Friday’s big news may have been the unexpected slowdown in hiring in the U.S. job market but there was some project news of note in Pittsburgh.  The PBX reported that J.C. Orr was the low general (at $45.6 million) on the $73.5 million new Altoona High School. That’s a good sign for the public market, at least in terms of the impact of rising prices on bids. News from distributors and specialty contractors suggests that more budgets may prove to be too low in the coming months. The bids on the $75 million Peters Township High School will be worth noting in that regard.

In the private sector, Burchick Construction was selected to build the $5 million Heights of Thorn Hill office building for Elmhurst Group. Champion Construction started construction on the 90,000 square foot Southpointe Fieldhouse. Volpatt Construction was awarded a contract for $3.5 million in renovations to Wean Hall/Doherty Hall classroom renovations at Carnegie Mellon. CMU also short-listed Mascaro and Mosites to determine the CM for the $45 million Health and Fitness Center project. DGA Construction has started work on the Refinery Condos, a 30-unit adaptive re-use of the former plant/warehouse at 2545 Penn Avenue that Joe Hardy is redeveloping. And the revised $15 million St. Clair Hospital central plant project has gone out to bid to PJ Dick, Landau, Mascaro, Massaro, MBM, Mosites, and Volpatt.