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August 3, 2016 • Vol. XXIX • No. 16 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
Lesner Bridge Project to Serve 40,000 Drivers By Eric Olson CEG CorrEspondEnt
Crews Work to Com plete U.S. 321 in N.C. …8
Considered one of the most important projects for duke Energy, the combined-cycle natural gas plant in Citrus County, Fla., is among the largest under construction in the industry. the $1.5 billion, state-of-theart plant will supply 1,640 megawatts of electricity to help serve the state’s approximately 1.7 million customers in 2018. “the one message about this project is our commitment to transforming the customer experience, modernizing the electric grid, generating with cleaner energy,” said Alex Glenn, duke
More than 40,000 vehicles a day pass over the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach, many of them carrying people to and from the popular oceanfront. A large number of people from all over the state, including nearby norfolk and richmond, as well as the Washington, d.C., area, drive over the two parallel spans in order to reach the sun and surf on the Atlantic ocean. At this time of year, traffic can be quite heavy for the four-lane shore drive that runs across the bridges. Another factor is that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-tunnel, just a short distance to the west of the Lesner Bridge, funnels a large volume of vehicles into the area from the Eastern shores of Virginia and Maryland to the north. then there is the ancient age of the Lesner Bridge spans, ravaged for decades by saltwater and coastal storms. After all of that is considered, the need to update the overpasses is undeniable. so, 68 years after the current eastbound span
see DUKE page 88
see LESNER page 80
Duke Energy photo
Mike Delowery, Duke Energy vice-president, project management and construction, said, “It represents for us a chance to build our most advanced combined-cycle plant on the Duke system.”
SJ&L Takes Guesswor k Out of Grading…12
Duke Energy Builds $1.5B Natural Gas Plant in Fla. By Cindy Riley
CEG CorrEspondEnt
Fi rm Hosts Orl ando Car Clu b…34
Table of Contents ............4
Industry Spending Up for First Five Months of 2016 Construction spending dipped in May but
there will be plenty of activity in the remainder
unchanged for the month and 9.9 percent high-
five months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the construction spending gains come amid signs that contractors are having an increasingly hard time finding qualified workers to hire. “Mild winter weather in many regions early in 2016, followed by extreme rains in some locations in May, has probably distorted monthly spending patterns but shouldn’t mask the robust widespread growth in demand for construction so far this year,” said Ken simonson, the association’s chief economist. “It appears
they need.” Construction spending in May totaled $1.143 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, 0.8 percent lower than the April total, simonson said. He added that spending totals for April and March were each revised up by nearly 2 percent in the July 1 report from the Census Bureau, casting doubt that the reported drop from April to May is accurate. He suggested the year-todate increase of 8.2 percent for January through May 2016, compared with the same months of 2015, provides a truer picture of the industry’s condition. private residential spending was virtually
dential construction increased 1.8 percent for the month and 24 percent year-to-date, while singlefamily spending fell 1.3 percent from April to May but rose 12 percent year-to-date. private nonresidential construction spending decreased 0.7 percent for the month but climbed 9.2 percent year-to-date. the largest private nonresidential segment in May was power construction (including oil and gas pipelines), which slipped 0.2 percent for the month but rose 9.4 percent year-to-date. the next-largest segment, manufacturing, lost 1.9 percent for the month and 0.8 percent year-to-date.
Paving Section ..........39-51 posted strong, broad-based gains for the first of 2016 — if contractors can find the workers er year-to-date. spending on multifamily resiBackhoes & Attachments Section ......................55-69 Business Calendar ........92 Auction Section ......96-101 Advertisers Index ........102
see SPENDING page 70