Olympics a Contractor's Showcase WELD DONE.

• Author: Bonham, Nicole A.

When the Olympic flame 01, 2002 catches fire in Rice-Eccl Olympic Stadium, and an international crowd of 56,000 leans forward in anticipation of pageantry and spectacle, perhaps then Utah's community of builders can take a moment to appreciate their handiwork.

But probably not until then. Many contractors will labor right up to the last moment before Utah and its Olympic oferings stand tall before the glare of a thousand media ameras, tens of thousands of fans and an estimated 3.5 billion television viewers tuning in from points across the globe.

"We will be working up to the last day," says Bill Smith, president of Big-D Corporation. "There's a lot of work that will happen November through February."

But what culminates in 2002 will not be a hasty stage constructed for Utah's moment of glory. Instead, Utah's Olympic venues will include a wide spectrum of new and previously established structures constructed specifically for the Games, and of others that were renovated or expanded to custom fit the intricate needs of a worldclass production.

The collection of venues -- ski resorts and city monuments, sports facilities and contemporary conference sites -- serves a secondary purpose, as well. From an industry standpoint, Utah's venue list is a showcase of its builders' best. From creative work on deadline, to ingenious problem solving and competitive cost, Utah's builders are equally on show, presenting to the world a finished product of more than a dozen primary venues and hundreds of affiliated projects. The list also includes some projects whose only link to the Olympics is inclusion in the building boom that consumed the state in the mid-90s upon announcement of the winning bid.

Olympic-sized Boom

A year ago, economists buoyed Utah's building industry with news of construction values at an all-time high for the state. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah's Eccles School of Business reported permit-authorized construction at $3.97 billion, with $1.2 billion of that in nonresidential construction. 'Additions, alterations and repairs" also eclipsed a record, reporting $540 million for 1999. Residential construction likewise breached former levels at $2.2 billion.

In the first-quarter construction report for 2000, Utah economists reported total industry valuation at more than 10 percent over last year's figures. However, while nonresidential construction values rose due to a few, non-Olympic related projects (like the $104 million McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden), industry analysts did see values drop for multifamily construction while single-family residential indicators held steady.

"The trend is either stabilizing or shrinking slightly as compared to the last five years," Smith says. "We continue to have as large a backlog of work as we've ever had,"

Jack Livingood, chairman and CEO of Big-D Corporation, agrees. "Under normal circumstances we would consider ourselves in a continuing boom in the construction industry," he says. But there are unusual circumstances present; primarily that big projects like 1-15, the new Little American Grand Hotel and other large, "once-in-a-decade" projects are coming to an end. "Generally, the construction industry is shrinking a bit. But in a long-term perspective, it's doing terrific."

Randy Okland, president of Salt Lake-based Okland Construction, recently touted Utah's construction strength in an interview with industry publication Engineering News-Record (www.enr.com). In its May 2000 special report profiling the top 400 contractors, senior editor Gary J. Tulacz notes that, nationwide, "the construction market...