The (Almost) Daily Brief

Safe Routes Construction Grants Exclude Engineering Costs From $4 Million Round

By Megan Dayton · 10/26/2026

BIZ  Member firms report a 15 percent labor saving where they have deployed artificial intelligence, and their pricing has not changed. The ACEC Research Institute study, Beyond the Hour: Making the Case for Value-Based Pricing, draws on a survey of 488 member firm leaders, 19 executive interviews, and a literature review, under Paul S. Chinowsky. It warns that without a change in compensation firms may struggle to recover their technology investments even as clients take the benefit. It also finds that firms treat lump-sum contracting as value-based pricing, when a fixed fee built from estimated labor hours is still cost-based. On a five-point scale respondents rated private developers at 3.10 for value-based pricing opportunity, against 2.14 for municipal agencies and 1.92 for state and federal agencies, and 36 percent named agency policy as the largest source of resistance. Proposal and bid assembly accounts for 26 percent of reported AI use, and information synthesis for 22 percent.

Source: ACEC Research Institute

POLICY  Minneapolis moves to confine data centers to two downtown zoning districts and to cap their server space at 50,000 square feet. The city planning commission advanced the package on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and cut the white-space maximum from the 175,000 square feet city staff had proposed. Commissioners also added case-by-case staff review of each proposal. Under the recommendations a data center could not be the sole occupant of a building and could not operate on its first or second floor, and servers would sit at least 20 feet inside a building and at least 100 feet from the walls of residential property. Developers would have to disclose expected water and electricity use. Jason Wittenberg, a manager in the city planning and economic development department, told the commission that the city cannot regulate consumption directly. The Minneapolis zoning code does not define a data center, so without the amendment the facilities stay classified as communication exchanges, a use the code allows across most of the city. The city counts eight data centers in operation. The six-month development pause the City Council approved in May expires Nov. 21 unless the council extends it.

Source: MinnPost

BIZ  ABB reported that its U.S. orders rose 82 percent year over year in the third quarter. The Zurich-based manufacturer makes switchgear, circuit breakers, transfer switches, and low voltage transformers. Global orders rose 40 percent to a record $12 billion, orders from the Americas rose 70 percent, and the electrification segment booked a record $7.67 billion in orders, up 70 percent. Electrification orders in the Americas rose 117 percent against 20 percent in Europe. Revenue reached $9.7 billion against $8.5 billion a year earlier. The company said in its Oct. 20 release that utilities continue to invest in refurbishment and build-out of the grid to secure power availability and efficiency. It credited data center and utility demand in the United States for the increase.

Source: Utility Dive

POLICY  The Public Utilities Commission conditioned the Lemon Hill solar site permit on a mitigation package that reaches groundwater, private wells, farmland, and wildlife. Commissioners approved the permit on Thursday, Oct. 22, for the 180-megawatt project in Haverhill and Viola Townships, Olmsted County. An administrative law judge had recommended denial in a report filed Sept. 8. The conditions include buffers, construction restrictions and stormwater management to protect sensitive geology and drinking water; water testing, notification procedures and well-protection planning for private wells; a Visual Screening Plan; vegetation management and coordination with landowners on screening and layout adjustments; wildlife-permeable fencing, lighting standards and erosion-control materials; and topsoil preservation, vegetation restoration and an Agricultural Impact Mitigation Plan. Commissioner John Tuma said many of the permit conditions changed because of public feedback. The commission said the record shows the project meets the legal requirements that govern energy facility siting. Construction is anticipated in 2027 and commercial operation in 2028. No written order had posted to the docket as of Oct. 26.

Sources: ABC 6 News, Oct. 23; KTTC, Oct. 23; Minnesota PUC eDockets, docket 25-126 filing index

BIZ  Engineering News-Record put 2025 revenue for its Top 600 Specialty Contractors at $275.1 billion, up 14.7 percent. Median firm revenue rose 6.5 percent to $136.4 million. New contract awards across the list rose 6.4 percent to $230.8 billion from $217.0 billion, and the median for new contracts rose 18 percent to $143.4 million. Telecommunications revenue rose 65 percent in a second consecutive year of double-digit growth. Industrial process rose 43.7 percent, power rose 33.8 percent, and water supply rose 20.3 percent, while hazardous waste fell 37.8 percent and manufacturing fell 16.7 percent. The publication credits data center construction for the telecommunications and industrial numbers and reports that some firms on the list cannot compete in that sector.

Source: Engineering News-Record

POLICY  Dominion Energy sued Prince William County, Virginia, over the county’s refusal of a special use permit for a substation expansion. The Board of Supervisors denied the permit unanimously. The utility filed a 36-page complaint in Prince William County Circuit Court on Thursday, Oct. 22. The Vint Hill project would install 500-kilovolt transformers and a gas-insulated substation and expand the footprint on land Dominion already owns. The utility calls the denial unlawful and says thousands of Northern Virginia residents may lose access to reasonably adequate service if the project is not built, and it attributes the need to load growth across residential, commercial, industrial and data center customers. Supervisors raised transparency concerns and the site’s proximity to houses and school grounds, and residents objected to noise and environmental impacts. A county spokeswoman said the county does not comment on active litigation.

Source: WTOP, Oct. 23

PROJECTS  Saint Paul reopened the Kellogg Boulevard and Third Street bridge to walkers and cyclists on Saturday, Oct. 24. Saint Paul Public Works said in a written statement that the structure is anticipated to open to vehicles on Nov. 15, with railing installation and landscape restoration left to finish. City officials put the rebuild at $92.7 million and call it the largest and most complex city-driven public infrastructure project since 1995. The bridge is the longest the city owns, crossing Interstate 94 and one of the busiest railroad junctions in the Midwest. The funding stack runs $52 million in 2020 state bonds, $28.5 million in 2023 state bonds, $7 million from a Federal Regional Solicitation grant, and $5.2 million in Municipal State Aid Street funds. The city had narrowed traffic lanes and sidewalks on the old structure after a structural analysis concluded that traffic should come off the outer portions of the deck.

Sources: Pioneer Press, Oct. 24; MPR News, Oct. 25

ENG  MnDOT has posted a corridor planning guidebook and a scoring tool that ranks state highway segments by planning priority. The guidebook sets a five-step framework for developing a corridor plan, covering corridor conditions, community and partner engagement, needs, and potential solutions, and it recommends data sources, tools, and evaluation methods. MnDOT names local agencies, regional organizations, and consultants among its intended users, alongside its own districts. The scoring tool identifies the corridors where planning would most advance state transportation goals, and MnDOT weighs those results alongside local knowledge and planned investments when it selects future studies.

Source: MnDOT, corridor planning

PROJECTS  Hibbing Public Utilities finished a $3.0 million rebuild of its Beltline Substation and will cut the ribbon at 1pm on Thursday, Oct. 29. The utility replaced 1950s-era equipment on the site. The new transformers carry modern protection against wildlife and severe weather, and the rebuilt station lets crews divide the distribution system into smaller sections, so an outage can be isolated to fewer customers. The utility said aging substation equipment raises both the risk and the impact of outages.

Source: Mesabi Tribune

FUNDING  Applications open through Monday, Jan. 18, 2027, for active transportation planning assistance with awards up to $1 million in consultant support per year from 2027 through 2029. An award buys consultant time, and the MnDOT-selected consultant assesses existing conditions, runs community engagement, identifies infrastructure and network improvements, and evaluates local policies and programs. The product is an action plan the local government owns. MnDOT requires no local match and expects an applicant to convene a local advisory group and help lead engagement. Scoring runs on the Priority Areas for Walking Score, which uses 18 indicators split between latent demand and equity. Local governments, Tribal governments, and nonprofits carrying a letter of support from the government that will own the plan may apply. The program is the demand side of the statewide active transportation planning and implementation assistance contract MnDOT put out for proposals on Oct. 22, with responses due Nov. 13.

Source: MnDOT, Active Transportation Program planning assistance

PROJECTS  United Therapeutics will build a $9 million mass timber aircraft hangar at Rochester International Airport. Construction starts in early 2027 on city-owned land west of the airport along State Highway 30, runs 12 months, and finishes in 2028. The hangar will cover 27,000 to 33,000 square feet on a 143,720-square-foot plot leased from the city under a 40-year lease with two extension options. The company selected the timber structural system to cut construction carbon by leaning less on steel and concrete, and plans an exterior that chars the wood surface using a traditional Japanese technique. The site is six miles from the company’s Thomas E. Starzl Xenograft Production Facility in Stewartville, a $110 million plant that will raise gene-edited pigs for human kidney and heart transplants, and the company named airport proximity for organ transport as a reason it built in southeastern Minnesota.

Source: Rochester Post Bulletin

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