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The Georgia Institute of Technology and John Portman & Associates (Portman) have unveiled plans for the Coda collaborative building in Tech Square, Atlanta.Estimated to cost $375m, the 750,000 sq ft mixed-use development is being designed by Portman in order to achieve the primary goal of bringing research and commercialisation together.The development will have 620,000 sq ft of office space, half of which will be occupied by Georgia Tech, and nearly 40,000 sq ft of retail space, including the adaptive reuse of Crum & Forster building, which will become a local gathering place and outdoor living room for Tech Square and Midtown Atlanta.The development will also include an approximately 80,000 sq ft data centre, which Next Tier HD has been selected to operate.Coda will be programmed around high performance computing modelling, simulation and a sustainable innovation ecosystem, integrating the existing assets of Tech Square with new opportunities in interdisciplinary research, commercialisation and sustainability.The project is expected to create 2,100 construction jobs and 2,400 jobs onsite after completion. Portman Holdings’ CEO Ambrish Baisiwala said: "We're excited to develop Coda, encompassing collaborative office space, co-working and research facilities, a high performance computing centre and interactive community space, collectively enhancing the innovation ecosystem created by Georgia Tech and Midtown."
Sound Transit has broken ground on the $3.7bn East Link light rail extension project that will connect Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond's Overlake area and Microsoft campus.The 14-mile light rail will provide 24-minute trips from Bellevue to Westlake Station in downtown Seattle.Contractors have started site preparation just south of downtown Bellevue near East Main Street and Northeast 112th Street, where a tunnel portal will allow trains to transition from the surface to a 1/3-mile-long tunnel before re-emerging at the surface near Northeast Sixth Street.East Link's 10 stations are expected to open in 2023. By 2030, East Link is likely to carry about 50,000 people daily.
Work has begun on SUNY Polytechnic Institute's new computer chip production facility for Ams AG at the Marcy Nanocenter in Utica, New York.Marcy Nanocenter has been designed to replicate the success of SUNY Poly's Nanotech Megaplex in Albany. The new facility is being built close to a campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute in New York's Tech Valley. The initial private investment in the project is $2bn.The factory, which is being built to Ams's specifications, is initially expected to offer a capacity of at least 150,000 200mm-wafer equivalents per year, and will be able to surpass an operating capacity of 450,000 200mm-wafer equivalents per year with the expansion to follow. Production capacity will supplement Ams' existing production operations at its headquarters near Graz, Austria. The groundbreaking marks a major milestone in the governor's Nano Utica initiative, which is now projected to create at least 4,000 jobs over the next decade, and includes research and development at the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD C) in partnership with General Electric.Ams CEO Alexander Everke said: "Building this new wafer fab enables Ams to achieve its plans for growth and to meet the increasing demand for sensor solutions produced at advanced manufacturing nodes."Our decision to locate the facility in New York was motivated by the availability of a highly skilled workforce, the proximity to prestigious educational and research institutions, and the favorable business environment, backed by public and private partners.”The plant is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2018 and Ams will operate the facility under a 20-year lease.
Pirelli is set to expand its presence in Mexico by investing $200m in a new tyre factory.
Long Beach city, in California, has secured funding for its $513m Civic Center P3 project.The project involves the creation of a new civic centre designed with a high seismic resiliency, an 11-storey, 270,000 sq ft city hall, an 11-storey, 237,000 sq ft port headquarters building, a two-storey 92,000 sq ft main library, a 73,000 sq ft civic plaza, and new underground parking with 469 spaces.It features a central utility plant and a three rooftop solar array system to meet 25% of energy needs of the civic centre, and a 4.9-acre revamped city park. Furthermore, plans are on for a future project featuring up to 580 homes, a retail space and up to 200 hotel rooms.Long Beach’s mayor Robert Garcia said: "We are excited to see this deal move forward and to meet the goals set by the city three years ago when it embarked on the Civic Center P3 procurement."I'd like to congratulate and thank our city council, city staff, our partners, and the Plenary led consortium that helped us to reach this important milestone."The Plenary-led consortium includes co-developer Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate, Johnston Controls, Clark Construction, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill. The city's advisors include p3point, Arup, HOK, BAE Urban Economics, MBI, Sheppard Mullins, KNN and Kutak Rock.
Tenaska has secured $780m in commercial financing for the under-construction Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The Tenaska Westmoreland project is owned by Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners, which is comprised of affiliates of Tenaska and Diamond Generating Corporation (DGC), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation.Black & Veatch is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the 925MW natural gas-fuelled power plant project. The two natural gas turbines to be used will be provided by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems.Tenaska Development Group president Greg Kelly said: "Achieving financial closing for Tenaska Westmoreland illustrates our ability to develop and advance market-driven power projects. We are pleased to reach this milestone and look forward to the next phase of the project."The power plant is expected to become operational in 2018.
The state government of Alberta, Canada, has approved $100m of funding for the upgrade of the Queen Elizabeth II Highway interchange with Gaetz Avenue in Red Deer.The project is aimed to improve traffic flow and safety for travelers, local residents and businesses.According to advice from the former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge, Alberta has undertaken a $34.8bn plan to build and upgrade critical infrastructure, including roads, schools and hospitals.As per the most recent figures, every day 42,000 vehicles travel on the QEII in both directions at the existing interchange.Alberta’s premier Rachel Notley said: "Alberta families and businesses deserve safe, modern and efficient roads, highways and bridges. In the past when oil prices fell, governments slashed funding for infrastructure."Albertans paid the price for these short-sighted cuts in longer commutes and lost opportunity. We will not repeat those mistakes."Our Alberta Jobs Plan moves Alberta forward with significant investments in critical infrastructure that will create jobs and build a more resilient economy."Construction work is scheduled to be completed in 2019, in time for Red Deer to host the Canada Winter Games.
Temple University in Philadephia has broken ground on a $170m library, the most expensive project undertaken by the university to date.The library has been designed by Snøhetta, but it is being built in collaboration with Stantec. Originally planned to be built on Broad Street, the building is now being constructed at the centre of Temple's campus, between Polett Walk and 13th Street. This 225,000sq ft library will be one of the few libraries in the world that uses the automatic search and retrieval system (ASRS), which will store 90% of the 2m books held by the university. The library is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) Airports Division has broken ground on the new Consolidated Rent-A-Car (Conrac) facility at Kahului Airport, Maui.The cost of the Maui Conrac facility is approximately $340m, which is part of the $2.7bn statewide Modernization Program that is aimed at improving facilities at airports around the state of Hawaii.Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company is the lead contractor of the project and design team is being led by Demattei Wong Architects.Kahului Airport rents an average of 2,200 cars daily. The Conrac will house more than a dozen rental car companies in one location close to the main terminal. The new Conrac will be a three-level structure comprising rental car offices, customer service counters, ‘ready and return’ rental car spaces, and Quick-Turn-Around (QTA) areas with fuel and car wash facilities to service rental car fleets.There will be nearly 3,800 parking stalls for the rental car companies and another 700 dedicated to employee parking.Maui Conrac's new electric tram built on a rail system will eventually be powered by solar energy, which will help the airport reduce its overall carbon footprint. It will also minimise congestion around the airport. The facility will be accessible through a new road that will extend from the Hana Highway to the Airport Loop Road. The facility's decorative feature elements will also serve as an irrigation reservoir with non-potable water for landscaped areas. The reservoir will contain nearly 140,000 gallons of non-potable water that will be filtered to eliminate particles and will prevent clogging the system. This also means more potable water will be available for the community.Maui Conrac will be completed in approximately three and a half years. It will employ more than 200 people on the site and a total industry employment of more than 500 jobs.The project is being exclusively funded by a Customer Facility Charge, which consists of a daily charge of $4.50 to those who rent a car.
NTE Energy has announced that it is developing three natural gas-fired electric generating facilities involving a total investment of around $2bn.The three facilities will include the Pickaway Energy Center (Pickaway County, Ohio), the Killingly Energy Center (Killingly, Connecticut) and the Reidsville Energy Center (Rockingham County, North Carolina).
MidAmerican Energy Company has filed a request with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to build the $3.6bn Wind XI, which would be the largest wind generation project that the company has ever undertaken.The company will scout for final locations for its Wind XI development while the IUB considers the project filing request. Wind XI is expected to add up to 2,000MW of wind power capacity in Iowa.The project will generate approximately $12.5m per year in property tax payments, $18m per year in landowner payments, and $48m per year in state and local expenditures associated with the project.The company has requested IUB to sanction its rate-making principles by September 2016 so it can take full advantage of the extended production tax credit available for the construction of new wind projects.MidAmerican Energy CEO and president Bill Fehrman said: “Once the project is complete, we will generate wind energy equal to 85% of our annual customer sales in Iowa, bringing us within striking distance of our 100% renewable vision.”
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (RioCan), along with Embassy BOSA, has broken ground on the $500m Fifth and Third East Village project in Calgary.The 2.8-acre project site is located in the East Village area of downtown Calgary, Alberta. The mixed-use project, formerly known as CPA Lands, will include approximately 188,000 sq ft of retail space.Central to the project will be an 82,000 sq ft Loblaws City Market that will service the East Village, Bridgeland and Inglewood. Two residential towers will rise 20 floors above it, totalling 500 condos. Other tenants will include Shoppers Drug Mart and Olympia Liquor store.RioCan will own 100% of the retail portion of the site and has entered into a firm sale with the developer Embassy BOSA for the air rights above the commercial component of this development site.Embassy BOSA will be responsible developing the residential portion and will also fund their proportionate share of the infrastructure costs on a cost-to-complete basis. It had already paid the first instalment in the first quarter of 2016.Construction work on the project is anticipated to be completed in 2019.
ProMedica Toledo Hospital has broken ground on the new $300m project at Toledo, Ohio.The new building, known as Generations Tower, will replace the 86-year-old Legacy Tower on North Cove Boulevard. The 615,000 sq ft tower will house 320 patient rooms.The project design has integrated environmentally-friendly building principles, such as glass curtain walls to increase natural light, energy-conserving mechanical, electrical and plumping systems, and long-lasting terracotta masonry panels.Construction work is expected to continue through the autumn of 2017. Work will continue for two more years to install mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, build parking lots and provide finishing touches to the tower. The tower is expected open to patients by the end of 2019, and will create more than 1,000 construction jobs in the region.
Tyson Foods has sought approval from the Finance Committee of the Carroll County Quorum Court to build a new $136m processing facility near its existing poultry plant in Green Forest, Arkansas.The project is subject to sanction of certain tax abatements from the Carroll County Quorum Court, and sales and use tax credits from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC).The Green Forest plant produces a variety of partially cooked chicken products for food service and retail customers. The new processing facility will increase capacity, and improve efficiency by reducing transportation of products to other locations for further processing.The 200,000 sq ft facility will be built across the street from the existing plant, with the two facilities connected by a corridor. Improvements will include new equipment and production lines, as well as processes and technology that will benefit food safety, quality and workplace safety.Construction is slated to start as early as summer of 2016 and the project should be completed in late 2017. When fully operational, the new processing plant will create about 85 jobs.Tyson Foods president of poultry Noel White said: "This project would allow us to better serve our foodservice customers through improved product mix and greater efficiencies."This is the first new plant construction project Tyson Foods has proposed to build in a number of years and we're hopeful we can partner with Carroll County and the AEDC to invest in our home state."
The CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California has revealed details of the first phase of a $200m multi-year expansion plan.Phase I will be anchored by a new emergency department (ED), as the hospital has decided to build a completely new ED rather than renovating the existing one.The new ED will include an expansion from the current 20 beds to 26 and a more than doubling in size of the department's physical space to 26,000 sq ft, which is 11,000 sq ft at present.Phase I will also include a new 650-spot parking structure for patients, employees and visitors and a comprehensive beautification of the hospital campus. The kitchen and dietary department, which serves patients, visitors and employees, will be relocated and rebuilt as well.The ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled to take place in November 2016 and Phase I is expected to be completed by November 2017. Work on the new emergency department is slated to commence immediately with a projected completion date of autumn 2019. CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center CEO Jerry Clute said: "The upgraded facilities will provide the environment and easy access to care that the community deserves while furnishing our medical staff and other clinicians with the tools they need to deliver top-notch medical care."
Faraday Future, a US-based electric car maker, has broken ground on $1bn manufacturing plant in Nevada.The company said that it will build its flagship production vehicle at the new facility located 25 miles north of the Las Vegas Strip.The environmentally-friendly plant will be powered by solar, wind, and geo-thermal energy. Construction work on the project will commence in less than a month’s time. The project is expected to create 4,500 jobs in the region.Faraday Future global vice president of manufacturing Dag Reckhorn said: “This first plant will be a truly modern workspace, offering a clean, open air environment, ergonomic arrangements, and an encouraged interactivity between employees and visitors. This will make for a brand new, cutting-edge west coast hub for the EV industry.”
Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA), a subsidiary of Enel, has begun construction on the Cimarron Bend wind farm in the US, which will entail an investment of about $610m.Located in Clark County, Kansas, the wind farm will be owned by Cimarron Bend Wind Project, a subsidiary of EGPNA. When completed, Cimarron Bend will have a total installed capacity of 400MW and will be able to generate around 1.8TWh annually, which will be sufficient to cater to the annual consumption needs of more than 149,000 US households. It will also prevent the emission of around 1.3m tonnes of CO2 each year.The power and renewable energy credits from Cimarron Bend will be sold under two 200MW bundled, long-term power purchase agreements with Google and Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) respectively. The project is slated to begin operations by 2017. It is financed through the Enel Group's own resources.Enel Green Power head Francesco Venturini said: "This project marks a major milestone for Enel, as not only will Cimarron Bend be the largest asset in our portfolio, but it also opens our renewable energy to new partners and uses."As we continue to invest and grow in the US we aim to cooperate with companies and partners that share the same vision for a more sustainable future."
TransCanada has been selected to construct, own and operate the Tula–Villa de Reyes natural gas pipeline in Mexico.Estimated to cost about $550m, the 36-inch diameter, 420km pipeline will start at Tula in the state of Hidalgo, and go up to Villa de Reyes, in the state of San Luis Potosí.It will be used to transport natural gas to power generation facilities in the central region of the country. The new pipeline will be linked with TransCanada's Tamazunchale and Tuxpan–Tula pipelines, as well as with other transporters in the region.With the Tula–Villa de Reyes pipeline, TransCanada will be operating six natural gas pipeline systems in Mexico representing an overall investment of about $3.6bn.Mexico's state-owned power company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) will aid the construction of the pipeline with a 25-year natural gas transportation service contract for 886m cubic feet per day.Tula–Villa de Reyes pipeline is slated to be operational by early 2018.TransCanada president and CEO Russ Girling said: "The Tula–Villa de Reyes Pipeline complements our existing pipeline network in Mexico and furthers our strategy of owning and operating highly contracted and regulated assets that generate stable and predictable earnings and cash flow streams."
Skanska has won a contract from Westchester Medical Center to construct a new ambulatory care pavilion on the existing hospital campus in New York.The contract is valued at about SEK1.2bn ($140m). It will be included in order bookings for Skanska USA Building in the first quarter of 2016.Under the contract, Skanska will construct a 26,000 sq m, eight-storey pavilion. It will feature a new ambulatory operating room suite, an imaging centre, a lobby, physician office space, entry canopy for patient drop-off, and new roof-top mechanical, electrical and plumbing units.Skanska is also responsible for the construction of the interior spaces and the expansion of the existing parking lot.Construction work on the project is scheduled to start in June 2016 and is expected to be completed in September 2018.
The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), along with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and city of Las Vegas, has begun construction on Project NEON, a public works project that will entail an investment of about $1bn.Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. is the general contractor for the project under a $559.4m design-build contract, with Atkins North America serving as the project's lead designer.Project NEON will widen 3.7 miles of Interstate 15 between Sahara Avenue and the ‘Spaghetti Bowl’ interchange in downtown Las Vegas. At present nearly 300,000 vehicles pass through this route daily, with 25,000 lane changes per hour. Traffic through the corridor is expected to double by 2035.Project NEON will include an 81ft-tall, 2,606ft-long High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) flyover bridge that will also accommodate carpool traffic along part of the route.The project will also convert the two existing I-15 express lanes into a general purpose and HOV lane, thus creating 22 consecutive miles of carpool lanes.Other proposed upgrades include extending Grand Central Parkway over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, and connecting to Industrial Road for improved resort corridor access and mobility.When completed in mid-2019, Project NEON will reduce travel delays by 28%, creating $110m in annual savings through increased productivity. It will create 4,000 jobs in the region.
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