Granite Closes Out $400M Tucson Airport Program With $52M Win

Granite Construction has won or completed every project in the Tucson Airport Authority's more-than-$400-million Airfield Safety Enhancement program, after the authority awarded the contractor a $52 million construction manager at risk contract on Wednesday.

The final contract covers upgrades at Tucson International Airport in Arizona. Scope includes taxiway modification and enhancements to the Federal Aviation Administration's navigational aids, according to a news release from Watsonville, California-based Granite.

What does the latest contract involve?

Granite's Swan Facility, a fully automated aggregate plant in Tucson, will supply more than 80,000 tons of FAA-specification aggregate and roughly 50,000 tons of FAA-specification asphalt. For contractors tracking vertically integrated supply chains, Granite's in-house materials operation anchors the bid.

The contractor began preconstruction activities in September and expects to complete the project in 2029. The award closes out a program the TAA launched to modernize the airport across more than $400 million of work.

Where else did public dollars flow this week?

A subsidiary of Tutor Perini won a $60 million contract to build facilities at U.S. Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg in Florida, according to a Monday news release.

The project spans two areas of work. On the north side, Perini Management Services will demolish several structures damaged by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. On the south side, the contractor will build five berths and upgrade the buoy yard.

Design work began in late August 2026, according to the contractor, which expects substantial completion in May 2028. Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini will include the contract value in its 2026 third quarter backlog.

The award landed in a week that also saw a Fluor subsidiary win a $2.4 billion Navy contract and 190,000 construction workers quit their jobs in September — the most in three years, per federal data reported by Construction Dive.

Who is running SMACNA now?

The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association installed its 2026-2027 president and executive committee during its annual convention in Orlando, Florida.

Scott Vidimos of Vidimos, Inc., an industrial sheet metal shop based in East Chicago, Indiana, took the reins as president. The rest of the slate:

• President-elect: Joe Samia, CEO and president of Wichita, Kansas-based Central Consolidated.
• Secretary-treasurer: Gary Myers, vice president of marketing and business development at Roseville, California-based Intech Mechanical.
• Vice president: Roy Jensen, president of operations at Colorado Springs, Colorado-based MechOne.
• Immediate-past president: Todd Hill, president of Troy, Michigan-based Ventcon.

Who is leading DPR in Raleigh-Durham?

DPR Construction named 27-year company veteran Scott Sass to lead its Raleigh-Durham business unit on Tuesday.

Sass previously served as a national leader of DPR's Special Services Group, which provides specialty contractor services such as renovations, according to his LinkedIn. He brings experience in the life sciences sector — one of DPR's strongest markets in the region — along with a record of leading complex projects and business operations, per the announcement.

The Raleigh-Durham area, part of the Research Triangle, posts one of the fastest rates of rising construction employment in the country, according to DPR. Sass's appointment positions the builder to capture that growth in life sciences and renovation work.