The steel frames and concrete foundations of NGA’s new campus in north St. Louis are sprouting up from the ground as NGA’s new facility, on schedule to open in 2025, takes shape this summer.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no significant delays to construction, said Sue Pollmann, program director for the Next NGA West project and west executive for NGA. Construction is projected to be complete in 2024, with NGA move-in complete by 2025.

“It’s exciting to see the main operations building rise up out of the ground, which makes N2W feel more real,” Pollmann said. “I continue to be pleased with the teamwork I’m seeing amongst the leadership of the McCarthy-HITT, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NGA engineers and project management. 

“There are inevitably problems that come up, but everyone is doing a great job of working together to find solutions,” she said.

The steel erections for the campus’ structures are projected to be complete by November, at which time the construction focus will shift to the installation of building enclosures, or walls, for the main building, central utilities plant and parking garages. Some enclosure work is slated to begin as early as late August. Roof deck construction is scheduled to begin in late August as well, Guttmann said.

“Given the complexities on a project of this magnitude, coupled with the pandemic, we are in a good spot to deliver the facility in time for the deployment effort,” said USACE’s Program Manager Gene Morisani.

Heather Cirre, manager for small business contracting and outreach for McCarthy HITT joint venture, the project’s design-build team, said the project is tracking federal labor goals for worker participation of 6.9 percent women and 14.7 percent minorities per trade.

Currently, approximately 18.6 percent of workforce hours have been minority participation with 5.3 percent of workforce hours being female participation.

“The female participation goal presents a particular challenge, given the makeup of the construction industry, but overall we are pleased with our progress toward our goals and are committed to continuing to make significant efforts to meet and exceed them,” Cirre said.

Cirre said McCarthy HITT also has adopted a goal of 25 percent minority-owned business enterprise participation, which exceeds the federal goal. Numerous contracts have been awarded to minority-owned business enterprises for a wide range of products and services. More bids remain in-process and have not been finalized.

Community engagement and communication with the local and greater St. Louis communities remains a priority for the project, said Morisani.

The N2W team of USACE, McCarthy HITT and NGA regularly attend meetings of neighborhood organizations around the site to help inform the local community about construction activities and to answer questions about construction and NGA, said Morisani.

After a pause due to the pandemic, NGA and USACE restarted open house visits for the local community this past June. These visits allow neighbors to view the site from the observation tower and ask questions about the project and NGA’s mission to representatives. A construction hotline is available for people to call to voice concerns or ask questions, and the N2W team recently hosted a media day, so that local media could share progress at the site with the larger St. Louis community.  

NGA also has been hosting open houses of the site for NGA employees and team members, helping its workforce to stay engaged and informed on the status of the project. “Our hope is that this will allow the NGA team to appreciate their new campus even more having seen it while under construction,” Guttmann said.  

The construction site continues to follow COVID-19 precautions, including face coverings and social distancing, and local mandates.

“We’ve been fortunate to have the majority of our work thus far outside, allowing us to avoid any significant construction or workforce issues due to COVID-19,” said Morisani. “Credit goes to our construction management team on-site for following precautions to help keep our site open, our project on-schedule and our entire team safe.”

By the numbers:

97-acre site
5 cranes, 2 bulldozers , 2 excavators and many more trucks, lifts and skid-steers at work on-site
450 workers on-site daily this summer
5,000 tons of steel projected to be used to build the campus
1,500 cars will be able to park in each of the two parking garages
700,000 square feet in the main operations building
4 years until move-in