A $740-million expansion of the Mohegan Sun casino complex in Uncasville, Conn., is expected to begin in September 2007 for the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, with Skanska USA Building Inc. serving as construction manager for the $350-million Northern Expansion portion of the project. Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo of Irvine, Calif., is the architect of record. Skanska is responsible for a 1,000-room hotel tower expansion, 115,000 square feet of additional retail and dining space, a 40,000-square-foot office building, and a 3,600-space parking garage. The new hotel joins an existing 34-story, 1,200-room luxury hotel tower. In addition, the project calls for a new 64,000-square-foot Casino of the Wind. Created in 1996 by the Mohegan Tribe, Mohegan Sun is one of the largest entertainment, gaming, shopping, and meeting destinations in the United States. Located on 240 acres along the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut, the complex includes more than 100,000 square feet of meeting and function space, including the Northeast's largest hotel ballroom at 38,000 square feet, and more than 300,000 square feet of gaming. Other amenities are a 10,000-square-foot indoor pool; 20,000-square-foot spa; 130,000 square feet of retail shops; 30 restaurants, food and beverage outlets; and three entertainment venues with seating from 300 to 10,000. When complete in 2010, the Northern Expansion project will have added more than 1.4 million square feet to the existing complex.

Anthony Consigli, president of Consigli Construction, is the new chairman of the board of directors of the Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts. Elected chairman for 2007 – 2008 at the group's annual meeting on Cape Cod, Consigli will be working with AGC's directors, staff and officers William Morash, Linbeck Group, vice chairman; Timothy Bonfatti, RF Walsh Project Management, treasurer; and John Lauring, Lauring Construction, secretary. Consigli plans to focus on the growing issues of the aging construction workforce, and the evolving technology that continues to alter the processes of designing and constructing the more complex buildings of today.

A Boston site has been selected for a wind turbine blade test facility by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Boston-based planning and engineering firm BSC Group provided site selection and planning services to support the state's successful bid to site a new testing facility here as one of two facility locations, the other site being in Texas. The selection of the Massachusetts Port Authority Autoport site in Charlestown marks the end of a competitive process among Maine, Massachusetts and four other states vying for the selection, which comes with $2 million in capital equipment for each blade test facility in addition to technical assistance. The Massachusetts partnership includes the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and the Massachusetts Port Authority. The Boston facility will be equipped to test blades up to 330 feet long. Wind farms in general are a controversial topic in the Bay State, with diverse groups supporting or opposing developer Jim Gordon's Cape Wind project, which would erect 130 giant electricity-generating wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. Located six miles offshore of Nantucket Sound, the project reportedly would provide nearly three-quarters of the electricity used by Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and displace an estimated 2 million barrels of oil each year. The project generally has support from major environmental groups, including the Green Party, with opposition coming from wealthy Cape Cod homeowners.

Tom Descoteaux of R.H. White Construction has been named the Utility Contractor of the Year by The Utility Contractors Association of New England (UCANE). Descoteaux, who has a civil engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Nichols College, is currently vice president with responsibility for risk management, contract administration and human resource management. He is a past president of UCANE. Established in 1923, R.H. White is a contractor and construction management firm with seven locations throughout New England and more than 400 employees. UCANE is a trade association comprised of over 250 contractors and associated business men and women who design, build, finance, insure, bond, and supply materials and equipment to the underground water and sewer construction industry.

Construction is under way on a $140-million St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn., as part of a Master Facility Plan encompassing 125,000 square feet of new construction and 125,000 square feet of clinical space renovation, with work expected to be completed in 2009. Designed by architect Perkins Eastman, the project includes a new, four-story wing for the main hospital and a 600-space garage, and is proceeding under the construction management of Gilbane Building Company of Glastonbury, Conn. Perkins Eastman, an international architecture, urban and interior design firm, and Gilbane Building, one of the largest construction and program managers in the nation, are both active in the steadily growing health care market. According to Jim Haughey, chief economist for Reed Construction Data (parent corporation for New England Construction and 13 other regional construction magazines known collectively as ACP), U.S. health care construction spending registered a seasonally adjusted annual rate topping $41 billion last year, and is expected to continue expanding at a steady 7 percent to 8 percent this year. St. Vincent's Medical Center, a St. Vincent's, a 400-bed acute care, community teaching and referral hospital, is one of hundreds of health care facilities across the United States putting on additions and helping to nudge construction starts up nearly 15 percent year to date and lifting construction spending about 12-percent higher than a year ago.

All Reach Equipment LLC of Hamden, Conn., has been appointed a Lull telehandler dealer by JLG Industries, Inc. All Reach will provide sales and service coverage throughout southeastern Connecticut for three Lull telehandler models with capacities ranging from 6,000 pounds to 10,000 pounds. All three models have a placement system that can move a load 80 inches horizontally at full height without driving or complex maneuvering, according to JLG Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Oshkosh Truck Corporation. JLG manufactures such products as JLG® aerial work platforms; and JLG, SkyTrak®, Lull®, and Gradall® telehandlers.

A defunct paper mill in Brewer, Maine, a city of 9,000 along Maine's Penobscot River, will be resurrected as a modular construction facility providing hundreds of jobs and a boost for the local economy under a plan announced by Brewer officials. Pittsfield, Maine, contractor Cianbro and South Brewer Redevelopment LLC have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together towards a purchase and sale agreement for the former Eastern Fine Paper mill site. Cianbro intends to revitalize the mill site as a modular construction facility for the fabrication and assembly of large modules weighing in excess of 1,000 tons for industrial process plants located in North America and abroad. North Carolina-based Niemann Capital, LLC, the community development firm previously selected for the site, agreed to allow Cianbro to redevelop the Brewer mill site. At one time, there were more than 100 paper mills in the state, with production at some reaching 1,000 tons per day, and one-quarter of Maine's manufacturing workforce employed in the industry. But paper mills and their jobs have been disappearing from Maine for the last 35 years as companies pursued cheaper labor in other parts of the United States and in other countries. The Eastern Fine Paper mill was one of these mills, closing its doors in 2004 after operating as a lumber mill and a paper mill for more than a century. During the years since the mill closed, the site has been the subject of extensive preparation for redevelopment by the South Brewer Redevelopment agency. SBR has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfield program on two environmental assessments leading up to the remediation planning. The first phase of environmental remediation was scheduled to begin this summer with soil remediation, the removal of abandoned above ground fuel storage tanks, and an updated lead and asbestos study. Additional work will take place this summer on the traffic study, road improvements and design of a pier — steel and other construction materials will sail in while finished components sail out on the Penobscot River. Planners expect the site to be fully operational by April 1, 2008.

Grants are available to contractors to buy diesel emission control devices for paving and site preparation equipment, we are reminded by Leo "Butch" Picard, executive director of Massachusetts Aggregate & Asphalt Pavement Association (MAAPA). To be eligible for these grants, Picard says applicants must be Massachusetts Highway Department pre-qualified contractors or subcontractors who own one or more pieces of such non-road paving equipment as pavers, material transfer vehicles, milling machines and rollers, or such roadway site preparation vehicles as dozers, loaders, graders, backhoes, and excavators. To get the grants, contractors must complete a two-step process to confirm their eligibility for the funds. First they must select an approved retrofit vendor and consult with them to determine appropriate diesel retrofit equipment. After the equipment has been evaluated and all evaluation forms are complete, contractors must submit a Request for Response (RFR) to be considered for reimbursements. Readers can obtain an RFR for "Clean Construction" by visiting http://www.comm-pass.com, or by contacting Linda J. Benevides, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Suite 900, 100 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114.