Off the beaten path A longtime joint venture is tackling a new challenge: building an upscale condo and hotel project hours from a major city and between two active ski mountains. Keith Regan learns how PCL Construction Services and CFC Construction are using their individual and collective strengths to do everything short of moving mountains.

Building on a reputation Pavarini McGovern is a mid-sized construction management firm with the capabilities of a larger player and the senior management involvement of a smaller one. As Keith Regan learns, the soon-to-be-completed Smyth Hotel is a glittering example of what can happen when those attributes are combined.

The Ontario Clean Water Agency relies on staff experience and continuous IT investment to service more than 500 utility locations in the Province of Ontario. Linda Seid Frembes finds out moreWater ÔÇöit sustains life and plays an important role in our environment, but most people take it for granted. No matter what time of day, it is expected that clean, clear water will pour from the faucet every time the tap is turned on.

Winds of change┬áKeeping up with growing demand is an interesting problem to have in a declining economy, Moventas Wind Gear Service vice president Juha Paananen explains to Gary Toushek. The wind turbine industry has been enjoying steadily escalating growth during the last decade in the US and Canada, and it was recently spurred on by the alternative energy strategy of President Obama. Component manufacturers like Moventas, based in Jyv├ñskyl├ñ, Finland, are trying their best to keep up with demand.

Between a rock and a hard place┬áAlthough thereÔÇÖs plenty of lucrative building work in Las Vegas, itÔÇÖs not always possible to get complete and unfettered access to the site, as Alan T Swaby learns. From a vacationerÔÇÖs point of view, possibly one of the biggest turn-offs possible is to find construction work taking place at the resort youÔÇÖve chosen. By the same token, few if any resort owners can afford to shut their premises down while major refurbishments are taking place.

The long viewThe Three-Sixty Residences luxury high-rise condo development in downtown San Jose, California, is a positive public-private partnership in an urban setting, Gary Toushek discovers. Chicago-based Mesa Development is providing San Jose, California, with one of its first downtown luxury condo high-rises, and it happens to be one of the tallest residential buildings in the city. It also happens to be on a previously underutilized parking lot that the city had slated for redevelopment, so everyone wins.

A whole new crossing┬áBrendan A. Smith learns about the contribution being made to a new mixed use property development by a local site developer, McManus Excavating Company. The famous town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, will soon be Cape AnnÔÇÖs premier retail destination, and a local site work development company is playing a vital role.

In the pipeline┬áMacro Industries is at the heart of the oil and gas extraction that is driving CanadaÔÇÖs economy from some of its remotest regions: terrain that demands special expertise and flexibility. John OÔÇÖHanlon looks at the company and the industry. The stone flung into the world economy has rippled every part of it, and the energy sector is no exception.

Heart of the city┬áThe face and appearance of Louisiana is being renewed after the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and Lemoine Company is very much part of it, Ruari McCallion discovers. When Hurricane Katrina blew into town in August 2005, with 175-mph winds and a record storm surge, it devastated New Orleans and cut a swathe of destruction across Louisiana and west into Texas.

Joining up┬áPeriods of financial difficulty are often good times for military recruitment, but Ledcor San Diego Construction Group is finding the military helpful in overcoming its own difficulties, as Alan T Swaby learns. Despite being 80 percent complete, when Lehman Brothers went under on September 15 last year, work on a new Ritz-Carlton hotel near Palm Springs, California, stopped overnight.