This morning’s headlines seemed like a blast from the past. US Steel announced it was investing more $900 million in a new continuous caster at the Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock and $150 million for a co-generation plant at the Clairton Works. The project is the first major project at a Pittsburgh-area steel-making facility by US Steel in decades.

Another multi-billion project is moving forward on the Ohio River. Bids have gone out for a site work package at PTT’s proposed $6 billion ethane cracker in Dilles Bottom, OH. No final investment decision has been announced for the plant and the project is without an EPC contractor, but taking bids on site work is a major step towards construction.

Braddock is also going to be home for a new industrial facility of sorts for Robotany. RDC Design + Build started construction on a 58,000 square foot warehouse for the high-tech vertical farming company that grows and sells produce under the Sky Farms brand.

Pitt issued an RFP for CM services for its new Human Performance Center, Chilled Water Plant and Parking Garage to PJ Dick, Massaro/Gilbane, Mosites, Turner, Walsh and Whiting-Turner. The proposal covers three elements of Pitt’s ambitious new master plan. The chilled water plant and adjacent garage are integral to Pitt’s expansion, making this project more likely to start in 2019. The cost of the combined projects approaches or exceeds $200 million.

In other project news, UPMC took proposals from PJ Dick, Mascaro, Rycon and Turner for the $40-45 million UPMC Mercy Hospital 3rd Floor renovation last week. AIMS Construction was awarded the contract for the $4.6 million Palumbo Science Center renovation at LaRoche. A. Martini & Company was selected as CM for the $1.3 million renovation to 947 Penn Avenue by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Apparently owners didn’t get the memo about the construction industry slowing down between the holidays. For all the publicity about the cracker, UPMC and AHN, and the airport modernization, it is the $10-$50 million projects that are really making this construction market boom. One experienced BD executive told me this week that their calendar had 6 RFPs and 3 interviews on it by the end of the first week in December.

Bids went in Wednesday for Buchanan Ingersoll’s TI at its new 120,000 square foot home in the Union Trust Building. A. Martini, Mascaro, Massaro,Shannon and Wyatt bid. Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank is interviewing Jendoco, Landau, A. Martini, MBM, PJ Dick, and Massaro on Nov. 27 for its $11.8 million project. The $45 million Palumbo Center renovation is out for competitive GMP proposals to Jendoco, Mascaro, Massaro, PJ Dick and Rycon. Conemaugh Hospital has its $35 expansion project out for proposals to Butz, Mascaro, Massaro, PJ Dick and Rycon. Conemaugh also broke ground on its $22 million outpatient center in Ebensburg. Massaro Corp. is the contractor.

Allegheny County Airport Authority has reached a short list for interviews on the three major contracts out for proposals. The second A/E services contract – covering the 3,500-car garage, ground transportation center (GTC) and rental facilities – was narrowed to Michael Baker Jr., TranSystems Corporation Consultants and WSP USA Inc. Two separate contracts for CM Agency services are being considered. The short list for the first – including the 632,000 sq. ft. new landside terminal and renovations of the existing airside terminal – includes PJ Dick/Hunt AECOM and Turner/Baker. The second contract covers the scope of work in the second AE services contract above. The teams short-listed are Hill/WSP/MEC, JMT/SAI Engineering/HNTB and Turner/Parsons. According to the RFP, the Airport Authority is not considering awarding CM contracts for both scopes to the same CM team.

Trade bidding on a number of the major projects is also active. Concrete bids are being taken by Yates Construction on the $150 million new Childrens Hospital at WVU Medicine. Mascaro awarded the MEP contracts on the $350 Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital at UPMC Mercy to Ruthrauff Sauer/SSM and Lighthouse Electric.

Millcraft selected the Yates/Massaro team as CM for the Esplanade, its $300 million mixed-use development on the North Side. Rycon Construction was awarded the $32 million Fifth/Clyde residence hall by CMU.

Pittsburgh Homebuilding Report issued its research on the housing market in the six-county metro area this week. The report was unsurprising in that year-over-year growth in single-family detached homes was muted by lot inventory to 4.4%. There was a steep decline in multi-family starts but that is more a matter of timing than a change in direction of the market. With what is in the pipeline, it is expected that permits for apartments/condos will reach the 2,000 units mark again in 2018. The surprise was the 36.1% drop in attached single-family permits. This segment of the market has grown steadily over the past decade, as demographics and topography made townhouses and quads more desirable. This category has produced roughly 900-1,000 units during recent years. It’s unlikely that there will be a two-fold jump in townhouse construction during the last six months. Overall, the market was off by almost 800 units, or more than 30%.

One of the major projects in the apartment pipeline, the second phase of the Riverfront development being built by NRP, is out to bid for subcontractors, due July 27. According to the description at the NRP Construction website this phase will include 442 apartments in two buildings, plus a 544-space garage. In today’s market, that should be in the $55 million range.

Turner Construction was selected as construction manager for the $240 million UPMC Hillman/Shadyside Hospital expansion. That wraps up the CM selections for the major UPMC capitol program. To recap: PJ Dick/Whiting Turner will build the Transplant and Heart Hospital at Presbyterian. Mascaro/Barton Malow is CM for the Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital at Mercy. Rycon/Skanska will build the UPMC South Hills Hospital.

Even as construction on Tenaska Westmoreland winds down and work is underway on three other combined-cycle plants in Southwestern PA, market forces are disrupting the power generation industry again. Headlines suggest that coal-fired generation is dead but a number of coal-fired plants that had invested in becoming EPA-compliant still operate. Moreover, the cost basis of most of these plants have been amortized, which means they can be cheap bidders on the energy grid supply auctions. With costs rising for construction of new gas-fired plants, this cheap supply dynamic is beginning to stress the pro forma for future combined-cycle plants. Projects like the $350 million, 550MW Invenergy plant in Elizabeth or Ray Bologna’s $420 million, 651MW project near Burgettstown will be harder to pencil out. The results of the 2021/2022 PJM capacity market auction, which closes May 16, will be an indicator of how tight the market will be, and how feasible the additional plant capacity is.

Another of Downtown Pittsburgh’s large adaptive re-use projects is out to bid. Arbor Construction – the construction management arm of Stark Enterprises – is taking bids on renovations to the former 441 Smithfield Street office building, now branded as Icon on Smithfield. The 220,000 square foot building was originally a department store that Stark Enterprises is proposing to adapt to apartments on the upper floors with about 60,000 square feet of retail/dining on the first two floors.

Mascaro Construction was selected as CM for the Health and Fitness Center at Carnegie Mellon, a $45 million renovation of Skibo Hall. RIDC awarded the second phase of Mill 19 to Jendoco Construction. The $12.4 million, 90,000 square foot building should start later this year. Carlow University has its $7 million St. Joseph Hall project out to bid to FSS, Franjo, Massaro, Mosites, Rycon and Volpatt. St. Clair Hospital has short-listed Mascaro, Massaro and Volpatt on its $15 million central plant project.

CMU and RIDC made an announcement yesterday that the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute and the Manufacturing Futures Initiative would take about 60,000 square feet of the 94,000 square foot first building at the Mill 19 building at Hazelwood Green. Mill 19 is the creative re-use of the last remaining mill structure at the former J & L Steel works (now also formerly known as Almono). This lease wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret but it is one more piece of economic good news for Pittsburgh, especially given that ARM’s main goal is to spin out technology that will result in other new companies. Construction of the core and shell for the building will be done by Turner Construction, which is also doing preconstruction for the CMU tenant improvements.

In Lawrenceville a similarly-named project is getting underway. PJ Dick is starting construction on Mill 41, a 75,000 square foot office building being developed by Fort Willow on the site of a former mill.  At the Shell plant in Monaca, Bechtel awarded Turner Construction the $9-10 million rail buildings package that bid last spring. One week after AHN announced its major capital program, the hospital system is taking proposals from Graziano, Jendoco, Landau, Rycon and Turner for a 60,000 square foot, $20 million cancer center at the Forbes Regional campus in Monroeville.