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Clayco and Kiewit top out the first section of the Project Jupiter data center campus in New Mexico, while Lilly breaks ground on a $5 billion manufacturing facility near Richmond. Western Kentucky University starts work on a roughly 1,000-bed residence hall, and Audi unveils plans for its first U.S. plant, a $4 billion build in Georgia. Out west, Skanska and Stacy Witbeck break ground on LA’s $2.43 billion light rail line, and JE Dunn takes on a $480 million energy project at MSP Airport. Plus, Bedrock Robotics raises $600 million to put more autonomous equipment on job sites. Let’s dive in!

Clayco and Kiewit New Mexico Co. have topped out the first section of the Project Jupiter data center campus in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, which is being built for Oracle and STACK Infrastructure.

Selected in August 2025 as general contractors for the 855,000 square foot portion, the joint venture has now set the final structural beam, completing the building’s primary frame about a year after the project broke ground in October 2025.

The campus will generate its own power. On-site Bloom Energy fuel cells will feed a microgrid that the partners say cuts NOx emissions by about 92% without affecting local electricity rates or grid stability.

Four closed-loop, non-evaporative systems will handle cooling after a one-time fill with non-potable well water bought from an existing rights holder. After those fills, the data centers and fuel cells are expected to need roughly 168,000 gallons a year, none of it public drinking water.

The developers project more than $13 billion in long-term economic impact, along with 7,000 construction jobs and over 3,100 ongoing roles across the county.

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📰 U.S. Construction Starts Decline 1.5% in September(Dodge)

📰 Buildots Upgrades AI Assistant to Deliver On-Demand Construction Analysis(Buildots)

📰 Construction Employment Rises in Half of U.S. Metro Areas(AGC)

📰 Gilbane-Turner Tops Out $1.7 Billion Wadsworth Center Laboratory(Turner)

📰 Vertiv Completes $1.45 Billion Acquisition of UtilityInnovation Group(Vertiv)

Eli Lilly and Company broke ground on October 22 on a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Goochland County, just west of Richmond, Virginia.

The plant will be the first in Lilly’s network to produce both active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished medicines within a single integrated facility. It will make antibody-drug conjugates, a class of targeted cancer treatments built to attack diseased cells while limiting exposure to healthy tissue.

Lilly expects the project to support about 1,800 construction jobs as the site is built and brought online. Roughly 650 permanent positions will follow, including engineers, scientists, operations staff, and lab technicians.

To help fill those roles, the company has committed $40 million to the Virginia Center for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, a statewide training network that aims to open a pilot-scale center in the county in 2028.

The facility is targeting LEED Gold certification and is one of 10 U.S. sites Lilly has announced since 2020 under a domestic manufacturing push of more than $50 billion.

OWNER/DEVELOPER: Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY)

CONSTRUCTION TEAM: TBD

AWARD: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

INVESTMENT: $5 Billion

LOCATION: Goochland County, Virginia (just west of Richmond)

🔓 Hard Rock Hits the Jackpot With $725M Resort Expansion (Read more here)

🔓 U. S. Steel Rolls Out a $3 Billion Investment in Pennsylvania (Read more here)

🔓 All Rise: Chattanooga’s $282 Million Courthouse Breaks Ground (Read more here)

🔓 Mitsubishi Powers Up With $490M Georgia Expansion (Read more here)

🔓 Project Firecracker: Microsoft’s 422 MW Plan Goes Public (Read more here)

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🧑‍🎓 WKU Has 350 Million Reasons to Make Room

Western Kentucky University broke ground October 20 on The Southern Gateway, a roughly 1,000-bed residence hall rising on the Bowling Green site of the recently demolished Poland and Keen Halls. Developed through a public-private partnership with Gilbane and designed by Mackey Mitchell Architects, it is the first phase of the Elevate WKU housing program. The approximately $350 million investment also covers debt defeasance and repairs to existing facilities, and the hall is expected to open in fall 2028.

KEY DETAILS
Owner: Collegiate Housing Foundation
Developer: Gilbane Development
Award: Student Housing
Investment: $350 Million
Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky

🚘 Four Rings, $4 Billion, One Georgia Mega Site

Audi plans to build its first U.S. production plant at the Middle Georgia Mega Site, investing about $4 billion and creating roughly 4,500 jobs, the automaker announced October 25. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027 on a facility designed to produce up to 200,000 vehicles a year. The plant is planned to build premium SUVs tailored to North American buyers, with production expected to start in the early 2030s and room for future expansion.

KEY DETAILS
Owner: Audi AG
Award: Automotive Manufacturing
Value: $4 Billion
Location: Middle Georgia Mega Site, Georgia

🚆 LA's $2.43B Light Rail Project Is Right on Track

A Skanska and Stacy Witbeck joint venture has broken ground on the major construction phase of the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project in Los Angeles. The $2.43 billion contract covers 6.7 miles of street-level light rail along Van Nuys Boulevard, 11 new stations, a 26-acre rail and maintenance facility, and utility relocations. Completion is scheduled for early 2032, with peak-hour trains expected every seven to 10 minutes.

KEY DETAILS
Transit Agency: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)
Construction Team: Skanska-Stacy Witbeck joint venture
Award: Transit, light rail
Value: $2.43 Billion
Location: Van Nuys Boulevard, East San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, CA

❄️ JE Dunn Has $480M Reasons to Keep Its Cool

JE Dunn Construction will serve as construction manager at risk on the Terminal 1 Boiler and Chiller Replacement and Energy Management Center Expansion at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The Metropolitan Airports Commission, whose board approved the selection September 22, has set aside $480 million for the job. The project replaces a plant dating to the early 1960s and rebuilds six Concourse C gate areas. Enabling work is expected in 2027, with completion targeted for 2032.

KEY DETAILS
Owner: Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC)
Construction Manager at Risk: JE Dunn Construction
Award: Aviation, central utility plant
Value: $480 Million
Location: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), Minnesota

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San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics has raised $600 million in Series C funding at a $4.1 billion post-money valuation, with CapitalG and Emergence Capital co-leading the round.

The raise brings the company’s total funding to nearly $1 billion. It follows a key milestone in mid-August, when Bedrock’s fully autonomous excavators began performing paid work on live commercial job sites.

Bedrock plans to use the capital to expand deployments and strengthen the field operations behind each machine. Its system retrofits existing heavy equipment, starting with excavators.

The company says it has more than doubled its customer volume since 2025. Haydon, a Tempe, Arizona-based general contractor, is the latest partner, deploying the technology for autonomous earthwork on a remote Texas site. Haydon also plans to test trench work and larger machine models.

New customers in Minnesota, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, and Arkansas extend Bedrock’s reach into the Midwest and South Atlantic.

City Tower One, a mixed-use supertall on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, completed construction and opened for leasing in June 2026. The tower stands across the road from Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future.

Designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners, the building rises 358 meters, according to the architect. Its developer is H&H Investment and Development, and construction began in 2022.

The project totals roughly 1.85 million square feet. It pairs 608 residential units with office and retail space, all on an unusually large site that runs between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Badaa Road.

A deep grid spanning several floors at a time wraps the exterior, combining vertical sunshades with a striped frit pattern to emphasize the building’s height. A skybridge links the tower to a rooftop amenity deck above a nine-story parking structure.

Arcadis served as engineer of record, with Arup handling facade engineering and EDSA leading landscape architecture.