Mitigating Site Risks for Industrial Projects
July 22, 2024
With the many decisions that confront site selection teams, worries about hidden or subsurface threats can be easy to ignore. But teams that fail to include comprehensive site testing can end up with millions of dollars in expenses to mitigate unforeseen conditions. In worst-case situations, projects may be deemed unviable or be delayed for extended periods. Fortunately, new technologies, along with improved planning and preconstruction workflows, greatly assist in identifying and effectively addressing site issues.
Greenfield space—especially in topographically ideal locations—is becoming rarer. At the same time, industrial construction projects are getting bigger. We are in the age of “megaprojects,” defined by the U.S. Department of Labor as construction projects spanning more than a year and having a value of at least $25 million. Megaprojects involve multiple parties and complicated logistics, and they also require much larger sites and more intensive resources than was common just a few years ago. Another factor placing pressure on the real estate market is the proliferation of new industries that require large initial investments in facilities, such as electric vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, and clean energy.
