Our annual survey of specialty contractors shows it’s a good time to be a specialty firm in the Midwest. The two top-rated firms each booked more than $1 billion in regional revenue last year, and our smallest respondent still posted $5 million in work.
印第安纳波利斯的盖洛尔电气总裁查克·古德里奇（Chuck Goodrich）说：“这是一个伟大的经济。”他今年在电气承包商中排名第20，排名第七。古德里奇（Goodrich）还是联合建筑商和承包商的国家主席。他说：“中西部现在正在蓬勃发展。”“我们为中西部的建筑积压量高达40％。对于整个国家，积压率约为20％。”
稳定的制造设施以及现有的设施的扩展以及传统发电，可再生生成和公用事业工作的需求，都取得了很大的成功。总体而言，我们的55名受访者在中西部工作了超过90亿美元的工作。
重要的是要注意,ENR扩大了r新利luckegion this year to add the states of Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota and Nebraska to the “old” region that comprised Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. The new 342,000 square miles of construction markets certainly helped the bottom lines of this year’s submitters, but even companies that did business entirely in the old region saw an increase in revenue this year.
Libertyville, Ill.-based Aldridge Electric Inc. does much of its work in its home state ($232 million of its $303.9 million). Aldridge is ranked sixth overall and second among electrical contractors. Substation electrical is a big focus of Aldridge’s work, and Tom McLinden, company president, says that the shutdown of the Illinois state government in July over budget issues did affect business.
“It delayed things for the department of transportation, airports and other authorities,” McLinden says. “A lot of the agencies are looking at different procurement methods now because of that. They are just starting to talk about design-build. That budget uncertainty definitely has delayed work.”
阿尔德里奇（Aldridge）今年完成了一些主要州和市政项目，包括在芝加哥运输管理局第95街码头的218luck官网.8亿美元改善，在芝加哥机场工作，以及在伊利诺伊州收费公路上关闭了大约两周的工作。
麦克林登说：“在整个市场上，竞争仍然非常艰难。”“我们必须进行投资，以了解如何预制，并通过处理材料的方式变得非常现代，并将某些作品放入预制环境中，以使我们在该领域的人民建立更好，更安全的环境。”
预制证明是几位调查受访者的主要业务驱动力，尤其是在电气和管道系统设计方面。总承包商和客户都在推动预制的越来越多，以及专业公司的愿望，以提供更安全，更受控的工作环境。盖洛（Gaylor）的企业范围目标是通过预制工作达到其总工时的5％。
“We’re trying to get 150,000 worker-hours out of our fabrication shop … out of a 3 million worker-hour company,” Goodrich says. “We have worked very diligently on that. This year we have just over 3%. We think that 3% actually saves on the job while helping the customer on the time and the schedule. That’s in both our Midwest and Southeast fab shops.”
Gaylor’s focus has been growing the organization, meeting client demands and finding ways to tackle the regional backlog. Goodrich says that his company’s manufacturing plant work, including the $248-million expansion of Logan Aluminum’s plant in Russellville, Ky., has been a strong revenue driver as well.
他说：“即使在去年夏天中期，我们也预计制造业会在中西部起飞。”“人们谈论汽车销售正在下降，但是我们在汽车中的汽车设计建造工作正在增长。如果您进入肯塔基州和田纳西州，那么在这些市场中就有大规模植物的工作。”
更新中西部电网一直是Aldridge和Gaylor的商业驱动力。Gaylor的公用事业变电站集团一直在发展，并成为其区域成功的重要组成部分。古德里奇（Goodrich）说，该小组的大多数人员现在都在佛罗里达州调查飓风艾尔玛（Irma）之后所需的维修。该公司与美国电力公司（American Electric Power）的变电站工作使其具有经验和专业知识，以帮助受到飓风袭击的领域。
Solar power generation, and its connection to substations, has been a healthy, growing part of Gaylor’s business as well.
古德里奇说：“从我们的角度来看，太阳能的主要关注点已经得到报酬。”“明尼苏达州项目是一件大事（来自计划中的Aurora Solar Farm的索赔为8500万美元），太阳能公司倒闭了，但是如果您获得合适的客户，那将是业务的强大贡献。”
古德里奇（Goodrich）说，盖洛（Gaylor）甚至还要求一些太阳能客户提供资金。“这是一项伟大的工作，对我们和电网都有益，但是我们必须确保。”
The health care sector provided many of the top projects of Midwest survey respondents. Many companies noted that as their clients and designers plan more compact hospital buildings, they simultaneously desire space for more patients, which has resulted in an ever-shrinking space for M/E/P systems. Building information modeling and prefabrication are being used more often to make it all fit.
“Customers want more building delivered faster, and taking design from BIM to prefabrication gives us a leg up,” Goodrich says. “[General contractors] and clients look at how you improve production, the value you bring to the table. Essentially [asking] ‘Can you get it built to our schedule?’ They are willing to pay more, which they were not five years ago.”
