Construction News
The most widely read construction publication in southern Nevada contains feature stories on AGC members’ construction projects, helpful business-management tips and insights into the issues facing the construction industry. Distributed by direct mail and insertion into In Business Las Vegas, Construction Connection is read by nearly 40,000 contractors and business and political leaders each month. Targeted readership makes Construction Connection a cost-effective advertising medium for contractors, suppliers and service professionals.
Members tackle Airport Expansion, By Scott Smith
McCarthy Building Companies is nearing final approach on construction of a massive parking garage to accommodate Terminal 3 at McCarran International Airport. The builder is under budget and ahead of schedule at the halfway mark on the eight-story garage that will accommodate some 6,000 vehicles. Part of the ambitious building plan to help the nation’s sixth-largest airport handle 40 million visitors a year, the garage will 140 concrete pours.
Slated for completion by the end of the year, The 2.3 million-square-foot garage project includes an 11,000-square-foot office, roadway for airline passenger pick up and drop off and toll plaza and features a helical entrance ramp that required 14 dedicated concrete pours.
McCarthy, which is self -performing all the concrete work for the $122 million project, recently completed pour number 63 on the deck – the midpoint required for the structure.
The garage will include spaces for employee parking, valet service and short- and long-term public parking for those using Terminal 3, now under construction. The terminal itself will help assuage the airport’s overburdened Terminal 1, which saw nearly 48 million passengers cross its gates in 2007. Air travel to Las Vegas has decreased since then, but Clark County is taking a proactive approach to tourism, betting on the come that air traffic will improve with the economy.
The terminal will add 14 gates, along with supporting structures such as security checkpoints, baggage claim areas, ticketing and more. According to planners, the additional terminal will enable McCarran to efficiently accommodate 53 million visitors each year.
To pave the way for the new terminal, McCarthy completed a civil package that included drilling and installation of 1,300 piers. The company first had to undertake an aggressive and extensive dewatering plan to lower the construction site’s water table by 50 feet in order to allow for the excavation of 600,000 cubic yards of material. That process took more than a year. The site preparation complete, McCarthy then oversaw the pier drilling, construction of an underground shell for the terminal’s automatic tram station and a 2,300-foot utility tunnel to house electrical, gas and water utility lines. The reinforced concrete structures used rebar supplied by AGC Las Vegas member Pacific Coast Steel and waterproofing by member Commercial Roofers. Other AGC-member subcontractors on the civil package included Sequoia Electric and Pahor Mechanical. Read More
Builders Seek Greener Pastures, By Scott Smith
With the industry floundering in the midst of the worst recession in a lifetime, construction companies might be expected to strike their sails, batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. But many southern Nevada contractors are, either out of necessity or to take advantage of a perceived opportunity, implementing a strategy of horizontal integration.
This horizontal expansion – extending a company’s established services into new geographic market areas – mirrors a national trend, according to a recent KPMG International study.
“The economic conditions have not completely dampened ambition in the sector, with geographical growth very much on the agenda. [F]aced with the choice of retrenchment or expansion, it seems that a fair proportion of construction companies are choosing the latter. Almost four out of ten respondents say they’ve continued to develop regionally or globally, while only 12 percent have actually contracted their activity,” according to KPMG’s Navigating the storm Charting a path to recovery? Global Construction Survey 2009
Read More |
