Plunging tax receipts, state budget disasters, PlanCon moratoriums and attempts at PlanCon reform have all been wet blankets on what was once a staple of the construction industry: the K-12 school market. What was once regularly a $300-$500 million/year opportunity fell to $100 million or less after the recession. The market is still very thin by historic standards but the return of big projects has made K-12 one of the growth sectors of 2016 thus far.

Throught the first three months of 2016, K-12 contracting volume is way up over 2015. At $146 million, contracting is more than ten times what it was in the first quarter of 2015.

Most of the volume in K-12 has come from just a few projects: the $67 million Thomas Jefferson High, $25 million South Fayette High and $34 million Ringgold Middle School jobs. The $25 million Chartiers Vally Middle School project is awaiting award of contracts and nnother $49 million Chartiers Valley High project is out-to-bid. Also bidding now is the $10 million Bentworth High and the new $22 million Rogers Elementary in Shaler is about to be released to bid.That’s $230 million from a half-dozen or so projects.

The problem for K-12 is those projects more or less make up the market in 2016. There will be other work but the total for 2016 will probably not top $300 million. With PlanCon effectively shut down the past year, there will be fewer projects on the street in 2017. That’s why prices have been dirty low, even in a K-12 bubble.

In project news, Mascaro was the low general on the re-bid of the $42.7 million Brush Creek Water Pollution Control Plant in Cranberry Township. Mascaro was also low on the first round and their bid of $35.9 million is expected to be awarded at the May 5 supervisors meeting. Franjo Construction was identified as the successful bidder on the 116-room Homewood Suites at the Village of Cranberry Woods. TBI Contracting is preparing to start work on n 80,000 sq. ft. and 45,000 sq. ft. two-building expansion of Callery Industrial Park.

Late last week there was word that Shell had put the Monaca cracker on hold until February 2017. The project was one of several affected by a corporate capital budget cut that will result in a slowdown of the construction of the project in Monaca. Contracts will go ahead for work that was bid but the schedule will slow to reduce the cash flow impact in 2016.

Last night the AIA-MBA Joint Committee held a launch event for its Project Collaboration Best Practices Guide at the MBA’s Training Center. The presentation was the culmination of several years of roundtables with owners from around the region and represents the suggested practices of companies that have been using collaborative delivery models, up to the use of IPD agreements. If you’re interested, there’s a short survey you can take to add your opinion about these collaborative practices.

One of the participants in the roundtable discussions, the University of Pittsburgh, approved its capital spending yesterday. The $34.7 million in projects was indicative of Pitt’s reduced construction spending, although the Gallagher Administration seems to be building momentum for some very significant projects within the next few years. The headline project for 2016 is actually the $5.7 million renovation of a building in downtown Bradford PA to make the Marilyn Horne Museum. Carl E. Swanson & Sons is the low bidder on that project. Among the other major projects planned is a $7.2 million upgrade to the Starzl BST and a $6.5 million renovation to a dorm at Pitt-Johnstown.

In other project news, Rycon Construction was awarded the Classrooms 232 & 332 renovation at the Cathedral of Learning. Uhl Construction was selected for the $8 million expansion of Sisson Motors in Washington, PA. PJ Dick was awarded the $4.5 million Ft. Ligonier renovations. PJ will also be building the 55,000 square-foot new office building at McCandless Crossing that Kevin Dougherty from AdVenture Development announced earlier this week. Sports & Exhibition Authority selected Massaro CM Services as construction manager for its 798-car, $14 million North Shore Parking Garage.

Over the past week, two projects with ties to Pittsburgh’s new tech economy moved a step closer to construction. Carnegie Mellon selected Mascaro Construction as construction manager for the new Tata Consulting Services building on Forbes Ave. The $15 million, 40,000 sq. ft. new building will be at the site of CMU’s electric vehicle charging station, across from Panther Hollow.

In Lawrenceville, Franjo Construction was selected to build the $12 million, 65,000 sq. ft. new robotics research building at the RIDC’s Lawrenceville Technology Center.

Last week’s results from the bidding of the new middle school at Ringgold School District show that the public market is still very competitive. Like earlier projects at Thomas Jefferson and South Fayette, the Ringgold Middle School came in under budget at $33.8 million, with Hudson Construction from Sharon as the low general contractor. Two of the three low generals were from outside Pittsburgh. That’s a sign that the competitiveness won’t end soon. Those that remember the bidding market after the crash in 2009 may want to re-think the public market. Bid lists were measured in the dozens and a number of the projects went to Ohio or eastern PA contractors. Few ended well. Until Harrisburg comes to its senses and the K-12 market gets back on its feet – at least a year away – it might be best to tread lightly in the public market. Thank goodness the private development sector is still strong in Pittsburgh.

In the BreakingNews email blast yesterday there were several glaring errors or confusions that should be corrected. Sometimes the desire to get news out means having less details than you’d like but that was pretty sloppy. My apologies.

There are actually six contractors competing for the CM role at RIDC’s 65,000 sq. ft. robotics research facility in Lawrenceville. In addition to Volpatt, A. Martini and Franjo, proposals will be taken by Landau, Continental and TBI Contracting tomorrow. West Penn’s $20 million NICU project has not moved past the proposal submissions from Jan. 27. Some half-dozen contractors submitted proposals, including A. Martini, PJ Dick, Mascaro, Massaro and Turner. No word on the next step. The Tata Consulting Services building proposals were just going out to CM’s; the wording in the email sounded like CMU was taking proposals yesterday.

One of the disappointments of 2015 for the construction and development business was Shell’s further deferral of a decision to proceed with the investment in an ethane cracker in Monaca. The final decision was long rumored to have been made in December, pending final approval from board or shareholders or someone. It now looks as though no announcement will come before April (and several involved with the job don’t expect anything prior to June); however, if all jobs on hold were as active as this, construction would be a very lucrative business.

This is what I saw from Route 18 on a gloomy January 13 trip past the site. A photo can’t begin to represent just how much that half-mile stretch of riverfront and hill side has changed over the past year. For those unfamiliar with Frankfort Road, the area to the right of the road pictured above rose steeply until the Mascaro/Trumbull Energy Services team began moving 7 million yards of dirt. You can get some idea of the change by focusing on the small area of existing hillside that remains to the right of the car in the photo. What isn’t shown is the massive site to the north (left) of Route 18 where the plant will be built. The other important piece of information not captured is the beginning of the site work at the I-376 interchange just a few hundred yards ahead. Or the 200-plus cars parked in the workers’ lot.

As I’ve been tipped off about the project, the relocation of Route 18 has been the key milepost for which I was told to watch. That I-376 interchange work is a sign that the highway work is imminent. Corporate realities may be keeping Shell from announcing or deciding to green light the project but the activity suggests very strongly that it will. In Potter Township, officials say that Shell and its EPC’s are still coming in with new work and they speculate that April is when they will hear for sure. I’m getting numb to the speculation by this time but I can say that a trip to Monaca will renew your optimism about the prospects of the project.