News

We are honored to be one of three finalists under the “Battle Born” category at this year’s Nevada Business Awards! The Battle Born award recognizes companies that have been in business for more than 25 years, and we are thrilled to be in the Top 3 considered for this honor.

Thank you, Nevada Business Magazine! The team at United Construction looks forward to attending the awards luncheon in May.

A full list of the finalists, and more information about this awards program, can be viewed HERE.

Work on the grounds of the planned 664,000-square-foot inventory facility in North Las Vegas continues onwards into the new year, reaching new milestones and exciting moves. According to Superintendent Colton Brock, crews have 150,000 yards of export remaining out of their 430,000-yard operation, with under-slab utilities set to be installed at the end of February. Concrete is also on the horizon soon.

Towards the end of last year, crews also commenced rock blasting to quickly and cost-effectively remove rock from the site, which helped them immensely with an efficient mass grading process.

Colton happily reported, “It’s nice to have seen this progress during and after the lengthy grading portion of this project!”

Check out the most recent drone flyover of the site of the industrial project here, some awe-striking footage of the rock blasting here, and photos below!

 

United Construction is happily now on display in the rink at the Jennifer M. O’Neal Community Ice Arena (commonly known as “Reno Ice”) – and right next the Reno Ice Raiders Hockey Club, no less! We are the proud builders of Reno Ice, and of course, proud supporters of the NHL-regulation arena and their first semipro adult hockey team.

The Reno Ice Raiders are a semipro Senior A hockey team that relocated to Reno from Northern California this fall. They wasted no time at all and quickly moved to our NHL-regulation arena when it was complete – an exciting milestone!

As we kick off 2022, we are going full steam ahead with our renovations and expansions to Swope Middle School.

“We are anticipating great progress at Swope continuing to shape up throughout 2022,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “We’d like to thank all our partners, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, for coming along on this journey with us and celebrating the milestones thus far.”

In regards to the new two-story classroom building (pictured above), structural steel erection has started. As a reminder, the building will be the new home for a resource center, math and science classrooms, technology lab, new teachers’ lounge and workspace, social science and language classrooms, a group room for various activities and a hub space.

Site crews have begun HVAC demo and replacement in the attic space within the existing school. Mechanical, plumbing and electrical upgrades are also progressing well within the current school grounds. This work will continue through the end of summer.

The remodeled and expanded kitchen is almost complete, and crews are gearing up for the facilities being ready to use by staff in the coming months.

Crew members are prepared for further winter weather in case more snow is forecasted throughout the season. Safety continues to be a top priority for United Construction and subcontractors.

Drone photo by Ryland Sweigard

Progress is moving full steam ahead at the Park at McCarran project site, located on the corner of Mill Street and McCarran Blvd in Reno. Crews recently commenced the project’s very first concrete slab pour, and more progress is quickly and efficiently afoot. The two-building design-build project will total more than 350,000 square feet of industrial space upon completion.

Check out Park at McCarran’s first drone update video here as well as corresponding photos below!

While the weather stays in the high 40s and low 50s here in Reno, we Northern Nevadans know better than to expect it to stay that way the rest of the winter season. To gear up for another impending cold front, let’s reveal another cold weather construction tip from Superintendent Nick Crawford.

According to Nick, a more extraordinary solution for extreme weather issues is to lime treat soil/base to keep it from getting too wet. He decided to look into this option on a previous industrial project he worked on. He found a company to do cement treatment to the soil and found that the price point for this treatment was well worth the result, as it saved the project in the long run. In the end, Nick and his team treated more than 1 million square feet of building slab. The pad was now, as he says, “bulletproof!”

Superintendent Nick Crawford is back with another cold weather construction tip – the first one of 2022. According to Nick, “Protecting soils from freezing can be a challenge. While using concrete blankets can help, it’s not a foolproof solution. Instead, try using hydronic ground heaters to warm up the soil.”

Another solution Nick has used is temporarily tenting slab pours and panel pours. This way, he is able to apply heat within the tent to get temperatures where they need to be in order to place concrete or bond breaker on the slab.
Stay tuned for more winter construction tips from us throughout the season!

While the month of December has brought the Swope Middle School construction team rapidly-changing weather, crews are still on track to deliver key milestones on time for the students and staff. With continual snowfall, United Construction and our subcontractors remain committed to safety.

“Safety is of utmost importance to our entire team, and with snow affecting our line of work, safety is especially at the forefront,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “We take no shortcuts and always ensure everyone onsite practices the highest quality safety measures, especially in extreme weather.”

Crews are almost complete with masonry walls for the new two-story classroom building. Scaffolding went vertical this month as well, which you can see depicted in the picture above. Additionally, the structural steel erection will start during the first part of January.

Mechanical, plumbing and electrical upgrades for the existing classrooms continue onwards. The team is working on an afternoon swing shift after school hours with a focus on replacing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Site crews completed early morning concrete pours at the beginning of this month. We will ensure neighbors are made aware of any future early morning concrete work at the school.

Drone photo by Ryland Sweigard

 

We are thrilled to announce that United Construction is officially a TOP 3 Construction Firm in Northern Nevada! This recognition comes from the Northern Nevada Business Weekly’s 2021 Best in Business awards, an annual awards program that recognizes the companies and local business leaders that have had a vital impact in the regional business community.

Early last month, our supporters and followers like you voted us into the Top 10 list of best construction firms – now, your strong support has let us go even further, bumping us into the Top 3. Once again, we thank you all for being our champion and believing in what we do as a best-in-class design-builder!

Our award, along with the many other companies that achieved this honor in their respective categories, can be found HERE.

Up here in our HQ city of Reno, we not only celebrated a true “White Christmas” with the snowy conditions on Christmas Day – we also welcomed more than two feet of snow in some parts of town over the weekend! As such, now is the perfect time to discuss some of our tips for cold weather construction.

Holding about 25 years of experience, Superintendent Nick Crawford has some expert pieces of advice for navigating construction projects during inclement weather, such as snowstorms, that we will be sharing with you periodically during the winter. Here is his first tip:

“Knowing the weather patterns for your specific jobsite – including having a game plan for protecting the site by making sure you have positive drainage on the site – is a must. Snow can be easy to deal with, as it can be plowed and removed from the site, but if left to melt before removal, it poses risks to work already in place. You could end up with melted snow saturating soil that is already over the optimum moisture content. The best solution? 9 times out of 10, plowing the snow is the way to go!”

Stay tuned for more cold weather construction tips from United Construction throughout the season!