ConstructionForum 🕸

From Illinois Business Journal:  Spectrum and Better Family Life gathered recently to highlight the impact of their Spectrum Community Center Assist partnership, which provided job training to more than 120 program participants, with more than 80 recipients getting local job placement in the past six months. In celebration of the progress, Spectrum announced Better Family Life […]

From Webster-Kirkwood Times:  During months of tough budget talks earlier this year, Webster Groves city officials remained resolute in their commitment to fund a more sustainable community. Last week, council members unanimously approved the first round of spending toward that end, authorizing purchase of the city’s first electric vehicles for the police department and the […]

From Mid Rivers Newsmagazine:  At its meeting on Sept. 12, the County Council approved the acquisition and installation of a Smart Parking Management System for Historic Main Street and the county government areas. County staff at the meeting noted that the system will help manage about 2,000 parking spaces in and around Main Street St. […]

From HOK:  The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 includes $370 billion in funding to reduce climate change. On August 16—the day the act was signed into law—HOK hosted a LinkedIn Live conversation on the legislation’s impact on the building sector. The panel discussion with Smart Surfaces Coalition’s Greg Kats and HOK’s Anica Landreneau and […]

From Courier Tribune:  After 11 months as interim director of Missouri’s Department of Economic Development, Maggie Kost is seeing positive outcomes and overseeing the distribution of millions in federal funds. The August jobs report on Tuesday provided more positive evidence on the state’s economy. The unemployment rate remained at 2.5%, the same as July when […]

From The Edwardsville Intelligencer:  Twenty park and trail projects in Madison and St. Clair counties will share $3 million in grants from the Metro East Park and Recreation District. Awarded under the MEPRD Park and Trail Grant Program, the grants will aid local and county agencies, municipalities, park districts and transit districts with developing or […]

from Next STL: On April 25, the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) released its “Roadmap to Economic Justice” plan. In the days preceding the publication of the plan, Mayor Jones announced a commitment of $150 million in ARPA funds to North St. Louis while another $96 million has already been planned for the predominantly Black northside. The […]

The 133-year-old Merchants Bridge celebrated its official grand reopening September 15, following the completion of a landmark $222 million project to replace the vital artery that links Missouri and Illinois near downtown St. Louis. Dating back to the 1890s, the Merchants Bridge serves six Class I railroads and Amtrak as a bridge crossing across the […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  Nationally, union membership continued to decline in 2021, falling by nearly 5% from 2020. However, this didn’t translate to the membership at the largest unions in St. Louis. The Business Journal’s annual list of the largest St. Louis-area labor unions, ranked by membership, showed that the top 24 unions reported […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Residents visiting the Maryland Heights Community Center this fall may notice some new developments. The city has partnered with Ameren Missouri to install solar arrays in the parking lot at no cost to the city. “Creating a more sustainable city has been a focus for Maryland Heights, so taking advantage of […]

Editor’s Note: This week Construction Forum Drone Pilot Louis Kelly of Drone Eagle LLC surveyed the site of “Lighthouse Point,” a proposed 67-acre, $325M mixed-use development on the Mississippi River in North County.  The site is located at 11000 Riverview Drive near the new Saint Louis Zoo campus being built on the former Pipefitter’s complex. […]

From St. Louis Public Radio:  Leaders from cities along the entire length of the Mississippi River and representatives from federal agencies are in St. Louis this week for a meeting of river communities. The 11th annual Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative meeting comes at a critical moment when a changing climate is ratcheting stress […]

From RiverBender:  The U.S. Department of Labor awarded Madison County and the St. Louis region workforce innovation areas a four-year,$5.8 million grant to be a part of the Apprenticeship Building America program. “We are thrilled with this announcement from the Department of Labor to be able to launch the Gateway Registered Apprenticeship Programs Hub,” Employment […]

IWR North America, one of the longest standing building enclosure contractors in the U.S., has added Doug Hantak as a project manager. In his role at IWR, Hantak will assist in managing projects from sale to completion and monitoring the supply chain in the architectural metal segment. “Having an experienced project manager, like Doug, is […]

S. M. Wilson & Co. has completed the new $11.2 million R.P. Lumber Center in Edwardsville, Illinois. The state-of-the-art facility provides year-round ice skating, exercise and other recreational activities. The new facility answers the growing demand for “ice time” in the region for hockey, figure skating and recreational skate use. S. M. Wilson served as […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  Chabad of Chesterfield, an organization that serves as one of several local hubs for the Jewish community, will break ground Wednesday on a new center. The 15,000-square-foot building, to be built at 15310 Conway Road in Chesterfield, is a $5 million project to be funded by local donors. The organization, […]

From KSDK:  South Central Avenue in Clayton will become home to hotel and condo sites as part of a development project that has a $100 million bottom line. A new AC Hotel by Marriott is on the way. The groundbreaking ceremony was set to take place at 10:30 Tuesday morning. The hotel will be erected […]

From Construction Dive:  Dive Brief: Nonresidential contractor confidence rose in August and backlog held steady as builders shook off fears of a looming recession, according to Associated Builders and Contractors, despite evidence the Federal Reserve will need to escalate its war on inflation even more via ever higher interest rates. The ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator, […]

From St. Louis Business Journal: Although workforce challenges in construction are hardly new, some in the industry report success with recruiting from different labor pools and thinking about workforce needs more holistically. A recent workforce survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk Inc.(Nasdaq: ADSK) found 93% of construction firms report having open […]

From ENRMidwest: Talk about a tight squeeze. The contractor for the $616-million Washington University School of Medicine’s new neuroscience research building in St. Louis was handed a big challenge: fitting the 11-story, 609,000-sq-ft building and parking garage into a relatively small space of 4 acres. And that wasn’t the only hurdle that McCarthy Building Cos. and […]