News

This Fall will welcome swift and notable progress at Swope Middle School, as both expansions and new construction continue to go smoothly and efficiently.

“With the new season comes new milestones at Swope,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “Students and staff will be excited to learn that several facilities will be ready to use in the coming weeks, including the new gym. We look forward to even more progress as Fall continues on.”

Site crews have completed excavations at the location of the new two-story classroom building. Workers continue to make progress as the underground utilities are near completion. When finished, the building will house a new resource center, math and science classrooms, a technology lab, a new teachers’ lounge and workspace, social science and language classrooms, a group room for various activities and a hub space.

The remodel and expansion of the kitchen facilities are progressing and making great headway. Additionally, the new gymnasium will be ready for games at the beginning of October, where students can enjoy the revamped basketball hoops, volleyball courts and a scoreboard. The new fitness center will also be ready to use soon.

More concrete slabs will be poured at various locations throughout the month of October. Setting of concrete masonry unit (CMU) block walls will follow directly after the pours are complete and will continue until the end of the calendar year.

United Construction had a lovely time supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada (BBBSNN) at one of their annual Big Chefs Little Galas last weekend. We were a proud sponsor of the event, which raised funds for BBBSNN’s mission: “To create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.” During the pandemic, caring for our community’s children at-risk is even more important, and every dollar raised at the gala is going to help BBBSNN “match at-risk youth with caring adult mentors to help ignite, inspire, and empower their potential.”

Cheers to children!

In recognition of their vast talents and commitment to our team, United Construction is honored to announce that two of our project administrators are being promoted, effective next Monday, September 27.

Carrie Dyer will be our newest Project Engineer, while Audrey Mackey will be our next Operations Administrator.

Carrie began her career with us in September 2019, exactly two years ago. First serving as a Project Administrator, she was integral to several of our key Northern Nevada and Northern California projects, including Swope Middle School Phases 1-3, Berkley International, LogistiCenter at Vacaville and more. With a wide variety of both project and operations experience under her belt, she is well-suited to be our next Project Engineer.

Audrey came to United in February 2020, right before the pandemic first hit, but that certainly didn’t stop her from hitting the ground running. Since joining us, she has been a driving force on many of our Northern and Southern Nevada projects, including Symmetrix, Distribution Circle, Reno Ice and LogistiCenter at Sunset Road. She will be a fantastic asset to the Operations team as the new Operations Administrator.

“Following our company tradition of employee succession, it was an easy task when it came to Carrie and Audrey,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager. “These two have displayed immense leadership in their positions here at United, and we are proud to welcome them into their new roles. We look forward to seeing them accomplish more goals and reach new heights.”

Congratulations, Carrie and Audrey!

Today, September 13, marks the beginning of Construction Appreciation Week in the U.S. This commemorative week “recognizes the dedicated, hard-working men and women instrumental in the development of our infrastructure.” As a leading design-build construction firm in Nevada, we are proud United team members who have given our tireless efforts to many projects that have helped our communities, from public schools and community health clinics to distribution centers and aircraft services buildings. We will be featuring many of these projects, along with the teams that aided us along the way, throughout this week on our FacebookLinkedIn and Twitter pages.

From September 13-17, we encourage our supporters and followers to give some special thought about how you give thanks to your fellow industry professionals for all the hard work they do day in and day out. How do you give thanks for building?

United Construction’s site crew at Hamilton Reactor Way welcomed 3rd and 4th graders from neighboring Nevada Sage Waldorf School this morning for a short, educational field trip.

Superintendent Chuck Brown first took the children through a visual timeline of the site’s construction milestones with several photos showcasing the project’s start to its near-finish. He then showed the children the different aspects of the site and explained them more in detail, from the pavement and trench to the pump and culvert. To finish off the trip, the kids put on a hard hat and high-vis vest, hopped into the seat of an excavator (under close and careful supervision) and each posed for a photo safely and with a smile.

We thank Chuck for sharing his wealth of knowledge with the children and teachers of Waldorf, and we also thank our subcontractor Sierra Nevada Construction for specially placing the excavator and other surrounding equipment for this fun purpose.

As WCSD settles into the beginnings of the 2021-2022 school year, United Construction and their subcontractors are hard at work making way for more new and remodeled classrooms and buildings at Swope Middle School.

“It is exciting to see the students and staff at Swope begin to use the new-and-improved facilities this school season,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “We are all beginning to see a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ in terms of the phased construction process, and we look forward to continuing the remodels and moving forward with work on the new building wing.”

The aforementioned building wing will be a new two-story classroom building in the location of the former gymnasium, which has been completely demolished. It will house a new resource center, math and science classrooms, a technology lab, a new teachers’ lounge and workspace, social science and language classrooms, a group room for various activities and a hub space.

In the new gym, the hardwood flooring is complete. On the floor, students can enjoy the revamped basketball hoops, volleyball courts and a scoreboard. The new fitness center will be also be ready to use in the near future.

Band and choir students will soon be able to take advantage of the new music practice rooms, as site workers near completion on the remodels. Additionally, the remodel on the kitchen facilities are now underway.

Up next for the construction team are excavations, followed by the installation of underground utilities directly after excavations are complete.

Several of our Reno team members had a wonderful time celebrating The Children’s Cabinet at the Art of Childhood fundraising gala, which took place at The Club at Rancharrah on Friday, August 20. The Children’s Cabinet is heavily intertwined in our culture at United Construction, with Michael Dermody founding the nonprofit in the 1980s and Michael Russell sitting on the Board of Trustees for over a decade. We love to support such a vital organization for children and families in our community, and we were honored to be a Bronze Sponsor. The Children’s Cabinet was able to raise $517,000 at the event alone!

Please enjoy these photos of the event, including a photo of our handcrafted rocket ship playhouse sitting on display for the live auction.

 

United Construction recently commenced the installation of culvert along Reactor Way at the Hamilton campus. As United and their subcontractor Sierra Nevada Construction were hired to make roadway and infrastructure improvements at Hamilton, they also began realigning the surrounding roadway along Reactor Way this week. The realignment process, which is slated to continue through the end of September, includes demolition, road grading and the use of heavy equipment.

Upon project completion of the Hamilton Reactor Way site, Waldorf School and High Sierra Industries will enjoy additional parking spaces. Hamilton will have new sidewalks, parallel parking, crosswalks and landscaping along Reactor Way.

Culvert installation photos courtesy of Jeff Dow.

The third and final phase of United Construction’s work at Swope Middle School is in full swing. The start of this phase is marked by the demolition of old facilities and the building of the new, making room for a strong future for the students at the school.

“As we begin our last phase of construction, I reflect on all the hard work we’ve done alongside our talented subcontractors, architect partners and Washoe County School District,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “We are anticipating more incredible changes as we work our way through Phase 3 and finish out the new-and-improved school.”

In mid-July, the former gymnasium was completely demolished, which can be seen captured in the photo to the left. Regarding the demolition, Gunther reports that “all went well, and we are excited to continue bringing the new gym to life.” The bleachers and center court logo have been transferred to the new gym, and the construction team is moving forward with more interior and exterior finishes.

Beyond the gym, the band room has been expanded after the successful demolition of a wall. The team is also gearing up to remove and replace the hallway carpet as well as replace a structural support in the cafeteria this summer.

Students from Swope who opted to attend summer school are doing so at Reno High School. While there, the library is being temporarily moved from its current location that will eventually become the kitchen for the cafeteria. It will be housed in the activity room of the gym until construction of the new library is complete in the two-story building.

United Construction’s design-build work on the 10,978 sf, two-story expansion at Dassault Falcon on Rock Blvd is complete! The expansion, which sits on the Reno-Tahoe International Airport grounds, features a storage room for parts and equipment, break room, full locker rooms with bathrooms and showers, conference room, avionics work room, new stairways and a quality assurance room overlooking the main aviation work floor.

Dassault is a French based aircraft manufacturer of business and corporate jets. The United Construction design-build team also delivered the existing building used by Dassault. United delivered it in 1996 as an aircraft maintenance hangar for Reno Air.

We credit Superintendent Pete Brunner, Assistant Superintendent Justin Brunner, Project Manager Rob Felstead, Project Administrator Glady Robinette and Operations Manager Casey Gunther for managing this project to success.