After the dark days of the recent downturn, construction and engineering firms in the Southwest and across the country are experiencing the benefits of an industry that is trending positively. Image courtesy of Gening Echelon, the city's first new casino-hotel development since 2010, will start construction in 2014. Image courtesy of DAVIS The Marina Heights project along Tempe Town Lake will add 2 million sq ft of office space. State Farm has signed on to be the anchor tenant. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record The evidence is spread throughout the Southwest.In Las Vegas, one of the metropolitan areas

Related Links: U.S. DOT to Help with New Mexico Repairs New Mexico is looking at, so far, an estimated $6.87 million worth of road and highway repairs from recent heavy rains and floods that battered the state in September, transportation officials say.Other damage assessments have yet to be tallied, as local and federal officials look for funds to help kick off the repair work more quickly.Twenty-five of New Mexico's 33 counties experienced flooding and infrastructure damage since two major storms slammed the state between Sept. 13 and Sept. 24 and dropped more than eight inches of rain in some regions

After years of weakness, construction levels across the Southwest appear to have established a new baseline and are entering the beginning of an extended period of growth. Eight of the top 10 firms on this year's Top Specialty Contractors ranking had increased revenue in 2012. Related Links: View All ENR Southwest Lists See last year's winners ENR Southwest's Specialty Contractor of the Year, Suntec Concrete, Phoenix, saw its revenue jump 67% over the past year, to $125 million. The Las Vegas office of Helix Electric reported a $10-million increase in revenue in 2012, helping the company climb up a notch

The construction industry certainly got walloped in the Great Recession. In 2010, unemployment in the industry neared 25%, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The impact was especially pronounced in the Southwest, primarily because of the booms that had marked the region's growth for more than 50 years. Related Links: Suntec Contributes To Mesa, Ariz., facility Architectural Record During the downturn, Suntec Concrete, Phoenix, saw its work force trimmed to nearly 250—about a 60% decrease from pre-recession boom times.But while no one wants to see a downturn, the initiatives and decisions that Suntec management made during those difficult times

Saturation divers, working one at a time, are nearing the end of a repair project on a pumped-storage hydroelectric system at Horse Mesa Dam on the Salt River in central Arizona. The repair will reestablish 97 megawatts of peak-load generating capacity that was lost 13 months ago, when failure of a guide vane sent about 50 tons of concrete shooting down the penstock serving the turbines. Related Links: Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Dedicated “It is our largest hydro-generation asset on the Salt River,” says Roger Baker, principal engineer for hydro-generation at the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Salt River Project,

According to data recently released by the Associated General Contractors, Phoenix leads Southwest metropolitan areas in construction hiring, followed by Albuquerque and Las Vegas. The momentum created by the Phoenix metro area’s construction job growth pushed the state of Arizona to 9 percent construction-job growth from June 2012 to June 2013.Other states that also saw 9 percent growth year-over-year are Mississippi, Louisiana and Wyoming. Nevada and New Mexico both saw increases of 3 percent.Link to June 2013 AGC Construction Employment By Southwest State ranked by growth“Although construction activity remains extremely spotty, with strong residential activity offsetting lackluster private nonresidential investment

Related Links: Salt River Project's Horse Mesa Dam Video Tour of Horse Mesa Dam Saturation divers, working one at a time, have begun a repair project on a pumped-storage hydroelectric system at Horse Mesa Dam on the Salt River in central Arizona. The repair will reestablish 115 megawatts of peak-load generating capacity that was lost 13 months ago, when failure of a guide vane sent about 50 tons of concrete shooting down the penstock serving the turbines."It is our largest hydro-generation asset on the Salt River," says Roger Baker, principal engineer for hydro-generation at the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation's

The largest highway interchange in Arizona—a five-tiered structure soaring more than 90 ft into the desert sky—is being constructed by Pulice Construction along the fringe of the Phoenix metropolitan area between Interstate 10 and the Loop 303. Related Links: Wide Load: Highway Contractors Go to Great Lengths on I-17 Widening New Loop 303 Freeway Over Virgin Land a Once in a Lifetime Opportunity But the height isn't the primary reason that the project is considered to be big. In fact, the height of the columns is comparable to most other five-tier traffic interchanges. It's the project's footprint, including frontage roads,

The last several years have been a mixed bag for most construction companies operating in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. But after tentative improvement in 2011, the following year brought generally better news to the Southwest construction industry. In fact, seven of the top 10 firms responding to ENR Southwest's annual survey of general contractors reported an increase in revenue during 2012 compared with the previous year. Related Links: ENR Southwest Rankings Index ENR Southwest Top Contractors 2013 Rankings ENR Southwest Top Contractors 2013 by Market Sectors Success May Bring ChallengesFirms operating in many different construction sectors expressed a positive

Kitchell is a name synonymous with the growth of Arizona and the West; its projects have dotted the regional landscape since the firm was founded in 1950. From hospitals to prisons and everything in between, the company has built virtually every building type in a wide variety of locales and keeps its focus on building long-term client relationships, fostering internal talent and driving innovation. Related Links: Gila River Opens Kitchell-built Wild Horse Pass Kitchell Leads Healthcare Construction Resurgence Much of the culture within Phoenix-based Kitchell and its core contracting business, Kitchell Contractors Inc., was embedded in the firm's DNA by