The new administration at Allegheny Health Network has put a number of projects that had been out for proposal on hold at least temporarily. As many as a dozen projects at AHN facilities, including Forbes Regional, Allegheny General, West Penn, Allegheny Valley and Jefferson Hospital, as well as some medical office buildings, were being priced but most have not proceeded. Interviews for the $20 million NICU project at West Penn – which received a $9.1 RACP grant – have not occurred, although the project is reported to be going ahead. With new CEO Cynthia Hundorfean taking the reins in February, it’s not surprising that capital spending would be evaluated. It’s unfortunate for the construction market that the evaluation comes when there was a meaningful flurry of activity.

The Benter Foundation selected Jendoco Construction as contractor for the $3 million renovation of its offices in the Benedum Tree Building. The design/build team of Mascaro/R3A was selected to do the second pahse of the work at The Program for Offendors. The project is the expansion of into another roughly 60,000 sq. ft. of the former Keystone Plumbing Building in Homestead to accomodate about 230 beds for female offendors. MBM Contracting was awarded the $1 million Canonsburg Hospital nursing unit renovation. CMU is taking CM proposals on the Tata Consulting Services Building (TCS) from MAscaro, Mosites, PJ Dick, Rycon and Turner; aand architectural proposals from Skidmore Owings Merrill, SHoP and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. RIDC is interviewing Volpatt, Franjo and A. Martini & Co. for the 65,000 sq. ft. new Lawrenceville Technology Center. That’s the $12 million new center for robotics research that will further accelerate the research on robotics and automated vehicles that is going on in conjunction with CMU and private companies like Uber, Google, Ford and Tesla.

There was news this week about the new UPMC South hospital being proposed. The new 300,000 square foot, $100 million+ hospital will be located off Route 51 on Lindsay-Snyder Drive in Pleasant Hills. UPMC is going through the process of getting zoning approvals and having CannonDesign begin drawings. The process of getting a CM on board will take place after the approval process is finalized.

Burchick Construction was chosen for the $3 million buildout for Oculus at Schenley Place. Winco Development hired Massaro Design Build for its new Route 28 North Business Park, which will have 3 buildings totaling 141,100 sq. ft. in phase 1. The $26 million Chartiers Valley Middle School went out to bid, due February 24. Allegheny Health Network has a number of projects out for CM proposals, including the $9 million NICU at West Penn Hospital. RIDC has asked A. Martini & Co., Franjo and Volpatt to submit proposals for the new 65,000 sq. ft. building at the Lawrenceville Technology Center. The Betner Foundation is taking final proposals and interviewing Jendoco and A. Martini next week for its $3 million buildout at the Benedum Trees Building.

Continuing the trend seen at South Fayette and several other public projects over the past few months, bids on the new Thomas Jefferson High School came in substantially under the published budget last week. Nello Construction was the low bidder on the largest contract, the $42 million general construction. According to the PA Builders Exchange, the other low bids were:

HVAC:  Ruthrauff/Sauer – $8,600,000

Plumbing:  A. J. Demor & Sons – $3,259,000

Electrical:  Kirby Electric – $8,380,000

Fire protection:  Preferred Fire Protection – $915,000

Food Service Equipment:  Commercial Appliance – $769,862

The $63.9 million total was more than $12 million under the budget that was approved at West Jefferson Hills School District’s Act 34 hearing. That gives the district room to put alternates in place that might add more value to the project. The competitive price also allays the fears of those concerned that the school district’s Project Labor Agreement would limit competition. While the PLA clearly kept some non-union K-12 bidders from competing, the market conditions more than made up for any limited bidding. School districts and government agencies that can get projects to the street over the next 60 days are likely to find similar bidding conditions. With labor trending tighter as 2016 proceeds, market conditions are likely to shift significantly as the spring unfolds.

In private sector news, Carnegie Mellon made a quick decision, choosing Rycon Construction on Friday as construction mgr. for its $13 million Hamerschlag Hall Maker project. The finished space will allow innovative ideas to be fabricated within a few hundred yards from where the innovators are doing their research and development, using 3-D printing to fabricate new products. CMU will be putting the new 40,000 square foot Tata Consulting Services Building out for CM proposals later this week. Excavation for the $107 million Tepper Quad has been ongoing for about a month. PJ Dick should be ready to take bids on the main packages for Tepper later this spring.

Turner started work before the year ended on the new 54,000 sq. ft. space for JLL in the Tower Two-Sixty office tower that Millcraft Investments is completing. Massaro has started construction on the $20 million, 144-room Residence Inn in Oakland. PJ Dick is taking bids on the first phase of the Mill at Second Avenue apartments that Walnut Capital is developing.

The long-awaited State College High School project bid Wednesday afternoon and came in under Massaro CM Services’ budget at $116,996,100. Lobar Construction from Mechanicsburg was the low general at $70,755,000. Most of the low bidders were from the Lancaster/Harrisburg area with only Bob Biter Electric as a local contractor that was a low bidder. Few Pittsburgh area firms bid the job and those bids were 10% or more above the low bid. See the full results.

The project is likely to be the biggest K-12 project in the state for a while and the bidding showed that. Bidding on Thomas Jefferson High School will present an interesting counterpoint to see how aggressively the school builders bid that $76.3 million job in mid-January.

Also in State College, Clayco has the first phase of the $173 million East Residence Halls renovation and new North Residence Hall out to bid, due Dec. 22. View details at the PBX.

In contracting news, Continental Building Systems was awarded the $8.5 million Fairfield Inn & Suites at McCandless Crossing. DGA Construction started work on the $20 million, 149-unit Cosmopolitan Apartments by Ross Park Mall. There is no confirmation from any parties involved but it’s reported that the Mascaro/Trumbull Energy Services/PJ Dick team will build the 900+-car parking garage at the Monaca cracker, should the project proceed.

Rumors about the cracker continue to circulate. Within the past three days I’ve been told that announcement will be made Dec. 10, Dec. 14 and at least 90 days from now. Shell’s word on progress is that evaluation continues with no schedule for an announcement. The mystery continues.

The Master Builders’ announced the nominees for its 2015 Building Excellence Awards at an event on Nov. 18. You can read about the projects here. Winners will be announced at the Feb. 25 Evening of Excellence.