Survey Shows U.S. Construction Costs Are World’s Highest

Tamlyn Named Best Family-owned Business by Texas Journal

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Saint-Gobain Plans $235 Million Expansion of Florida CertainTeed Plant

National Science Foundation Awards Funding for Cold-formed Steel Performance-based Fire Design

CFSEI Announces Winners of 2023 Design Excellence and Creative Detail Awards

AD Closes Merger With Baron Group

Saint-Gobain Plans $235 Million Expansion of Florida CertainTeed Plant

Saint-Gobain North America announced plans to invest $235 million over the next two years to expand its CertainTeed gypsum manufacturing facility in Palatka, Florida, more than doubling the facility’s production capacity and creating more than 100 new jobs.

In a July 10 news release, Saint-Gobain said the expansion of manufacturing and warehouse space in Palatka, located near the Port of Jacksonville, comes as the concern continues implementing its global ‘Grow and Impact’ strategy.

The company said sustainability will be a key component of the expansion project, in line with its pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2050. Saint-Gobain said the CertainTeed expansion would include installing best-in-class energy-saving equipment and automation technology. Among other energy-saving additions are an ultra-low energy board dryer, expected to be about 25 percent more efficient than the plant’s existing dryer, and a new mill system expected to be nearly 40 percent more efficient; aligned with the most efficient systems of its type in North America.

“Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to providing quality gypsum wallboard products to our customers while remaining focused on sustainability and minimizing our carbon footprint,” said Jay Bachmann, vice president and general manager of CertainTeed Interior Products Group. “We look forward to growing our already robust presence in Palatka and Putnam County and would like to thank the State of Florida and all of our partners for their support to make this expansion a reality.”

The project is aided by more than $7 million in cash benefits and high-impact investment tax credits, including a State of Florida Capital Investment Tax Credit, a Career Source Florida Quick Response Training Grant, a grant from Putnam County and a Clay Cooperative Economic Development Rate.

“Today’s announcement is a strategic investment for Florida-based manufacturing that will continue to fuel Florida’s economic growth,” said Florida Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly. “Supporting the growth of vital industries, diversifying local economies and careers for Floridians — we are pleased to support the creation of more than 100 new employment opportunities for Palatka residents.”

The company said the Palatka facility, which began operations in 2001 and currently employs more than 150 people, is one of the largest gypsum plants in the southeastern United States.

“We are excited to join the community in congratulating CertainTeed on the expansion at its Putnam County Plant,” said Commissioner Terry Turner, chairman of Putnam County Board of County Commissioners. “CertainTeed has been a longstanding valued member of our county and has achieved great success here.”

“We are thrilled to see our local commercial gypsum manufacturing facility continue to excel,” Turner added. “Putnam County is proud to have played a small part in creating an atmosphere that allows CertainTeed to reach new heights.”

For more information, visit saint-gobain.com.

National Science Foundation Awards Funding for Cold-formed Steel Performance-based Fire Design

A research project progressing from the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Small Project/Fellowship Program has received significant funding through the National Science Foundation to advance performance-based fire design for cold-formed steel structures. Thomas Gernay, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, was named a recipient of the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Award for nearly $580,000 over five years. The award will enable research to develop an advanced science-based framework for assessing the fire performance of cold-formed steel structures that results in more accurate modeling to ensure increased public safety, resource efficiency and resilience. The NSF award will run from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2028.

The NSF funding will allow Gernay to build on research initiated through a 2021 AISI Small Project/Fellowship Program award for “Structural Design for Fire Conditions of a Prototype Metal Building Using the New Proposed Appendix to AISI S100, North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members.” AISI’s Small Project/Fellowship Program identifies and provides funding for research projects that will significantly impact the reliability, performance and cost-competitiveness of cold-formed steel in construction. The research is conducted by teams comprised of students, faculty advisors and steel industry advisors.

“We congratulate Thomas on this significant accomplishment, which will empower him to collect data and methods that answer fundamental questions about the complex fire-thermal-structural interaction in thin-walled members, improve understanding of the mechanics of stability-critical structures in fire and advance simulation capability for CFS structures under physically based design fires,” said Jay Larson, P.E., F.ASCE, managing director of AISI’s Construction Technical Program. “Cold-formed steel structures are traditionally protected from fire based on prescriptive provisions derived from standardized testing. However, this reliance on prescriptive provisions is costly and impedes innovation toward more sustainable and affordable buildings. This NSF research grant will enable performance-based fire design for CFS by developing the capability to quantify the fire behavior of thin-walled framing members. The research also has implications beyond CFS structures.”

“The AISI Small Project/Fellowship Program award provided me with support and industry contacts to explore the application of the principles of performance-based fire design to cold-formed steel structures,” Gernay commented. “Before joining JHU, I had worked extensively on the fire behavior of concrete and hot-rolled steel structures but had no experience with CFS. In 2019, I started working with an AISI task group to develop a fire appendix to the S100 Specification, which allowed me to identify the challenges, research gaps and opportunities with fire and CFS structures that supported the preparation of my CAREER proposal in terms of technical preliminary results and broader impacts. AISI also supported my experimental work with material donations, for which I am grateful. I am looking forward to working closely with AISI in this five-year project to bring performance-based fire design to the CFS community.”

Gernay noted that his collaborators in the 2021 AISI Small Project/Fellowship Program research were JHU Ph.D. student Xia Yan (now a project consultant with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger) and industry advisors Andy Jaworski of Nucor Buildings Group, Nestor Iwankiw of Jensen Hughes and Vincent E. Sagan of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association. The research results are reported in AISI RP22-02: Structural Design for Fire Conditions of a Prototype Metal Building Using the New Proposed Appendix to AISI S100, available for free download here.

CFSEI Announces Winners of 2023 Design Excellence and Creative Detail Awards

The Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute has announced the winners of its 2023 CFSEI Design Excellence and Creative Detail awards. This year’s awards were presented during the 2023 CFSEI Expo held May 8-10 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in New Orleans, Louisiana. The award winners and descriptions of projects are included at cfsei.org.

CFSEI Design Excellence Awards recognize projects that exemplify excellence in the structural design of new or renovated structures utilizing cold-formed steel (CFS) products. Entries are judged on design creativity, technical innovation and overall project excellence in cold-formed steel utilization in the Residential/Hospitality, Commercial, Non-Building Application and Municipal categories, with Municipal subcategories covering cultural, services and sports projects. The Commercial and Non-Building Application categories were added this year.

A description of each of the award-winning CFSEI Design Excellence and Creative Detail projects are provided at cfsei.org/2023-design-excellence-and-creative-design-winners.

“It is exciting to see the continuing growth in the number of submissions, and especially the very high level of expertise and creativity these entries demonstrate,” said Larry Williams, CFSEI managing director and executive director of the Steel Framing Industry Association.

AD Closes Merger With Baron Group

AD announced it has closed its merger with The Baron Group, the premier cooperative serving independent groundwater systems distributors, effective June 30.

The Baron Group has served independent distributors and wholesalers in the groundwater, well and pump industries for over 30 years. The merger agreement brings independent distributors with almost 100 locations across the U.S. and Canada to AD’s Pipe, Valves & Fittings Division.

AD Chairman and CEO Bill Weisberg shared his thoughts on the agreement.

“This is our 14th merger with a fellow cooperative that shares our mission of supporting great independents and suppliers who value independents,” Weisberg said. “We’re excited about how this will increase AD’s collective buying power, bring new opportunities to our supplier partners, generate additional economies of scale and lead to more business together.”

Matthew Beasley, general manager of The Baron Group, spoke about the benefits that the merger will bring to members.

“As part of AD, our members have access to new business opportunities and programs to support their sustained success,” Beasley said. “I’m thrilled for our group to integrate into the AD ecosystem and for the AD community to maximize its potential with this new relationship.”

Survey Shows U.S. Construction Costs Are World’s Highest

The U.S. is the most expensive country for construction, said the latest global cost analysis by U.K. professional services consultant Turner & Townsend, with six American cities now among the list’s top 10—dislodging London and Hong Kong for the first time, Alisa Zevin of Engineering News Record reported.

“These figures have been fueled by the strong U.S. dollar but also the impact of Bidenomics,” the consultant said. Related to the latter, it noted impact of the federal Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act, both enacted in 2022, “as driving investment in secondary markets across the U.S.,” particularly in manufacturing.

“What we’ve seen is this demand really reshaping the global picture of investment,” said John Robbins, managing director and North America head of real estate at Turner & Townsend. “More construction activity is driving up competition and bidding conditions, and now more than half of the top 10 most expensive cities to build in being found in the States.”

New York City ranks highest on the list, with an average building cost of $5,451 per square meter, and San Francisco is closely behind at $5,200 per square meter. Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle also make the top 10, according to the survey. Geneva and Zurich remain in that group from last year but in higher places, while Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, have moved down.

Labor shortages and supply chain issues continue to drive prices up as well. “The competition for skills to deliver a pipeline of contending programs across sectors and state boundaries is compounding the escalation of labor costs,” Robbins said. “Another component in rising prices is the trend to de-risk supply chains with a near-shoring of material procurement. While reducing disruption on one hand, we’ve seen a knock-on impact on costs and availability due to capacity constraints in the chain.”

Going forward, “we’re expecting costs to remain sticky this year, although inflation is easing,” Robbins said. Turner & Townsend, which was acquired by U.S.-based real estate firm CBRE in 2021, expects inflation in North America to reach 5.7 percent this year, down from 10.6 percent in 2022.

The survey sees India, Indonesia and Vietnam as “emerging hotspots for construction activity.”

Tamlyn Named Best Family-owned Business by Texas Journal

Tamlyn received the prestigious “Best Family-Owned Business” award from the Houston Business Journal.

“This recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication and unity that runs through generations,” Tamlyn said. “It’s a true reflection of Tamlyn’s commitment to excellence and our shared vision of success. Thank you to our incredible team, loyal customers and the community for their unwavering support. We look forward to continuing our legacy of quality and service for many more years to come.”