Good morning, Construction Pros. AI infrastructure is breaking ground fast, copper just hit $13,543 per metric ton, and skilled labor is as tight as it has been in years.
- $16B in Michigan. Walbridge broke ground on the Stargate data center campus in Saline Township under a landmark 14-union PLA, and the electricians are already running wire.
- Labor market tightens. Construction unemployment dropped to 3.7% in April with 270,000 open jobs, and the hiring rate bounced hard off February's record low.
- Copper up 42% year-over-year. LME spot touched $13,543/MT in May, and nonresidential input prices are running 6.6% hotter than a year ago.
Know someone who would like this? Pass it on.
📊 MARKET PULSE
LABOR PULSE
This is a firm seller's market for skilled craft labor. With construction unemployment at 3.7% and 270,000 open positions, contractors are holding every good hand they have and struggling to staff new starts. The bounce in hiring rate to 4.8% reflects spring mobilization, not slack, as the pool of available workers is nearly tapped out. For foremen and subs, this means wage premiums and overtime are the price of stability, and any megaproject mobilizing this summer will be pulling from the same thin regional bench. Protect your crew now, or pay to poach later.
THE TAKEAWAY
Copper up 42% year-over-year and steel on an eight-week run means fixed-price bids over 90 days are a liability without index-linked escalation clauses. Diesel dropped sharply this week, but May's $5.60 average shows the volatility that makes fuel surcharge riders necessary on any bid with significant hauling. Get LME copper benchmarks and EIA diesel baselines into your contract language before you sign.
🏗 THE BIG MOVES
Walbridge Breaks Ground on $16B Stargate Campus in Michigan
Walbridge broke ground June 1 on the Stargate data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, a $16 billion project backed by Related Digital, Blackstone, OpenAI, and Oracle on a 250-acre site that represents the largest economic development project in state history. Peak workforce reaches 700 skilled union tradespeople, with electricians running miles of high-capacity copper and fiber, concrete crews pouring ultra-flat slabs under tight server-rack tolerances, and MEP pipefitters commissioning liquid cooling loops and industrial chiller systems. The project operates under a first-of-its-kind National Maintenance Agreement PLA covering all 14 affiliated trade unions, with a direct MOU between OpenAI and NABTU guaranteeing structured overtime and multi-year work for regional Michigan locals.
Turner-Consigli JV Starts $2.3B MSK Cancer Tower in Manhattan
A Turner Construction and Consigli joint venture has commenced structural demolition and excavation on the $2.3 billion Memorial Sloan Kettering Kenneth C. Griffin Pavilion, an 883,000-square-foot hospital tower in Manhattan funded by institutional capital and philanthropic donations. Vertical steel erection begins mid-2027, with an MEP fit-out phase targeting 800 to 1,000 tradespeople at peak including HVAC mechanics, specialized medical gas pipefitters, and electrical crews navigating a dense urban footprint. The project runs through mid-2030, anchoring NYC building trades with four years of high-complexity institutional work at prevailing wage.
MTA Signs $1.02B Contract for Second Ave Subway 106th Street Station
The New York MTA executed a legally binding $1.02 billion contract on June 1 with the Skanska, Traylor Bros., and Walsh Construction joint venture to build the 106th Street station package for Second Avenue Subway Phase II, funded by restored federal transit grants following a resolved DOT legal dispute. The work spans cut-and-cover excavation from 2026 through 2028, structural station box completion by August 2030, and passenger service targeted for September 2032, requiring 400 to 500 heavy civil workers, tunnel crews, and rail systems electricians. The contract signing clears the last major funding hurdle, unlocking years of technically demanding underground civil work under East Harlem's subterranean corridor at New York City prevailing wage rates.
🔦 PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
ELECTRICAL MEP STRUCTURALStargate "The Barn" - Saline Township, Michigan
The Stargate campus in Washtenaw County is a $16 billion, three-building data center complex designed to support more than one gigawatt of AI computing capacity for OpenAI and Oracle, spread across 250 acres with Walbridge as general contractor.
The construction challenge here is unusual even by data center standards: concrete crews are pouring ultra-flat slabs engineered to sub-millimeter tolerances so server racks don't rack or shift, while electricians will run miles of high-capacity copper and fiber-optic cable through overhead tray systems in buildings so large they require their own interior transit logistics. MEP pipefitters and HVAC techs are installing sophisticated closed-loop liquid cooling systems and industrial air handling rated for continuous high-heat AI compute loads, a specification category that barely existed five years ago.
WHY IT MATTERS
This is the first U.S. data center built under a direct MOU between a hyperscale AI developer and North America's Building Trades Unions, setting a template that every major tech company watching this project may be asked to follow. The 14-union NMA PLA guarantees structured overtime, established safety protocols, and a stable multi-year backlog for Washtenaw County and Detroit-area locals. For union electricians, pipefitters, and concrete finishers in the Midwest, this project is a preview of what AI infrastructure demand looks like at full scale.
Ground broke June 1, 2026, with the first 550,000-square-foot hall already nearing structural completion; phased build-out of the remaining two halls will keep crews active through the late 2020s.
⚡ QUICK HITS
IBEW signals workers strike CPKC Railway. Approximately 300 IBEW System Council No. 11 signals and communications employees walked off the job May 31 following a 96% strike vote, with disputes centered on stagnant wages and uncompensated travel requirements. It is a reminder that rail and infrastructure signals technicians are exercising real leverage in tight labor markets.
NYC creates construction safety committee. Following NYCOSH's "Deadly Skyline" report, Mayor Mamdani announced a new municipal committee with union safety reps, convening fall 2026. The focus is closing the shell-company loophole that lets negligent contractors dissolve and reopen to dodge stop-work orders.
Berkshire acquires Taylor Morrison for $8.5B. Warren Buffett's all-cash deal for the national homebuilder signals a long-horizon bet on residential construction beyond the current data center cycle. Over time, Taylor Morrison will fold into Clayton Homes, creating a top-five national builder with a steady pipeline of framing, roofing, and fit-out work.
Turner's backlog hits $48.9B. Turner Construction reported Q1 2026 revenue of $7.7 billion, a 25% year-over-year jump, and a record backlog driven by 10 separate $1B+ project wins so far this year. Data centers and healthcare are doing the heavy lifting; their trade partners have multi-year visibility on scope.
Autodesk buys MaintainX for $3.6B. Autodesk's acquisition of the building maintenance platform merges construction data with operations software under a new Autodesk Operations Solutions division. Field workers comfortable with mobile data tracking and BIM-linked tools are going to be more valuable to GCs, not less, as these platforms converge.
🔢 ONE NUMBER
The total investment in the Stargate campus now under construction in Michigan, the largest single economic development project in state history.
🔧 THE TOOL
This week's diesel swing, from a May average of $5.60 per gallon down to $4.305 on June 1, is exactly the kind of move that blows up a fixed-price bid if you didn't protect yourself going in. The fix is a fuel surcharge rider tied to the EIA Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices index, specifically Series ID emd_epd2d_pte_nus_dpg. You lock in the national average on your bid date as the baseline, then write in a proportional adjustment to your contract value for every $0.10 per gallon move during execution.
If your work is concentrated in one region, use the PADD average instead: Gulf Coast PADD 3 was at $3.804 on June 1 while West Coast PADD 5 was at $5.500, so a national number may not reflect your actual fleet costs. Put the PADD number in the clause, name the data series explicitly, and specify monthly adjustment timing. Any concrete hauling, earthmoving, or asphalt delivery bid without this language right now is absorbing risk the owner should be sharing.
📚 FURTHER READING
Construction Dive: Walbridge breaks ground on $16B Stargate data center - Full details on the groundbreaking, financing structure, and the landmark 14-union PLA.
Idaho EdNews: Boise State heads regional semiconductor partnership - How the industry plans to close the projected 157,000-worker deficit in advanced manufacturing by 2030.
AI is building itself a physical home, one union card and copper wire at a time. What's the tightest labor market you've seen in your region this season? Reply and tell us. 🏗
Know someone who would like this? Pass it on.