Construction Reporter News

Roadrunner Food Bank

by Tami Brunk

Since Construction Reporter’s visit with Roadrunner Food Bank last October to see the installation of their impressive photovoltaic system up close and personal, they’ve been hard at work implementing phase two of their greening initiatives. It seems they will leave no stone unturned in their quest to go full-out green!

The big initiatives for 2012 have been to audit and increase fuel efficiency of their large fleet that ferries food across New Mexico; to implement a xeriscape design in front of their building to reduce their water footprint; and to expand their recycling program as an income generator for their programs; On their wish list would be to replace and insulate their roof, enabling future photovoltaic installations.

Overlapping Project

The xeriscaping project is complete, thanks to Heads Up Landscaping for provision of gravel and material at cost and donation of a landscape design, plants paid for through a Keeping America Beautiful grant, Lowes for sprinkler materials, volunteers for installing the project, and Laurence Budd for fixing the sprinkler system. The project will result in a $25,000 rebate from the City of Albuquerque and a water footprint reduction between 1.1 and 1.7 million gallons per year.

Green Fleet Initiative

The “green fleet” initiative is rolling along, with expected savings of up to 18% less fuel expenses once all measures are implemented. An EPA grant will cover the cost of replacing all tires with installing fairings on all trucks to improve gas mileage. Sprint provided a discount on embedded GPS systems to promote more efficient driving patterns, while a sophisticated technological retooling of the entire food delivery and pickup system should accomplish a substantial chunk of fuel savings.

Composting and Recycling Facilities

Roadrunner has worked the bugs out of their composting and recycling programs, so much so that they are now accepting recycling materials from a number of local businesses and making a profit from that as well. Where they previously spent about $100,000 annually in landfill fees, they now spend only about $20,000. By 2013, they expect income generated from their expanded recycling operations to offset remaining landfill and composting costs completely.

Greening as Cost Saving Strategy

At the helm of Roadrunner’s impressive greening program is purchasing manager Teresa Johansen. She’s clearly a whiz at systems transformation, from her previous life in the corporate world. She oversaw large-scale IT implementation for NetFlicks. Previous to that, she changed out Capitol One’s operating system. She’s taught herself to write grants, and sees the long term cost savings of the greening projects as equally important to fundraising.

“You just can’t write a check for the kind of long term savings that we get from all the donations from corporate sponsors that have been part of these green initiatives.” The long term cost savings from the recycling program, reduced water bill, reduced electrical costs from last year’s energy efficiency projects, and fuel costs from ongoing fleet retrofits will translate to millions of meals into the future. Construction industry partners can make a significant contribution at this time.

New Roof Partnership Opportunity

“We’re always looking for partnerships—if there are groups that don’t have the capability of implementing recycling on their own, for example, and want to work with us, we can help them set up parameters to use our recycling facilities.” Yet the biggest goal on the horizon for Roadrunner remains energy-efficiency for their large warehouse, which has an old tar roof with no substantial insulation. This results in high electric costs as well as reduced shelf life for food in the hot warehouse during the summer months.

“I’d like somebody to replace our whole roof, insulate it, and make it reflective. That would enable us to install a much bigger array. It would be a fantastic project.” Currently, the Food Bank is limited in their capacity to integrate solar panels because of the age of the 166,000 square foot. Their current annual electric costs are about $150,000. The current PV panel will reduce their bill by about 5%, but replacement and installation of the roof would lead to much higher cost savings.

“Having a new roof gives us flexibility to add to our solar array down the line. The roof is aging and updating it will help with our long-term efficiencies. If you would like to contact Roadrunner for possible assistance with recycling needs, to help them build a new roof, or learn about other partnership opportunities, contact Teresa Johansen at 505.349.8897.

Contact: Nick Blea at Lone Mountain Contracting, Inc. 505-450-5300, nick@lonemountain.com

Eco-Park

Ellicott City, MD – Several projects built by Lone Mountain Contracting, Inc., (LMC) located in Bosque Farms, NM have been recognized as winners in the American Sports Builders Association’s (ASBA) annual awards program. ASBA, of which LMC is a member, is the national organization for builders, designers and suppliers of materials for athletic facilities. Awards are presented each year to facilities built by ASBA members, which best exemplify construction excellence. The award-winning projects built by LMC are the Taos Alexander Gusdorf Eco Park, Questa High School Multi Field Facility, and the Taos High School Multi Field Facility.

Presentation of awards was made at the ASBA Technical Meeting, recently held in Palm Desert, California. A panel of ASBA members judged entries anonymously. Projects were scored individually based on considerations such as layout and design, site work, drainage, base construction, surface, amenities, innovation and overall impression. Winning entries were those whose cumulative scores meet or exceed the standard.

LMC was presented with an award in the distinguished sports field category for its work on the Eco Park and in the distinguished multi-purpose field category for its work on the Questa High School multi-purpose field. Alexander Gusdorf Eco Park also received the Green Facility of the Year Award for 2011.

Alexander Gusdorf Park - Taos

The Alexander Gusdorf Eco Park is the highest altitude FIFA 2-Star training facility in the world. This outstanding facility will not only be a utilized by the local community and NM residents, but will also draw professional and international soccer teams for training in high altitude environments.

Questa High Sports Facility is a multiuse facility incorporating synthetic turf for football, soccer, and baseball, as well as a polyurethane synthetic track. These eco friendly fields will require minimum maintenance and are useable year round. Other school districts have recognized Questa’s sports facilities and the quality of craftsmanship, and are looking at the Questa Fields as a model for their own facilities.

“I’m very pleased to have received this national recognition for these facilities.” said Nick Blea, LMC president. “I credit the quality of the installations to our entire LMC team in the field and in the office and their dedication to quality in all aspects of our operations.”

LMC is a 38-year-old organization that designs and builds a variety of sports facilities, including tennis courts, basketball courts, playgrounds, running tracks, ball fields and more. It also provides maintenance; repairs and upkeep on facilities, and provides consultations for owners with questions relating to their sports facilities.

For more information about LMC or about its projects and services, contact Nick Blea at 505-450-5300, nick@lonemountain.com

Steve Adams presents Carolyn Robbins Siegel with the iPad 2.

Carolyn Robbins Siegel of Siegel Design Architects was the winner of the iPad2 drawing on 11/11/11. 

We want to thank everyone who participated in the event and took the time to investigate what Construction Reporter is doing to assist the architects, engineers and construction community in our area to find opportunities. The current economic situation virtually requires that we all work together to enhance communication among owners, designers, architects, engineers, contractors, suppliers and support industries to bring about a synergy of our combined talents, communication networks, and skill sets that will enable us as a group to rise to a level of cooperation which has not existed previously.

Construction Reporter realizes the importance of a communication network and is determined to be a leader in bringing this about.  We now offer a Premium Design Service focused on the needs of the design community.  We understand every firm needs projects, and we are committed to developing and delivering new leads sources so that more opportunities are available to local firms, and more work stays in our community.

Your feedback during this process is critically important to us; we want to be sure the services we implement are actually useful in helping you grow your business, so pick up the phone and let us know what kinds of work YOUR firm is looking for.  Construction Reporter has served the community since 1949, consistently delivering news and services through the ups and downs of many economic cycles.  Help us help you and we will all grow through this together.

by Sunny Hill

Last Thursday evening there was a very special event happening!  Oct. 20^thmarked the third annual Canstruction Event, and it was a HUGE success!  CH2M Hill hosted, organized, and helped to sponsor this “food” and undraising event to benefit our local Roadrunner Food Bank.  Many thanks to Jennifer House who was the lead organizer of this event! 

There were several build and design teams that participated. Congratulations to them all for a job well done!  Although not everyone walked away with a prize, every team was a winner!  They all had fun and helped raise money, $380 in cash, and they collected literally TONS of food; 6595 pounds, over 3 TONS, that will go to help people right here in our community.  All food items and cash collected at this event are donated to Roadrunner Food Bank.  Here is a listing of the donation of cans by weight for each team:

City of Albuquerque- 1754

Bohannan Houston- 1502

Girl Scouts – 1470

CH2MHILL- 1077

US Forest Service – 554

OCCAM- 482

PR Newswire- 190

Best In Show

The Girl Scouts came away with the “Best in Show” trophy for their Canstruction of the “Old Town Gazebo at Christmas”, they were also superior bribers of the judges!  

Best Use of Labels

Bohannan Houston won the prize for “Best use of Labels” with their Canstruction of a cemetery wall that spelled out “Day Of The Dead” and created tombstones for all the other teams in the competition.   

City of Albuquerque - Most Structurally Sound

The City of Albuquerque,  with their USS Albuquerque Submarine Canstruction for Veteran’s Day captured the “Most Structurally Sound Design” category win.

US Forrest Service - Twin Towers/US Flag

The US Forest Service Team Canstructed a very moving depiction for Patriot Day of the US Flag and the Twin Towers. The judges were moved to award them the prize for “Best depiction of Theme”.  They also get an unofficial award for perseverance and determination since they had to re-build after a disastrous collapse, which this judge thought was even more appropriate considering their design! 

US Newswire - New Mexico State Flag

The US Newswire Team made a valiant effort with their Canstruction of the New Mexico State Flag for their theme of Flag Day.  Unfortunately, their flag “waved” a bit too much and crumbled during the judging. 

CH2MHill - Spirit of Christmas!

CH2M Hill and Occam Engineering Teamscertainly had the “Christmas Spirit” with their matching Christmas Tree Canstructions.  They were resplendent with lights and gifts under the trees, and the judges cheerfully awarded them both “Honorable Mention” trophies The “People’s Choice” Award went, for the second year, to the US Forest Service Team for collecting the most cash donations during the event. Congratulations to the US Forest Service! All in all it was a terrific way to spend an evening.  .

Thanks to all the teams for all their hard work designing, collecting cans and money, and building the Canstructures!  Let’s do it again next year!  CH2MHill will again be organizing the event for next year.  We will be posting updates on the planning for next year’s event.  If you are interested in participating by having a team, helping to organize, advertise, or in any other capacity, please contact Jennifer House after the first of the year.  Let’s all work together to make next year’s event bigger and better than ever! 

Occam Engineering - Spirit of Christmas

Check out the link below:

http://www.deeproot.com/products/silva-cell/silva-cell-overview.html?_kk=sustainable%20architecture&_kt=ef441ab7-88a2-4e3b-8056-82607d626c2b&gclid=CKTotJeKyKoCFfMZQgod8BTB0w

CANstruction is using one can of food as a catalyst for change. One can to represent the building blocks of massive sculptures. One can to prove that every act of kindness makes a difference. Since 1992, CANstruction has contributed over 15 million pounds of food to community food banks demonstrating that we can win the fight against hunger. CANstruction, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that holds annual design and build competitions to construct fantastic, giant sized, structures made entirely out of canned food. In each city after the structures are built and the winners declared the creations go on view to the general public as giant art exhibits. At the close of the competitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to the local food banks for distribution to community emergency feeding programs.

CANstruction is supported by the Society for Design Administration SDA, the American Institute of Architects AIA, the American Council of Engineering Companies ACEC, National Society of Professional Estimators NSPE, The American Society of Professional Estimators ASPE, Association of General Contractors AGC, American Builders and Contractors ABC, NUCA,ASA, ASID, NAWIC,SMPS, and other industry organizations.

Join us in our participation and support of this great event here in Albuquerque.  CH2M Hill is the sponsoring company for the CANstruction event that is scheduled for October, 2011.  Please join them and these other organizations and companies in the effort to make this a hugely successful event here in Albuquerque:  Occam Engineering, AMEC, PR Newswire, The National Forest Service, Girl Scouts of America, Bohannon Houston, Construction Reporter.  Put together a team to build a “CANstructure”, help with planning, fundraising, etc.  For more information about how you can help and/or participate please contact Jennifer House 505-884-5600, email Jennifer.house@ch2m.com or call construction reporter 505-243-9793 ask for Sunny or Sarah or email us sunny@constructionreporter.com sarah@constructionreporter.com