State and local leaders joined Burns & McDonnell to dedicate the opening of the final building on its world headquarters campus to those who worked on its front lines — the critical infrastructure workers. Since breaking ground in 2018 on the $42 million project, crews worked more than 134,000 hours without any safety incidents — even through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While most of our workforce was working while sheltering at home, we averaged nearly 70 people on this project every day,” said Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell.
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From daily temperature checks to staggering schedules to improve social distancing, Kowalik says he had two main goals for the project: Keep everyone safe and keep everyone working.
“We always knew this project would create new jobs, but we could not comprehend just how vital these types of critical infrastructure projects would be to keep crews working through a pandemic,” he said.
Designed and built by Burns & McDonnell in partnership with VanTrust Real Estate, the project generated work for more than 50 companies in Missouri and Kansas.
“We’re proud of Missouri’s infrastructure workers who have continued to safely move essential projects forward even during this challenging, unprecedented time in our state,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said. “Critical infrastructure projects like the Burns & McDonnell campus keep Missouri moving forward by meeting the increasing needs of our communities and fueling economic growth.”
Nearly 30 minority- and women-owned businesses worked on the campus expansion, surpassing goals set at the beginning of the project.