Construction

YORK, SC — Gilbane announces the topping out of the structural steel frame for the first building in the initial phase of QTS’s data center campus in York, South Carolina, marking a key milestone in the development of a large-scale digital infrastructure project supporting growth demand for cloud and AI technologies. The planned campus is expected to include nine buildings designed with closed-loop cooling technology to minimize potable water use.

MT. PLEASANT, SC — Werk-Brau adds industry veteran R.W. Whitaker as a Regional Sales Manager for the southeastern U.S. He brings over 20 years of experience selling attachments in the construction equipment industry, most recently as U.S. Sales Manager for TMC Cancela, a Spanish manufacturer of forestry mulching equipment. He also has regional sales experience with BR Attachments, Paladin Equipment, and Rockland Manufacturing.

KERENS, WV — Governor Patrick Morrisey joined West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Todd Rumbaugh, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster, and state and local officials to celebrate the opening of a new 11-mile, four-lane section of Corridor H extending from Kerens in Randolph County toward Parsons in Tucker County. "[This] ribbon cutting is about far more than opening another stretch of highway," Morrisey said.

MECHANICSVILLE, VA — Skanska announces the completion of the new Central Region Forensic Laboratory for the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (DFS) and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The four-story, 281,425-square-foot facility will enhance the Commonwealth’s ability to provide critical forensic services to the criminal justice system while promoting public safety and health across Virginia.

WILMINGTON, NC — KOBELCO Construction Machinery USA Inc. announces that Sound Heavy Machinery (SHM) has been appointed a full-line distributor of KOBELCO excavators across 37 counties in North and South Carolina. Through this expanded partnership, SHM now offers KOBELCO’s complete lineup of excavators, including SR Series, conventional, specialty, and demolition models, building upon its existing KOBELCO mini-excavator designated market area.

HAMPTON ROADS, VA — U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Sean P. Duffy announces the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) will receive a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of up to $310.2 million from the Build America Bureau. The loan will help fund express lanes and a free-flowing toll system that will together reduce chronic traffic in the area.

The construction industry is healthy and growing, even as powerful headwinds buffet the broader architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) landscape. The positive momentum for construction firms is tenuous, however, and maintaining it is going to require ongoing improvement on multiple fronts. That’s among the conclusions in the recently released 2026 AEC Inspire Report, a benchmarking study based on survey responses from nearly 300 industry leaders.

For years, economists and industry experts have warned that an aging workforce, increasing retirements, and a thin pipeline of new entrants threaten to upend what the construction sector relies on most: human capital. Take into account the increasingly unpredictable availability of foreign-born workers, and the outlook grows murkier still. None of this is news to those in the trades — structural labor shortages and skills gaps grow more apparent by the day.

For decades, supply chain strategy was defined by one overarching goal: efficiency. General contractors and specialists invested heavily in optimization technologies designed to reduce material haulage costs, streamline multi-site delivery logistics, and maximize equipment and fleet utilization across complex project environments. The prevailing belief was simple: the more optimized a supply chain became, the more competitive a contractor would be when pursuing and executing large-scale work.

Dust accumulates quickly at construction sites, creating environmental, operational, and air-quality concerns. One of the primary benefits of street sweeping in these environments is reducing pollution. Effective sweeping removes debris, trash, and pollutants from road surfaces before they can enter storm drains and contaminate waterways. Street sweepers also catch particulate matter that could get into the air.