Construction Dive’s Friday Punch List is a series dedicated to sharing major building headlines that contractors may have missed from the week.
In major construction news this week, President Donald Trump unveiled a $22.5 billion plan to overhaul Dulles International Airport and the NFL’s New York Giants announced an upgrade to their headquarters and training facilities.
Read on for other construction news from the week that building executives should know about.
Amtrak awards New Jersey bridge contract
The same day it detailed a $6 billion railroad tunnel replacement job near Baltimore, Amtrak outlined the status of another major project in the Northeast corridor.
Major work to update the Dock Bridge in New Jersey will begin before the end of this year. The $242 million project will upgrade a six-track, triple-span moveable lift bridge and transform it to a fixed span.
Amtrak awarded Skanska the design-bid-build contract for bridge rehabilitation work. The Stockholm-based contractor announced it had won the $87 million job earlier this month. Meanwhile, Syosset, New York-based LiRo-Hill won the project management contract to provide project oversight and support throughout construction.
The project is funded in part by a $188 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, with the remaining portion paid for by NJ Transit, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Amtrak.
—Zachary Phillips
Sundt completes $34M Texas dam
If there’s ever a class in dam building 101, the pros at Sundt Construction can now teach it.
The Tempe, Arizona-based contractor announced Monday that it had completed the $34 million Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District Dam 101 project.
Located near Round Rock, Texas, just north of Austin, Dam 101 is an earthen embankment structure that spans nearly a mile and features a clay core with heights of up to 40 feet. It has an effective 0.6-mile labyrinth weir spillway. Sundt won the project in 2023 to reduce flood risks for over 1,000 residents along approximately 5 miles of Lake Creek.
Sundt self-performed major scopes of work, including 60,000 cubic yards of excavation and 190,000 cubic yards of zoned embankment construction. The team also installed drainage systems, a 60-inch steel pipe and multiple concrete structures to support the dam’s long-term performance.
—Joe Bousquin
Granite unit opens new Memphis materials yard
Granite Construction dug deeper into its picks-and-shovels strategy this week when its subsidiary, Memphis Stone & Gravel, opened a new aggregate yard, according to a Tuesday news release.
The six-acre River Yard, located on the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, receives limestone products barged in from Slats Lucas Quarry in Salem, Kentucky. The quarry is owned by Warren Paving, another Granite subsidiary.
That pairing reinforces Granite’s home market strategy, where it uses its own material plants to supply projects it’s building in a given region.
The site officially opened earlier this month, according to the release. The initial inventory of limestone products includes 610s, No. 8, 810, No. 57 and No. 4 stone.
—Joe Bousquin
NYC begins Queens library replacement
A neighborhood in Queens is receiving an upgrade to a local library.
The New York City Department of Design and Construction, along with other project stakeholders, broke ground on the new Douglaston-Little Neck Library in Queens on Monday. The $40.2 million project includes the design and construction of a new library and demolition of the existing structure, which was built in 1962, per the announcement.
Once complete, the 12,000-square-foot facility will contain two stories plus a lower level, which will provide more space for library services, educational programming and community gatherings.
The structure will also include a green roof, rooftop solar panels, an all-electric mechanical system, high-performance building insulation and enhanced air filtration, per the news release.
The library is expected to reopen in the summer of 2030.
—Matthew Thibault
