A well-used bridge deck that is part of the Red River Fish Hatchery, some two miles to the southwest of Questa, New Mexico, is in line for replacement. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has announced that it wants to build a new deck that will also include abutments and deck support structures for the popular hatchery. One of six hatcheries located in various parts of New Mexico, the Red River Fish Hatchery is the largest hatchery in the state, with a supply of around 1.7 million rainbow trout on a yearly basis. The larger hatchery compound was originally built in 1941 as a Works Progress Administration project that also included the construction of an office building, garage, shop and 100-foot bridge spanning the Red River. The Albuquerque-based Bohanan Huston is the engineer for the current project. According to the Request for Proposals for the project, the removal and replacement of the existing bridge deck is expected to be completed within a 30-day time period. By Garry Boulard
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In a proposal underscoring Western state regional cooperation, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has suggested that a group of historic hotels in both Arizona and New Mexico could be connected by a new rail line. Speaking before a meeting of the Western Governors Association, Lujan Grisham said the line could connect the famous Harvey House hotels in both states, and might even include a stop at the Grand Canyon. Founded by entrepreneur Fred Harvey, the Harvey House hotels and restaurants were built between the 1870s and mid-20th century and are generally regarded as one of the first hotel and restaurant chains in the country. Harvey Houses, known for their Classical Revival and Spanish Renaissance architecture, were located along the route of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. More than a dozen Harvey Houses were built in Arizona and New Mexico - with at least half that many still in existence but operating under other names - in the Grand Canyon, Winslow, Arizona, and Santa Fe, among other cities. The route connecting the chain’s locations from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Kingman, Arizona is about 600 miles long. Noting the recent renovation of that Las Vegas Harvey House, also known as the Castaneda Hotel, Lujan Grisham remarked: “We want to have a tourism experience that connects New Mexico with Arizona, so you would take the train from the Harvey hotels that have been restored in Arizona - that trip will also likely create a stay in the Grand Canyon.” Although the governor provided no details about the cost of a new rail line operating on the old Harvey House route, she said with such a project, “we connect each other in a way that leverages the opportunities for not just one state but several states.” By Garry Boulard The well-travelled Picadilly Road, running north to south in Aurora, may eventually become even busier, now that the city is getting money from Washington to build a new interchange connecting it with Interstate 70. The interchange has been in the talking and planning stage for more than a decade and will be designed to enhance the traffic flow on Picadilly as it connects with I-70. According to a City of Aurora release, the project will “unlock a roadway network” connecting vehicles not only with the Denver International Airport, but also the larger Colorado Aerotropolis. The project will also include the construction of a new nearly two-mile section of Picadilly between Colfax Avenue and Smith Road. A new bike and pedestrian path is additionally scheduled to be built, slicing through the diamond-shaped interchange. In transforming Picadilly into a major artery, the project will also accommodate what is expected to be increased traffic from the city’s growing population, which is projected to increase from its current 374,000 to more than 400,000 in the next five years. Aurora is receiving for the project exactly $25 million in funding from the federal Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development program grants. Local matching funds will bring the total cost of the project to around $56.6 million. Work on the Picadilly/I-70 exchange project is expected to begin in the late summer of 2021. By Garry Boulard planning underway for sweeping renovation of famous university of arizona football stadium11/12/2019 One of the most iconic stadiums in collegiate football may soon be seeing a wide range of renovation and upgrade work. The Tucson-based Arizona Stadium, with a current seating capacity of more than 50,000, has already received a $30 million seating, concession, and restroom renovation on its lower east side. Now, University of Arizona officials want to see the renovation of the facility’s west side, and to that end have contracted out with the Plano-Texas-based firm of Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, in order to get a better feel for what Arizona Wildcats fans would like to see come out of that renovation. Conventions, Sports & Leisure specializes in facility project research analysis for a wide variety of stadium, speedway, convention center, and fairgrounds clients. The west side work for the Arizona Stadium, which was originally opened just two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, is expected to see the dismantling of the current grandstands and the construction of replacement seating, a project that could cost up to $150 million. That work could begin sometime in the first half of 2021, with a rough target completion date of the fall of 2022. By Garry Boulard Although there is currently more than $852 billion in the national construction pipeline, the residential construction segment today remains less buoyant than it has been in the last two years, says a new report released by the business analysis firm Research and Markets. The report, Construction in the US-Key Trends and Opportunities to 2023, compiles information from all projects in the pre-planning to execution stages. But a press release from the Dublin-based Research and Markets also cautions that the report is “relatively skewed towards late stage projects, with 58.7 percent of the pipeline being in projects in the pre-execution and execution stages as of October 2019.” The report adds that even though the construction industry nationally grew by 2.2 percent last year, compared with 0.4 percent in 2017, the final numbers for this year are expected to come in at around 0.5 percent. That number, says the press release, is “largely due to a decline in residential investment and heightened policy uncertainty from the recent escalation of the U.S. trade war with China, which is weighing on business sentiment and holding back investment in major construction projects.” The residential market, comprising a massive 42 percent of the construction industry’s total value, weakened overall in 2018 and “has since struggled to gain traction, with construction put in place contracting by an average of 8.2 percent in the first six months of this year. Research and Markets is the largest industry market research firm in the world, providing analysis of the automotive, chemicals, energy, and healthcare sectors, among other major industries in the U.S. By Garry Boulard In a landslide result, voters in Albuquerque have given their approval to a bond designed to upgrade community and senior centers. But the largest ticket item proposed by Bond Question 2 was a $14 million facility designed to provide shelter for the city’s homeless on a round-the-clock basis. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, who pushed for the new facility, said with the success of Bond Question 2, as well as two bonds to fund a variety of infrastructure projects, the voters “gave us another clear mandate to continue moving our city forward with investments to tackle our biggest challenges head on.” Altogether, Bond Question 2 provides just over $21.7 million for the planning, design, and construction of family, youth, senior, and homeless centers across the city. Where the new homeless shelter will be built remains an open question, with speculation that the facility could go up on the South Campus of the University of New Mexico, among other locations. As proposed earlier this year, the homeless shelter will have enough space for up to 300 beds and will house both single adults as well as families with children. Preliminary plans for the shelter have indicated at least four separate structures for the project site, with a dog park and two courtyards. By Garry Boulard More than a year after Las Cruces voters approved a general obligation bond providing funding, plans are progressing for the construction of a new animal shelter. Officials with the Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley have announced a public input meeting scheduled for November 19, which will be devoted to the design plans for the new shelter and adoption center. The current shelter, located at 3551 Bataan Memorial West, was built in 1982, and according to several reports has long had a series of structural issues, including a faulty plumbing system, lack of adequate ventilation, and cracks in the wall. The shelter takes in around 10,000 animals a year and is also visited by more than 40,000 people annually. The 2018 general obligation bond is providing $9.8 million for the design and construction of a new shelter, with work expected to launch sometime next year. By Garry Boulard Increasing on an annual basis for the better part of a decade, new student housing projects may be less numerous in the years to come, suggests the news site Education Dive. First picking up steam during the Great Recession, which saw a historic increase in students attending the nation’s colleges and universities, student housing projects in what the publication calls the “amenity rich” category, have seen unabated growth since then. As the emphasis on more swimming pools, fitness rooms, business centers, dog parks, and community spaces has continued to define new student housing projects, so has the expense of building them. A report issued earlier this year by the New York-based Real Capital Analytics, says the price of building new student housing in recent years has increased from $50,000 per bed to more than $90,000 today. The Education Dive report says there has been an increase in deficits on mortgage-backed securities related to student housing projects, while also noting the “converging trends of increased supply and declining enrollments at institutions across the country.” But according to the site Statista, the immediate outlook for student housing projects is strong, with the total bed count this year at 2.7 million, and expected to increase to 2.8 million in 2020. By Garry Boulard A Denver museum dedicated to the history of African-Americans in the West is getting funding for facility upgrading work. That work will include new masonry as well as replacing windows in the two-story structure located at 3091 California Street. The Black American West & Heritage Museum is popularly known as the long-time residence of Justina Ford, who moved to Denver in 1902 and became the city’s first and - for decades - only African-American woman doctor. Ford, who died in October of 1952 at the age of 81, was only finally admitted to the American Medical Association in 1949, despite the fact that she had delivered well over seven thousand babies during her years of practice. Ford’s Victorian era home was eventually transformed in the mid-1980s into the Black American West & Heritage Museum, a facility honoring not only her career, but also the history of African-Americans and former slaves who moved to Colorado after the Civil War, working as farmers and ranchers, among other professions. The non-profit group Historic Denver Inc. earlier this year launched a campaign to have the Ford home included as one of twenty historic finalist sites eligible for funding through a program called Partners in Preservation. That program, a joint effort between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the American Express Company, yearly provides funding for historic site upkeep projects. The program itself, since its founding in 2006 has awarded more than $22 million in grant funding to more than two hundred site upkeep projects nationally. In online balloting this fall, more than 61,300 people voted in favor of the Black American West & Heritage Museum getting Partners in Preservation funding. That result allowed the museum upgrade project to place tenth in the final top twenty historic sites, securing $150,000 for the masonry and window work. Altogether, the program this year awarded nearly $2 million in historic place funding nationally. Originally constructed in 1890, the Ford home sits on a stone foundation and has been lauded by architectural historians for its porch end brackets, dentils, and pressed metal cornice finials. By Garry Boulard The City of Albuquerque has issued a Request for Proposals for landscape architectural services to renovate a popular park in the historic neighborhood of Barelas. The RFP is specifically looking for someone to do site planning, design, and analysis work related to the park’s renovation. Funding for the project was announced earlier this year, with work possibly to include include new lighting, a renovation of an existing playground, a community plaza, shade structures, and irrigation improvements. The 3-acre park, located off the 700 block of 8th Street SW, includes tennis courts and an open grassy area sandwiched between the Barelas Community Center and the Barelas Senior Center. Barelas is located to the south of downtown Albuquerque and has a population of around 3,400 people. The neighborhood’s main commercial area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By Garry Boulard |
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