A number of the country’s largest construction projects are set to hit major development milestones in 2023. 

Priced from the hundreds of millions to the tens of billions, these developments-in-progress are notable for their size, impact and importance to their respective sectors. They include an NFL stadium, a major airport expansion and a massive manufacturing plant. 

Below are just a few of the projects Construction Dive is planning to keep an eye on in the year ahead: 

Buffalo Bills’ stadium

Orchard Park, New York
$1.4 billion

This spring, a Gilbane-Turner JV will begin construction on the $1.4 billion stadium for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York, with plans to finish the project before the 2026 season. Kansas City, Missouri-based Populous will serve as architect.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approved the stadium project last March. Several contributors will fund the project, which will be among the most expensive ever built. The Bills and the NFL will provide $550 million, Erie County $250 and New York state $600 million. Per an agreement with the state, the stadium must include at least 60,000 seats. 

Renderings released in October show the stadium will be open air, and feature a stacked seating design — which the franchise said will make crowd noise more deafening. Additionally, extensive radiant heating will keep fans comfortable during the harsh upstate New York winter. 

The JV will build the yet-to-be-named stadium on Abbott Road, across from Highmark Stadium, which will continue to serve as the Bills’ home field for the time being.

JFK Airport expansion projects

New York City
$14.2 billion

The terminal projects at John F. Kennedy International Airport are part of its transformation to accommodate dramatic expected growth in coming years. The $400 million Terminal 8 modernization began in 2019 and wrapped in 2022, but other elements are still underway. In the coming year, construction is expected to advance on Terminals 1, 4 and 6.

The $9.5 billion Terminal 1 project broke ground in September 2022 and will be completed in three phases. The design-build team is composed of AECOM Tishman and Gensler. Work entails building 23 new gates, retail, dining and an indoor green space on the old sites of Terminals 1, 2 and 3. It’s expected to open to passengers in 2026 and be fully complete by 2030. 

Terminal 4, with a price tag of $1.5 billion, was approved in spring 2022 and is now under construction. Delta Airlines is managing construction with support from firms including STV, Turner Construction, Group PMX, McKissack and NYCO. Work will include new gate areas, seating and space to relax.

Construction on the $4.2 billion Terminal 6 is set to start in early 2023. It will be built through a P3 between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and JFK Millennium Partners, a consortium that includes Vantage Airport Group, American Triple I, real estate operating company RXR and JetBlue Airways. The new terminal will have 10 gates, shopping and dining, according to the New York Governor’s Office.

Southeast Connector

Dallas-Fort Worth area
$1.6 billion

The Southeast Connector Project is a 16-mile effort to widen I-20 and I-820 and rebuild interchanges between the two freeways and Highway 287. South-Point Constructors, a joint venture with Kiewit Infrastructure South and Austin Bridge & Road, landed the design, build and maintenance contract.

The project’s goal is to relieve traffic delays and facilitate trade, increase safety and improve efficiency around Fort Worth, Texas. It will tie in the east and southeast part of Tarrant County — the state’s third most populated county — to Fort Worth. 

The Southeast Connector represents the Texas DOT Fort Worth District’s largest investment in transportation infrastructure to date, the agency said. It launched in December 2022 and is projected to be finished by 2027.

BMW supplier EV plant

Florence, South Carolina
$810 million

Announced last month, an $810 million EV battery supply plant in Florence County, South Carolina, will boost EV battery production in the Palmetto State. 

Japanese EV battery firm Envision AESC will supply battery cells to be used in the next generation electric vehicle models produced at the BMW Group’s Plant Spartanburg (shown above).

The investment will create 1,170 new jobs and will support the company’s multi-year partnership with the BMW Group, according to the release, and is part of a wave of EV battery production facilities throughout the U.S. 

Located in an 870-acre Technology and Commerce Park in Florence, the plant will encompass approximately 1.5 million square feet and builds on AESC’s existing United States network that includes a battery manufacturing plant in Tennessee and a plant under construction in Kentucky. 

BMW isn’t the only automaker ramping up electric vehicle production this year. Honda revealed plans for an “EV hub” in Ohio in December, selecting a battery production site near facilities it will retool for EVs. Hyundai announced last year that it has broken ground on a campus where both batteries and a diverse line of EVs will be manufactured.

Amazon data center campus

Northern Virginia
$35 billion

Amazon plans to invest $35 billion by 2040 on multiple data center campuses across Virginia, according to a statement earlier this month from the office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The plan still depends on the approval of Virginia's new Mega Data Center Incentive Program by the Virginia General Assembly. If green lit, Youngkin’s office has said Amazon would be eligible for the program.

Though specific localities have not yet been disclosed, Northern Virginia has long been touted as “Data Center Alley” by industry pros. The area remains the largest data center market in the country, according to a 2022 CBRE analysis on data center trends.

That’s because the state continues to attract data center projects due to its relatively cheap land and power, coupled with record tax initiatives, said Youngkin.

Other data center projects currently underway in the area include a 24-megawatt data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia, for NTT, a Japanese IT infrastructure and services company. Clark Construction Group, the Bethesda, Maryland-based construction firm leading the project, expects the 188,000-square-foot facility to be ready in the first quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, near Richmond, Virginia, QTS, an Overland Park, Kansas-based REIT, announced last year plans for a 1.5 million-square-foot expansion to its data center campus in White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County, Virginia. The expansion brings additional data center space to its already existing 1.4 million-square-foot data center next door.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas

Las Vegas
$3.7 billion

Aventura, Florida-based Fontainebleau Development and Koch Real Estate Investments, the real estate investment arm of Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries, secured a $2.2 billion construction loan to complete the Fontainebleau Las Vegas luxury resort and casino, according to a press release last month.

The loan keeps construction of the 67-story hotel, gaming, meeting and entertainment project on track to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the release. The site stretches across 25 acres and 9 million square feet on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, directly adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The project will feature 3,700 hotel rooms, 550,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, as well as gaming, dining, retail and health and wellness experiences.

Construction on the site initially broke ground in 2007. Progress was stymied during the Great Recession as the site changed developers a number of times, with activity again stopping in 2020 amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Another long-awaited Las Vegas entertainment project set to debut in the second half of 2023 includes the $2.18 billion MSG Sphere at The Venetian. The venue will have a capacity of approximately 17,500 seats, expandable to 20,000 with standing room, and will include the largest spherical structure in the world.

Related Santa Clara

Santa Clara, California
$8 billion

After a series of development delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Related Santa Clara, a collaboration between New York City-based developer The Related Cos. and the city of Santa Clara, California, is set to begin vertical construction in this year.

The first phase, known as the “Tasman Block,” will consist of a 430,000-square-foot office complex, 50,000 square feet of retail, a 480-room business hotel, 200 apartments and a 1,900-space underground parking garage, according to a public presentation on the project. Foster+Partners is the lead design architect for the project’s first phases, while Gensler will serve as the executive architect. 

Once complete, Related Santa Clara will comprise 9.2 million square feet of developed space across 240 acres adjacent to Levi’s Stadium, home to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, and the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The development breakdown includes: 

• 1,680 residential units (170 designated as affordable). 
• 5.7 million square feet of office space.
• 700 hotel rooms.
• A 35-acre park. 
• 25 acres of open space.
• 800,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, and entertainment space, including a global food market. 

An adjacent development, Tasman East, will add an additional 4,500 residential units across 40 acres — 1,600 developed by Related and 2,900 by other developers. Related recently announced $690 million in construction financing for Tasman East.

Dive Brief:

• Madison Square Garden Entertainment increased the price tag for the MSG Sphere project in Las Vegas to close to $2.18 billion, up from its prior estimate of approximately $2 billion, according to its fiscal 2023 first quarter earnings report, a 9% increase. 
• The jump in construction cost primarily reflects the ongoing impact of inflation, global supply chain pressures and the overall complexity of the project, said David Byrnes, chief financial officer at MSG, during an earnings call last week. The completion date remains on track to open in the second half of 2023, he added.
• Actual construction costs incurred through Sept. 30 reached about $1.78 billion, including approximately $226 million of accrued, unpaid expenses. MSG expects to fund the remaining construction costs from cash on hand, including savings from a cost reduction plan that defers certain discretionary capital projects, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

The construction team had to “refine a third” of design plans in order to adjust to the complexity of the project, said Byrnes, which was a major cost driver.

Both the build-out of the exosphere and the venue’s interior spaces, such as the installation of the interior display plane, are racking up those higher costs, he said.

“We have numerous packages of work that were competitively bid to contractors many months ago, with all of the actual costs being determined on a time and material basis on the back end,” said Byrnes. “As those materials are delivered and as the work gets completed, we’re continuing to see certain costs go up across certain work streams.”

Changes in design plans ranked as one of the top causes of construction claims or disputes, according to global consulting firm HKA’s CRUX Insight report. At the same time, construction analysts and contractors expect even more shortages and price hikes ahead for essential construction materials in 2023.

Nevertheless, Byrnes remains confident the project will finish on time.

“Work continues on the exterior of the venue with the installation of the LED mega panels on the exosphere, where crews have been progressing from the top of the venue down,” said Byrnes. “We’re confident that we have sufficient liquidity from cash-on-hand and cash flow from operations to complete the construction.”

MSG Sphere at The Venetian will be the largest spherical structure in the world at 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide once complete in the second half of 2023. The venue will have a capacity of approximately 17,500 seats, expandable to 20,000 with standing room.

Sponsored content

By XYZ Reality Ltd

A global transition into a megaproject era is underway and driving the need for more efficient construction. $1.2tn in infrastructure spending from Biden’s Infrastructure Bill is fuelling megaprojects across the country, with up to $260bn aimed at highly complex semiconductor fabrication plants.

With an industry-wide labor shortage, compounded by the effects of the global energy crisis, it’s a big challenge for the industry. In Ohio, Intel has pledged $20bn to build two semiconductor factories while Honda is developing a $4.4bn battery plant; these projects alone will require 10,000 construction workers. Not only this, the sector is still plagued by tight profit margins, averaging 6%. Furthermore, projects are haunted by reactive, costly rework caused by inaccurate, error-prone construction.

The scale of the rework problem

Due to the nature and value of megaprojects, construction crews must strive to ensure they are completed as quickly as possible, with no performance-impacting issues. Government bodies and asset owners will be looking to get the most out of their investments in a highly competitive landscape in which rework can lead to costly errors and extended project timelines.

Conservative estimates place the cost of rework at 5-9% of project costs. When hundreds of billions of dollars are on the line, we cannot ignore the scale of construction’s rework problem.

However, emerging digital technologies, such as Engineering Grade Augmented Reality (AR)^TM are providing a solution to this persistent problem. For example, the latest construction AR technology is helping the industry evolve by reducing inaccuracies when building to eliminate rework, boosting collaboration across projects and improving communication. In fact, construction companies have reduced instances of rework to as little as 1% using our own headset, ‘The Atom^TM’.

An augmented solution

Engineering Grade AR is a true game-changer, eliminating expensive rework programs by allowing field engineers to build to within 3-5 millimeter accuracy, helping megaprojects to complete on time, and within budget. XYZ Reality Field Application Engineers (FAEs) wearing the Atom can tap into our integrated cloud-based solution to work alongside construction project crews and visualize BIM design models in real-time against structures to validate work, proactively identifying potential errors.

Pinpoint accuracy is critical on increasingly complex projects like hyper-scale data centers, and the potential return on investment is huge. For instance, leading global general construction contractors like PM Group reported a 9x return on investment using the Atom during a $400 million data center project.

Effective communication and collaboration

Construction is going digital, and the growth of cloud-based solutions that harness the power AR also supports effective project Quality Management Systems (QMS’s) to reduce rework.

A digital-first-approach helps project teams to identify, track and rectify errors in real-time, as FAEs are directly linked to offsite teams through powerful software. This is especially important on megaprojects where a large number of individuals collaborate at a distance.

The most effective QMSs are interoperable with other technologies to allow truly seamless collaboration and data collection in the moment. Where there are delays using traditional scanning techniques, like laser scanning, to collect information on site, data collection can take weeks or even months to produce results. As a result, data is inaccurate and outdated. Shifting from a reactive way of working to proactively sharing information that can help identify potential areas of improvement is pivotal to reducing rework. 

Lightening the load

Construction AR will ease the burden on architects, engineers, and construction workers deployed across nationwide projects in years to come. Rework is the enemy of productivity, and limiting it is a non-negotiable if the industry is going to deliver across the board on Biden’s infrastructure plans.

Solutions like the Atom are helping by boosting accuracy on site, and the uptick in digital adoption across the industry is a sign that times are changing. The traditionally slow-moving industry is embracing innovation and shedding age-old workflows to move with the times. Ultimately, it’s opening the gateway to a new more productive era for the construction industry.

Interested in deploying Engineering Grade AR on your construction projects? Book a free demo

Panasonic Energy selected a joint venture team of Turner Construction Company and Yates Construction to build its $4 billion EV battery manufacturing facility in De Soto, Kansas, according to a company press release.

Construction plans include the assembly facility, a central utility plant and support buildings. Panasonic expects to begin production by the end of March 2025, according to the release.

The win shows the focus on the sector by major contractors, as the U.S. continues its push toward onshoring manufacturing to compete in the global economy. For example, Turner Construction also landed a $1 billion design-build contract to build Ascend Elements’ electric vehicle battery recycling facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, as well as another $4.4 billion Honda and LG Energy Solution EV battery factory in Fayette County, Ohio.

“It is exciting to add this EV battery plant to our growing portfolio of work in this market,” said Karen Hogan, vice president and general manager at Turner Construction. “More importantly, thousands of people from the greater Kansas City area will participate in building a project that has global impact and provides people in our community green economy jobs.”

The manufacturing plant forms a critical part of Panasonic’s investment in the U.S. to expand EV battery production capacity, according to the company. The factory aims to reduce the company’s CO2 emission to virtually net-zero by 2030 and will contribute to 300 million tons in avoided emissions by 2050.

Panasonic continues to invest in battery production amid a rise of electric vehicle sales, largely driven by its top customer Tesla. Electric vehicle sales grew approximately 36% in 2022, according to S&P Global Mobility estimates.

Other recent EV battery facility projects include:

• $3.5 billion Ford EV battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.
• $3.5 billion Redwood Materials battery materials facility in Charleston, South Carolina.
• $3.2 billion LG Chem EV battery manufacturing facility in Clarksville, Tennessee.
• $1 billion Ascend Elements EV battery recycling facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
• $810 million large-scale battery cell production facility in northeast South Carolina.

With trillions of dollars in new work coming online this year, contractors — already struggling to retain craft workers during a historic shortage — now face the challenge of competing with big projects that come to town with a lot to offer workers. 

This year, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocates $39 billion to build and expand semiconductor manufacturing plants, will create thousands of new construction jobs — on top of what Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America, called “an unusually large concentration of really large projects right now.”

“A remarkable number of multibillion-dollar projects are showing up in many states,” Simonson said. “In many cases, the owners of these projects, while not insensitive to cost, may have more flexibility and willingness to pay and offer a range of benefits that smaller companies can’t.” 

When projects compete for the top available labor, “it gets messy,” said Portland, Oregon-based Eric Grasberger, construction and design group chair of national law firm Stoel Rives. 

“In order to compete, the contractors on those jobs have to go to the owners and say, ‘We can’t get the labor, and we’re not going to get the labor unless you authorize an increase in the hourly wages, the per diem or both — or perhaps other incentives,’” Grasberger said.

To attract and retain workers, many local companies are finding more compelling benefits well beyond money. They’re offering everything from hot meals and heated bathrooms on jobsites to paid volunteer and educational opportunities that may even extend to workers’ families.

“They’ve got to sell something bigger than just a project, because typically those industrial projects pay a lot more per hour than your average contractor might pay,” said Greg Sizemore, vice president of workforce development, safety, health and environmental for Associated Builders and Contractors. “In middle-class America, it’s about selling the value, which is beyond just the dollar.”

Free lunch, wellness centers

In central Ohio, megaprojects are becoming the norm rather than the exception — a $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant for Intel, a $4.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant for Honda, data centers for Google and Amazon, and a biomanufacturing plant for Amgen are just a few. 

The flurry of building activity means construction workers have the potential to make as much as $135,000 per year, said Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council.

Throwing more money at workers to keep up with megaproject salaries is not an option for many local contractors, but Dorsey said it’s probably not the most effective tactic anyway. In their efforts to hang onto workers, central Ohio construction firms are offering amenities such as free breakfast and lunch, onsite wellness centers, heated restrooms and changing areas and convenient paved parking, he said. 

Sizemore said tradesworkers used to ask just three questions when considering a job: how much it paid per hour, how many hours they would work and what the per diem was. 

“Now, the whole world’s changed,” he said. “We’ve got new people coming into the industry who are looking for opportunities to go to work for contractors that have a long-term value proposition that meets their needs — things like paid time off, maternity and paternity leave.”

Younger generations of workers are asking more questions about company culture, what types of projects they would be working on and even safety protocols, said Keyan Zandy, CEO of Skiles Group, a mid-size general contractor in Dallas. 

In his market, Zandy is facing competition from a host of massive industrial, infrastructure and residential projects such as a $3 billion 112-acre mixed-use development that recently broke ground near Dallas. The Mix — which will include 375,000 square feet of retail, a 200-room boutique hotel and a 400-room business hotel — will be under construction through 2026. 

Skiles Group makes a concerted effort to align workers with the firm’s core values and include them in all of the company’s activities, whether volunteer programs or company picnics, Zandy said.

“It’s about not treating your labor like they’re a secondary component of what you do,” he said. “That’s really the main thing—we should be doing everything we can to empower these people because if it weren’t for them, nothing would ever get built.”

While smaller firms might not be able to compete when it comes to salaries, they have the advantage of being able to offer workers more personal relationships with owners and senior management and possibly even meaningful ownership shares, Sizemore said. 

“It really is about making people feel like they’re a part of something as opposed to just working for Amazon,” he added.

Dive Brief:

• Texas Instruments, a Dallas-based semiconductor manufacturing company, plans to invest $11 billion to extend its semiconductor wafer fabrication plant in Lehi, Utah, according to a company press release.
• TI expects construction of a new fabrication facility adjacent to the current one to begin in the second half of this year, with production beginning as early as 2026, according to the report.
• “With the anticipated growth of semiconductors in electronics, particularly in industrial and automotive, and the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, there is no better time to further invest in our internal manufacturing capacity,” said Haviv Ilan, TI executive vice president and chief operating officer, in the release.

Dive Insight:

The announcement marks the largest economic investment in Utah history, according to the release.

The new fab will be located next to the company’s existing semiconductor wafer fab in Lehi. TI acquired that plant in October 2021 from Micron, a Lehi-based semiconductor manufacturing company. 

Once completed, the two plants will operate as a single fab, according to the company.

The plant will manufacture tens of millions of analog and embedded processing chips daily that will enter electronics markets worldwide. The expansion project will also create approximately 800 additional TI jobs as well as “thousands of indirect jobs,” according to the release.

The project aims to achieve LEED Gold certification. For instance, plans include recycling water at nearly double the rate of the existing Lehi fab, according to the release.

That’s because large chip fab plants can use up to 10 million gallons of water a day, equivalent to the water consumption of roughly 300,000 households, according to Gradiant, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based water solutions provider.

Texas Instruments also has another mega construction project underway in the U.S..

The semiconductor company broke ground in May on its estimated $30 billion facility in Sherman, Texas, with production on that project expected to start in 2025. That investment marked the largest private sector investment in Texas history, according to the company.

On Sunday, the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will square off in a venue that has hosted three Super Bowls since it was built. Players (and Rihanna for the half-time show) will take the field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, a domed venue that broke ground 20 years ago. 

From older, upgraded arenas to brand new billion-dollar venues sporting the latest in amenities, here is a look at the construction details and costs of State Farm Stadium as well as the last seven sites to host America’s biggest game.

2023: State Farm Stadium
Location: Glendale, Arizona
Cost: $455 million
Opened: 2006
Also hosted in: 2015, 2008

Hunt Construction Group built the Arizona Cardinals’ home — then called Cardinals Stadium — in three years, finishing in January 2006. At the time, the project cost $455 million, according to StadiumDB.com. 

The stadium has 63,400 seats, but can expand to 73,000 for “mega-events,” such as the Super Bowl, according to the venue’s official site. Premium seating includes 88 lofts and 7,505 club-level seats. 

The retractable natural grass playing field sits on a 40-inch-deep tray that’s 234 feet wide and 403 feet long. Nearly 550 wheels on 13 railroad-like tracks can slide the field tray 740 feet into or out of the stadium, a process which takes about 70 minutes. That has allowed State Farm Stadium to host other events, like concerts or the NCAA’s Final Four tournament.

The stadium’s roof is also retractable, using a 480-horsepower winch system to move two roof panels and make the dome open-air.

2022: SoFi Stadium
Location: Inglewood, California
Cost: $5.5 billion
Opened: 2020

Last year the Los Angeles Rams defended their home turf and won the franchise’s second Super Bowl in the most expensive stadium ever constructed. 

SoFi Stadium cost $5.5 billion and took almost four years to build, first serving as home for the Rams and Los Angeles Chargers in September 2020. Constructed as a JV between Turner Construction and AECOM Hunt, the stadium has 70,240 seats, and can expand to 100,240 for major events like the Super Bowl. The stadium also has 260 executive suites and is designed to withstand seismic activity. 

The field is sunk below ground to protect it from potential earthquake damage and to avoid interrupting the flight pattern of planes approaching the nearby Los Angeles International Airport. A massive, 2.2 million-pound Samsung video board is suspended from the roof directly over the field.

Rick Bach, senior leader on the build for Turner, told Construction Dive ahead of last year’s game “I don’t think there’s a bad seat in the house.” 

2021: Raymond James Stadium
Location: Tampa, Florida
Cost: $168.5 million
Opened: 1998
Also hosted in: 2009, 2001

Before Tampa hosted the big game two years ago, the Tampa Sports Authority kicked off an effort to modernize and upgrade the venue's offerings. Changes included a new field drainage system, LED lighting, higher definition video boards and improved seating. 

Then, sparked by an increased demand for ticket sales, the stadium underwent a minor renovation to add 3,600 seats, bringing the total up to 70,000, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported. 

2020: Hard Rock Stadium
Location: Miami Gardens, Florida
Cost: $115 million
Opened: 1987
Also hosted in: 2010, 2007, 1999, 1995, 1989

First opened in 1987 as Joe Robbie Stadium, the Miami’ Dolphins’ home turf has gone through several name changes. Constructed for $115 million at the time, according to StadiumDB.com, Hard Rock Stadium has also seen a number of renovations over the course of its history. 

Most recently from 2015 to 2016, a $400 million upgrade included removal and replacement of almost all of the seats, upgraded amenities and new video boards. Today the stadium seats 65,000.

2019: Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Location: Atlanta
Cost: $1.5 billion
Opened: 2017

The home of the Atlanta Falcons opened in August of 2017 and pushed up against the regular season start due to delays constructing the dome’s retractable roof. Nevertheless, Mercedes-Benz stadium was the first LEED Platinum-certified stadium and first sports venue to earn 100% of the U.S. Green Building Council’s water credits. Hunt Construction Group, Holder Construction, H.J. Russell & Co. and Moody Construction Co. worked on the project.

The venue has 71,000 seats, though it can expand to 75,000, according to the stadium’s site. That includes 7,600 club seats and 190 suites. The roof is 14.5 acres, and the scoreboard is 63,800 square feet. Construction took 39 months to complete, and used 27,000 tons of structural steel.

2018: U.S. Bank Stadium
Location: Minneapolis
Cost: $1.2 billion
Opened: 2016

The Minnesota Vikings got $975 million in funding approved for a new stadium in May 2012, and the overall project cost was about $1.2 billion. The project broke ground in 2013 and took two and a half years to complete, according to the venue’s website, with over 8,000 construction workers pouring in an estimated 3.8 million work hours. 

The stadium seats about 67,000, but can expand to nearly 73,000. Mortenson Construction served as general contractor.

2017: NRG Stadium
Location: Houston
Cost: $352 million
Opened: 2002
Also hosted in: 2004

Manhattan Construction Co. and Skanska worked two years to complete what is known today as NRG Stadium, opening for the Houston Texans in 2002, according to StadiumDB.com. The arena has a capacity of 72,200 and 197 suites with a total area of 1.9 million square feet, according to the stadium’s official site.

Fabric-covered steel makes up the venue’s 500-foot-by-385-foot retractable roof, which takes seven minutes to open — the first of its kind in the league, according to NFL.com. Following Hurricane Ike in September 2008, $10 million in renovations were needed to repair what was then called Reliant Stadium, including $4 million for the roof.

2016: Levi’s Stadium
Location: Santa Clara, California
Cost: $1.43 billion
Opened: 2014

Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, broke ground in April 2012 and opened in July 2014, according to the stadium’s official website. The venue seats 68,500 total, and has 9,000 club seats, 174 suites and 11 premium clubs. It was built by a Turner-led joint venture.

Two years after it opened, Levi’s Stadium received LEED-Gold certifications for operations and maintenance of an existing building. Over 400 miles of data cable runs through the stadium, with 70 miles of cable supporting WiFi.

Dive Brief:

• Ford will invest $3.5 billion to build its first lithium iron phosphate EV battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, as part of a $50 billion effort to grow its EV business by 2026. 
• The introduction of LFP batteries will bring Ford a second battery option within its EV lineup, adding to its existing nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) option. 
• The plant, owned by a Ford subsidiary, is slated to begin production in 2026 using knowledge and services provided by China-based battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL).  

Dive Insight:

Ford lauded the addition of LFP battery capabilities as a way to make EVs more affordable and accessible to customers. Lithium-ion batteries powered by the NCM cocktail of components are known to have a more powerful range than LFP, but are more expensive.  

"This lower-cost battery, at scale, will help Ford contain or even further reduce EV prices for customers," according to the release. "These LFP batteries will power a variety of affordable, next-generation Ford EV passenger vehicles and trucks under development, most of which will be assembled in the U.S."

The automaker plans to introduce LFP batteries in its Mustang Mach-E this year and F-150 Lightning in 2024, before the start of production at the Marshall plant.

Once at full capacity, the plant aims to produce enough batteries to power 400,000 vehicles a year, aided by CATL’s industry capabilities. The company is one of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, with 13 plants across China, Germany and Hungary, according to its website. 

The Marshall facility is expected to hire 2,500 workers, a move applauded by United Automobile Workers Union President Ray Curry. 

“Ford got it right by building this plant right here in Michigan,” UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement.  “We supported the public investment into this facility as we know it will create good paying union jobs that will benefit the community and maintain strong wage and benefit standards in the auto industry.”

Ford's investment comes only months after the groundbreaking of its $5.6 billion EV "mega-campus" in Tennessee. The automaker and its tech partners have spent $17.6 billion on its EV business since 2019.