![]() Upgrades to transportation facilities, recreation facilities, and visitor centers are among the projects set to be funded over the next 5 years through a sweeping Department of the Interior initiative. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has announced that the Department is planning to invest some $1.6 billion in deferred maintenance projects on public lands and in Tribal educational facilities between now and 2026. “We must address the long-delayed maintenance needs of the nation’s aging building and infrastructure,” Haaland said in a statement. The $1.6 billion, which is authorized through the Great American Outdoor Act, will fund national park infrastructure work, including new roads, trails and bridges, as well as upgrades to dams, and both water and utility infrastructure. The projects will take place on lands that are a part of the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Education. The effort is intended to address a growing backlog of deferred maintenance projects in a national park and wildlife refuge system that has seen a 50% increase in visitors since 1980. More than $2.2 million will go for upgrading facilities at the Partners Point at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Just over $2.3 million is targeting infrastructure at recreation sites in Colorado; while $2.6 million will go for an asphalt overlay project on the access road to the Wild Rivers Recreation Area in New Mexico. Altogether, plans call for the funding of a total of 165 individual projects this year in just over a dozen states. The Great American Outdoors Project was passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress last summer. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Work could begin this fall on the building of a roundabout in a mostly rural section of Greeley on the northwest side of the city. The new road configuration will be built at the intersection of O Street and North 35th Avenue and will be taken on jointly by the City of Greeley and Weld County. Last month members of the county’s board of commissioners gave their final approval to an intergovernmental agreement to build the roundabout. According to county documents, Greely is providing $1.6 million to get the roundabout built, with Weld County putting up $750,000. Weld County officials say that the intersection has been seeing just over 11,300 vehicles on a daily basis, increasing the likelihood of accidents for a corner not designed for that volume of traffic. As planned, the roundabout will be designed to have a wider diameter than the current streets at the intersection in order to accommodate trucks. The project will additionally include the construction of new street lighting. To enhance the life of the project, the roundabout will have a cement surface. The project is one of a handful of new roundabouts that have been built in Greeley in recent years to facilitate traffic. According to industry statistics, roundabouts, allowing for a continuous flow of traffic, are generally responsible for a 37% decline in all collisions, along with a significant 90% reduction in fatality collisions. By Garry Boulard ![]() A former hospital sitting on 17 acres in southeast Albuquerque may soon be re-purposed as a center providing a range of services for the homeless. Located at 5400 Gibson Boulevard SE, the 572,000 square foot structure was formerly the home of the Loveland Medical Center. The Lovelace Health System sold the 40 year-old building in 2007 after moving into new facilities to the east of downtown Albuquerque. The City of Albuquerque has now purchased the 4-story structure for $15 million with the intention of turning a large part of the building into emergency shelter space housing up to 175 beds. Noting that the city’s homeless population has seen an increase in the last year, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, in a press conference, remarked: “This facility could not come at a better time.” The Mayor and other city officials have often talked of the need for having a single, large facility that would provide both shelter for the homeless, as well as a variety of medical services. Keller described the acquisition and eventual reconversion of the building as a “huge step towards making our vision of an integrated system a reality, but our work to continue the public input process with neighborhoods and activate the site is just beginning.” The building is expected to provide additional space for anywhere from 25 to 50 beds for individuals with medical recovery issues. Earlier reports indicated that a reconversion of the building would also include the construction of intake space and private individual rooms. How much it will cost to upgrade and convert the former hospital has not yet been announced. Nor is it known the range of services the facility will ultimately provide. “We’re going to test things, we’re going to experiment with things; we’re going to find out what works best over time,” said Keller. Next to the Albuquerque International Sunport, the one-time hospital, which also includes office, kitchen, and cafeteria space, will comprise the largest single facility owned by the City of Albuquerque. By Garry Boulard ![]() Construction input prices saw a 3.5% increase last month, according to a new study released by the Associated Builders and Contractors.
Looking at numbers recently compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index, the ABC report also notes that input prices in March were nearly 13% higher than where they were in March of 2020. Greatly contributing to the overall price jump has been the extraordinary rise in natural gas, up by more than 178%, with crude petroleum increasing by 90% and lumber prices seeing an 83.4% hike. “With the global economy reawakening from its slumber, demand for key inputs is expanding,” Anirban Basu, chief economist with the ABC, said in a statement. Basu additionally noted, meanwhile, that “supply continues to be constrained by many factors, including ongoing concerns regarding worker health, trade disputes, shifting global supply chains, and political actions.” Other price increases over the last year, according to the ABC report, include a 40% rise in steel mill products, a 19% increase in nonferrous wires and cables, and 9.4% rise in fabricated structural metal products.
By Garry Boulard ![]() Efforts are now underway to build a large bike park, encompassing more than 1,800 acres, in Durango, Colorado. The project will be built on southwest side of downtown Durango and will see the construction of a series of trails that will include a covered bicycle motocross track, a cyclo-cross specific area, and pump tracks, among other features. Other aspects of the project may also see both equestrian and hiking trails, as well as a multi-events center for concerts and other cultural events. Ultimately, it is expected that the park will be of such a quality as to host international biking competitions. The project belongs to a group called the Durango Mesa Park Foundation, which owns. the property in question. Foundation officials have estimated that it will take around $15 million to launch the first phase construction of the park. That funding is coming partly from the Foundation itself, as well as the City of Durango and La Plata County. Project supporters say that upon completion the bike park may not be just the largest such park in Colorado, but one of the largest of its kind in the nation. The Colorado Department of Transportation will soon be reviewing a traffic impact study centering on the construction of a road leading into the site, a road that will ultimately be built by the City of Durango. A timeline for the actual construction of the park has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulardå ![]() A growing charter school based in Phoenix has announced plans to build a new facility in the growing city of Buckeye. Great Hearts Academies currently operates just under two dozen schools in metropolitan Phoenix. The new school in Buckeye, to be called the Roosevelt Preparatory Academy, is seen as a response to waiting list in a city that has seen its population increase from 6,500 people in the year 2000 to nearly 80,000 today. The school is being named in honor of Quentin Roosevelt, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt, who died at the age of 20 in 1918 on a combat mission in World War I. The new facility is expected to cost around $22.3 million with construction launching sometime this summer. It will go up on around 25 acres at the intersection of Jackrabbit Trial and Van Buren Street. As planned, the school will serve up to 800 students from kindergarten to 8th grade. Great Hearts officials have said that they would like to have that school completed in time for the fall 2022 semester. Founded in 2007, Great Hearts currently serves more than 22,000 students, with course offerings emphasizing literature, language studies, and history. By Garry Boulard ![]() Officials with the Federal Reserve are feeling bullish about the chances for a national economic recovery between now and the end of the year. Members of the board of governors of the Fed in a recent meeting pointed to the declining rate of the Covid 19 spread, as well as President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, as reasons for feeling optimistic. According to the Wall Street Journal, several Fed officials remarked that the relief package “could improve the position of small businesses hit by the pandemic, lift consumer spending, and contain long-term damage to the labor market.” Notes the publication Business Insider: “Fed policymakers also anticipate that continued vaccinations will allow for lockdown measures to be relaxed even further, and drive strong growth over the next two years.” According to the notes of the meeting published by the Fed, information provided to members of the group’s board of governors “suggested that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product was expanding in the first quarter of 2021 at a pace that was faster than the fourth quarter of last year.” But those notes also added that the Gross Domestic Product had “not yet returned to the level seen before the onset of the pandemic.” Fed officials also expressed optimism that the nation’s employment rate will increase in the months to come, which, in turn, will ramp up consumer spending. The board of governors is more precisely forecasting a 1.6% increase in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product for the duration of this year, with a higher 2.1% increase in 2022. By Garry Boulard ![]() The City of Grand Junction has issued a Request for Proposals for work on the Carson Reservoir Dam. That facility, built in 1947 and located within the Grand Mesa National Forest, provides water for the city as well as recreational fishing. A report issued by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, through its Colorado Dam Safety program, earlier rated the structure as a “high hazard jurisdictional dam,” due to its aging condition. In response, city leaders have pushed for what is regarded as a needed general upgrade of the dam. To that end, late last year the Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a $3 million loan to the City of Grand Junction, which owns and operates the dam, for work on the facility. The total $3.5 million project, designed to improve the dam spillway, outlet works, and deep seepage collection, will include demolition, clearing, and grubbing work, as well as some structure removal and spillway reconstruction. Also included: riprap removal and new placement, along with the installation of new seepage sand chimney filters and a perforated pipe toe drain system on the downstream side of the dam embankment. Measuring 56 feet in height, and roughly 620 feet in length, the Carson Reservoir Dam has a storage capacity of around 520 acre-feet of water. The RFP has a submission deadline of April 30. By Garry Boulard ![]() A new Amazon delivery center may be going up in Arvada, Colorado, some 12 miles to the northwest of Denver. The online retail giant has submitted papers detailing the proposed construction of a nearly 112,500 square foot structure at 6730 Indiana Street, not far from West 68th Avenue. What is being called Project Indiana would go up on the west side of Arvada on 33 acres not far from the Maple Valley Park in an area dotted with some residential structures and several large warehouse facilities. A portion of those 33 acres will be annexed and then rezoned by the city to make way for construction of the center. Also included in the project: the building of more than 1,100 vehicle parking spaces. The project is expected to cost around $30 million to build. Even though a portion of the land to be used for the new facility will be designated as open space, some residents have suggested that the project is nevertheless not compatible with the surrounding area. Members of the Arvada Planning Commission are expected to review Project Indiana later this month, with a final vote scheduled by the Arvada City Council on June 7. Amazon’s delivery centers are substantially smaller than its fulfillment centers, which range in size from 600,000 to 1 million square feet. The company is currently building additional delivery centers in Glendale, Arizona, and Knoxville, Tennessee. The centers are used as the final stop before packaged items purchased online are loaded into vans and then delivered to customers. By Garry Boulard ![]() For the first time in months, an index of new billings published by the American Institute of Architects has entered positive territory. The group’s Architecture Billing Index, measuring new contracts, now stands at 53.3, a jump from the 44.9 it recorded earlier this year, and, most importantly, the highest index reading since just before the Covid-19 outbreak. By way of comparison, the index stood at only 40.0 late last summer. “Hopefully, this is the start of a more sustained recovery,” Kermit Baker, the chief economist with the AIA, said in a statement. “It’s possible that scores will continue to bounce above and below 50 for the next few months as recoveries often move in fits and starts,” Baker continued. Regionally, the South and West showed the most resiliency. Firm billings in the South stood at 52.4; followed by the West at 49.5. The Northeast reported the lowest billings at 46.9, but even this number was up over last fall. All of the regional numbers were substantially up from where they were in August of last year, when the South and West stood at 41.6 and 41.3 respectively, with the Northeast at a devastating 33.9. Mixed practice firms saw the most buoyant index reading at 52.5, followed by firms specializing in commercial and industrial projects at 50.5. Despite the national boom in multi-family residential construction, that market for architects remained below 50 at 48.3. By Garry Boulard |
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