Remediation work on lead-contaminated properties in Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Basin has increased by nearly 50% this year because of $20 million in stimulus funds awarded to the Idaho Dept. of Environmental Quality, says Dan Meyer, IDEQ remediation program manager. Kellogg, Idaho Photo: North Wind Inc. North Wind crews grout concrete pile caps at the repository site in Idaho. Related Links: Stimulus: A Snapshot of Top Shovel-, Wrench- and Pencil-Ready Projects The money, which is being spread over a three-year period, has allowed the agency since August to accelerate yard remediation and materials handling for thousands of residential and commercial properties

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation has included 116 road and bridge projects totaling $1.166 billion on its sample list of ready-to-go highway projects awaiting a possible federal transportation stimulus bill. With the exception of a $210-million request for full reconstruction of a major freeway interchange north of Denver, most of the list includes smaller paving and bridge maintenance projects averaging a few million dollars each. Related Links: Colorado Projects Questions Swirl On Stimulus Plan �Ready to Go� May Be The Stimulus Ticket That list does not include CDOT’s requests for an additional $113.1 million for aviation projects, mostly improvements to