$200 Million in Contracts Awarded at Los Alamos Labs

Six subcontracts were awarded to augment in-house design engineering capabilities at LANL.

Merrick Awarded Sub-Contract at LANL

Merrick & Co. was one of six offerors recently awarded a sub-contract to provide engineering and architecture services to Los Alamos National Security LLC, the prime contractor for operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The $200 million in sub-contracts, which run for a five-year period, call for the companies to augment in-house design engineering capabilities at LANL.

Spaceport Plans T or C Visitor Center

The Board of Directors of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority will establish a welcome center for Spaceport America in downtown Truth or Consequences. The NMSA has agreed to lease an old fire station from the city government. A welcome center is also planned for the village of Hatch, which is on the southern approach to Spaceport America.

“We budgeted $500,000 for the Sierra County/T or C welcome center, and we will review renovating the approximately 6,000-sq-ft firehouse if we can,” says Steve Landeene, executive director of the NMSA. He adds if the building can’t be renovated economically, other options for the site may need to be explored. The city of T or C will invest $175,000 to grade and construct parking facilities capable of supporting a minimum of fifty spaces for the welcome center. The fire station location is highly visible in the downtown area, and the center is hoped to further the city’s downtown revitalization.

Ascension Group Completes Roswell Project

Ascension Group Architects completed work on the $8.5-million expansion and renovation of Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell.

Work included a 14,500-sq-ft expansion of the emergency department, featuring three trauma rooms, 16 exam rooms and a computerized tomography room. Space also was left for a chest X-ray room in the future.

Another 3,700 sq ft involved minor renovations to the hospital.

Thornburg Campus Achieves LEED Gold

The Thornburg Campus has been awarded LEED gold certification. The office building will use 47% less energy and 43% less water than a typical office building and 90% of construction waste was recycled.

The Campus features significant environmental elements throughout the interior and exterior of the building. Noteworthy interior features include a highly efficient underfloor air delivery system, sensor-controlled T5 lighting, operable windows, low-emitting materials and extensive controlled daylighting. Passive water harvesting, an underground cistern and an outdoor porous paving system allow the campus to reduce outdoor water use and direct water back into the community aquifer.

The campus, designed by Ricardo Legorreta, focuses on honoring the beauty of Santa Fe’s natural environment while incorporating the latest in building technology and design. Local architecture and construction firms Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and Klinger Constructors brought the project to life.

“The precision of Legorreta’s design, and the complexity of the building’s systems, required the design and construction team to work together to achieve the LEED and performance goals and integrate the sustainable features seamlessly into the architectural design,” says Julie Walleisa, an architect with Dekker/Perich/Sabatini who managed the LEED effort.

Six Stimulus Projects Added

Six additional NMDOT projects will be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with $24 million in surplus money from other stimulus funded highway projects that came in below estimates. The money will be divided up equally between the six transportation districts for pavement preservation projects over a total of 84 miles.

Construction will include: I-10 from mile marker 116-124 in Dona Ana County; N.M. 206 from mile 41-68 in Roosevelt County; I-25 from mile 184-202 in Valencia County; U.S. 64 from mile 404-417 in Union County; U.S. 491 from mile 77-90 (northbound) in San Juan County; and I-40 from mile 40-45 in McKinley County.

The McKinley County project will go out to bid in November with construction anticipated in March 2010. The remaining projects are expected to be awarded within the next six months.

To submit news items and press releases, please email to: scott_blair@mcgraw-hill.com.