ACCI-led Venture Wins Florida's Biggest-Ever Road Job

In what officials say is its largest contract award ever, the Florida Department of Transportation has selected a joint venture of Anderson Columbia Co. and Ajax Paving Industries to design, build and finance $430.4 million in improvements to Interstate 75 in Lee and Collier counties. The project calls for widening 30 mi of the interstate to six lanes and reconstruction of the interchange at Immokalee Road.

The joint venture is called ACCI/API. Anderson Columbia Co. is based in Lake City, Fla. and Ajax Paving Industries is located in Nokomis, Fla.

ACCI/API has partnered with HDR, Omaha, for design. FDOT will execute the contract on April 23 and issue the notice to proceed May 16. Construction will begin on portions of the road while design continues on other segments.

FDOT expects groundbreaking later this year, with completion anticipated by the end of 2010. The team can earn $100,000 for each day it finishes early, up to a $15 million bonus for completing the work five months early.

ACCI/API will build the job in three years, but FDOT will pay for it over five years with state and federal dollars, including growth management revenue, money from the Transportation Regional Incentive Program, and funds from Collier County.

The entire project, including engineering and inspection work, comes to $469 million. The initial plan was to widen 35 mi of I-75, but current costs precluded that.

There has been some talk about tolling the new lanes to provide revenue for an expansion of I-75 to 10 lanes, which has been included in FDOT's long-range plans. It could cost upwards of $2 billion, says FDOT spokesperson Debbie Tower. FDOT has not committed to tolling the two new lanes just yet.

"What we have said consistently is we are building six lanes on I-75 and are committed that those lanes are free," Tower said. "For the new fifth and sixth lanes to be tolled would require resolutions from both the Lee and Collier counties boards of county commissioners and a strong demonstration of public support for it.

The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority, created by the legislature in 2005 to pursue increased capacity on I-75, hired Wilbur Smith Associates of Columbia, S.C., to evaluate the feasibility of tolling. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise also assessed the situation. Both entities recommended tolling six lanes and keeping four lanes general use on the busiest segment, from Immokalee to Alico roads, says spokesperson Kris Cella. The cost is estimated at $900 million, with completion in 2014.

At its February meeting, the authority had considered requesting letters of interest from private entities that may have a desire to design, build, operate and maintain the four additional lanes but will hold off until it obtains results from a recently launched public outreach campaign to gauge community support for tolling, says Amy Davies, spokesperson for Lee County Department of Transportation. She adds that the authority board would discuss in March whether it wants to build the additional four lanes, have the Turnpike construct them or seek a private-public partnership. Source: Engineering News-Record. By Debra Wood

Work Scheduled to Start on State's Largest Green Building

Miami's Foram Group has announced plans to develop Brickell Financial Centre, a two-tower office and hotel project estimated to measure 1.5 million sq ft. According to the developer, the property is South Florida's first LEED-precertified commercial office building at the silver level.

The area's first major office project since 2000, Brickell Financial Centre will be built in two phases, with groundbreaking set for April. The $245 million first phase has a planned completion date of fall 2009. It will consist of a 40-story, 600,000-sq-ft tower that will include a lobby and retail space on the first floor, 11 stories of parking and 28 floors of class-A office space. The second tower is planned to rise 68 stories, and will include retail and office space, and a 300-room hotel.

RTKL of Washington, D.C., is the lead architect for the project.

Brickell Financial Centre's core and shell are LEED precertified at the silver level.

Florida Construction Activity Starts '07 on a Big Downer

The overall decline in the volume of Florida's construction contract activity continued in January, as McGraw-Hill Construction reported the value of contracts for future construction dropped 37% during the month, compared to the same period of a year ago. For January, the total value of new contracts totaled roughly $3.7 billion, down from the nearly $5.9 billion reported a year ago.

Residential continued to show the greatest decline, with a whopping 51% downturn. The total of new residential starts for the month was nearly $2.1 billion, down from last January's total of about $4.3 billion. The nonresidential category was down, too, by 11 percent, for a total of about $1 billion, compared to last January's $1.2 billion. The nonbuilding segment improved by 20%, however, increasing from the $453.7 million of a year ago to the most recent tally of $543.2 million.

Work Resumes on Lake Okeechobee Dike Rehabilitation

Incorporating lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers' redesigned rehabilitation of the Herbert Hoover Dike at Lake Okeechobee features redundancies and will cost $856 million, still unfunded, plus land acquisition, compared with $300 million for the original plan. The Corps first discovered weak areas in the dike during the 1990s and Congress approved the Corps' proposal to shore it up. The Corps began construction in 2005 but stopped work last year to re-evaluate and select an alternative design. The new plan calls for a toe ditch, a seepage berm and a cut-off wall.

Work has resumed, with the Corps clearing the toe ditch in the first section of the dike, which will be followed by work on the seepage berm within the Corps' right-of-way. The Corps plans to start testing the cut-off wall this fall with construction scheduled to start in 2008. Once the final design is approved, the South Florida Water Management District will need to purchase property before the project can proceed. Source: Engineering News-Record. By Debra Wood

Darden Picks Hardin for New $100 Million Corporate HQ

Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has selected Atlanta-based Hardin Construction Co. to build its new corporate headquarters, which will be located as a corporate campus at John Young Parkway and the Beachline Expressway in Orlando.

Trammel Crow is serving as Darden's development partner. Perkins + Will of Atlanta is the project architect for the $100 million headquarters, which is planned to include more than 400,000 sq ft of office space and will house more than 1,200 Darden employees.

The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2009.

Ajax Breaks Ground on North Shore K-8 in Jacksonville

Officials from three elementary schools joined Ajax Building Corp. in Tallahassee in a groundbreaking celebration for the new $26 million North Shore Elementary K-8 school in Jacksonville for Duval County Schools. Song & Associates designed the 145,000-sq-ft school, which will accommodate 1,200 students and replace North Shore, Lola Culver and Norwood elementary schools.

It is expected to be completed in August 2008.

The school includes a new one- and two-story building, as well as administration areas, classrooms, a media center, food services dining and a multi-purpose gymnasium.

HuntonBrady, Brasfield & Gorrie Building New Family Life Center in Orlando

Orlando-based HuntonBrady Architects and general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie are designing and building a new Family Life Center for Holy Family Catholic Church for the Catholic Diocese of Orlando.

The two-story, 56,000-sq-ft expansion project will be located on the church's campus on South Apopka Vineland Road and will include a new 1200-seat social hall, youth center, narthex, office space and a library. Also, the existing church will be expanded from 1200 to 1600 seats.

Orlando Mixed-Use Project Plus One Set to Start in May

Baker Barrios Architects of Orlando announced that construction was set to start soon on Plus One, a new mixed-use project the firm designed for The Weintraub Companies and G&D Developers in downtown Orlando. The 26-story building will feature 128 residential units, 11,260 sq ft of retail space, 84,400 sq ft of office space and a seven-story, 500-space parking garage.

Construction is slated to begin May 2007 and is estimated to be complete in April 2009.