Attorney general breaks ground on new Cranston office

17-05-9 Attorney General.JPG

CRANSTON, R.I. — The Rhode Island Attorney General's Office has broken ground on a new facility in Cranston, NBC 10 News has learned.

The new location will be the AG's customer service center and will house the Bureau of Criminal Identification Unit (BCI), the Adult Diversion Unit and the Consumer Protection Office, according to a solicitation for contract qualifications bids for Phase 1 of the project. The Adult Diversion Unit is an alternative to prosecution for first-time nonviolent felony offenders, according to the AG's office.

The proposed customer service center, expected to cost between $10 million and $13.5 million will be located at the John O. Pastore complex at the intersection of Howard and Pontiac Avenues. Bids on the project ranged from $12.4 million (lowest) to $14.1 million (highest).

Read more and see video at WJAR

Agostini/Bacon Completes New School

Interior of new J. Henry Higgins Middle School

Interior of new J. Henry Higgins Middle School

Peabody, MA – Agostini/Bacon Construction Joint Venture recently completed the new J. Henry Higgins Middle School, a $70 million, 226,000sf state-of-the-art building consisting of a new 500-seat auditorium, a 500-seat cafeteria, gymnasium, classrooms, and administrative spaces. 

The project was designed by Dinisco Design Partnership of Boston. 

The new school was built adjacent to the old middle school that was subsequently abated and demolished. New playing fields with additional site improvements are currently being constructed where the previous middle school was located.

The project exceeds the new standards under the commonwealth of Massachusetts sustainable building codes and will achieve LEED Silver certification.

Read More at High-Profile

 

An Inside Look of the New PSHS

Progress in all phases of construction continues at Plymouth South High School. In just seven short months, the new school will be completed in time for students to start the school year. Created by EDTV 2016/2017

Progress in all phases of construction continues at Plymouth South High School. In just seven short months, the new school will be completed in time for students to start the school year.

Bacon Completes URI Science Center

URI Chemistry Lab

URI Chemistry Lab

Providence, RI – Bacon Construction of Rumford recently completed the new $69 million Richard E. Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences at the University of Rhode Island.

The Beaupre Center houses URI’s chemistry department, along with a federal Center of Excellence for Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response, one of the county’s most important research and training resources in the war against terrorism.

Replacing Pastore Hall, which was built in 1953 and accommodated 800 students, the new center triples the amount of space for teaching labs, serving more than 7,000 chemistry students yearly — roughly 1,400 per day — and also greatly expands the space for research laboratories, providing facilities for faculty members researching technologies and applications to benefit the nation at large, including developing advanced batteries for energy-efficient cars, improving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan machines, and creating new early disease detection methods.

Among the features of the four-story, 135,000sf center, designed by Wilson Architects Inc. of Boston, with management by Keogh Construction Management of Rumford:

  • Fourteen 14 teaching labs and 18 faculty research labs, with a total of 172 fume hoods.
  • The 240-seat Victor J. Baxt Lecture Hall and another, smaller, lecture hall.
  • The Teknor Apex Instrumentation Lab.

URI chemistry exterior

The building exterior features a number of façade materials including gray face brick, manufactured stone, phenolic resin, composite metal panels, and a significant amount of glass curtainwall and punched window opening, allowing for natural lighting and views of the surrounding campus. The interior consists of Nora rubber flooring in all corridors and labs, while carpeting and porcelain tile were used throughout the common areas. The surrounding site was upgraded with new underground drainage, parking lots, lighting, concrete walks, and a large new seating plaza off of the second floor egress.

The building has achieved LEED Silver and is expected to use 50% less energy than comparable existing buildings, resulting in a 20% savings over and above the minimum Rhode Island Energy Code.

Read More at High-Profile

Push is on to deliver Beverly Middle School on time

Salem News - Ken Yuszkus/Staff photo - Mayor Michael Cahill, left, walks with Robert Gilchrist, the contractor's project site manager, during a tour Friday of the construction site for the new Beverly Middle School.  The school is expected to o…

Salem News - Ken Yuszkus/Staff photo - Mayor Michael Cahill, left, walks with Robert Gilchrist, the contractor's project site manager, during a tour Friday of the construction site for the new Beverly Middle School.  The school is expected to open in the fall of 2018.

BEVERLY — It still has a long way to go before its doors open to students and staff in the fall of 2018, but the new Beverly Middle School is taking shape.

Structural steel is going up, and Agostini Bacon, the general contractor, plans to power through the winter months to keep the project on schedule, according to Robert Gilchrist, the company's project site manager.

At $109 million, the new school will accommodate grades 5-8, and will include a new auditorium, gymnasium and "academic neighborhoods" for students with project space, plus outdoor dining and an amphitheater. It is being built on the site of the former Memorial Building on Cabot Street.

Read more at Salem News

URI opens new $68-million chemistry building

ASHVIN FERNANDO, A PH.D. CANDIDATE FROM SRI LANKA, WORKS IN ONE OF THE LABS AT THE RICHARD E. BEAUPRE CENTER FOR CHEMICAL AND FORENSIC SCIENCES. - URI PHOTO, NORA LEWIS

ASHVIN FERNANDO, A PH.D. CANDIDATE FROM SRI LANKA, WORKS IN ONE OF THE LABS AT THE RICHARD E. BEAUPRE CENTER FOR CHEMICAL AND FORENSIC SCIENCES. - URI PHOTO, NORA LEWIS

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — State officials joined business leaders and the University of Rhode Island community Tuesday morning to mark the opening of the school’s new $68-million Richard E. Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences Center, which was funded mostly by a $61-million bond Rhode Islanders approved in the 2010 election.

The ribbon-cutting symbolizes the latest development in a building boom involving several Rhode Island-based schools that are making significant investments in improved teaching and research capabilities in the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Read more at Providence Journal

Scituate Middle School in High Profile Oct. 2016 Edition

Scituate Middle School

Scituate Middle School

Scituate, MA – Bacon Agostini Construction Joint Venture of East Providence, R.I., recently won the bid for the Scituate Middle School project. As the general contractor, Bacon Agostini joins owner’s project manager, Daedalus Projects Inc., and Architect, Dore & Whittier Architects, Inc. to manage the completion of this middle school in time for the start of the 2017-2018 school year.

Read more at High Profile

Donation to Bryant campus ministry provides students with new opportunities to share in the faith

NEW MINISTRY: George and Mary Agostini, parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish, Seekonk, pose with student and staff participants of a recent alternative spring break trip.         

NEW MINISTRY: George and Mary Agostini, parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish, Seekonk, pose with student and staff participants of a recent alternative spring break trip.         

By Lauren Clem, Staff Reporter

SMITHFIELD — Students at a recent Sunday evening Mass celebrated in Bryant University’s Interfaith Center chapel were eager to share stories about spring break. However, unlike most of their peers, the group of 15 students had spent their spring break not on the beach, but in Washington D.C., where they participated in community service with a number of nonprofit ministries. The students were part of an alternative spring break trip, one of several new opportunities made possible by a recent donation to Catholic and Christian ministry at the university.

“I wanted to do more community service, and not just for a resume,” said sophomore Catherine Bennetti, who spoke about her experiences on the trip at a reception following the Mass. “It made me really appreciate the work that I was doing. It made me feel very small, and that was a good thing.”

Bennetti and other students were able to participate in the trip due to a generous donation to campus ministry by George and Mary Agostini, parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish, Seekonk. Among other initiatives, the donation will fund the hiring of a part-time Catholic campus minister to coordinate religious programs and community service, including future alternative spring break trips.

Read more at thericatholic.com

Our feature in Construction-Today on the Plymouth South High School Project

Built by Agostini and Bacon Construction, the new high school in Plymouth, Mass., is a huge undertaking for these seasoned firms.

By Angela Forsyth

Coming soon to Plymouth, Mass., is a newly constructed $90.3 million school – a big budget for a big, 248,000-square-foot high school. Although the size and cost are monumental, the job isn’t too big for Agostini Construction and Bacon Construction, two companies run by one family. Plymouth South High School is a Bacon Agostini Construction joint venture that broke ground in July 2015 and will be completed by May 2017.

Read more at Construction-today.com

Construction Today Highlights the URI Center for Chemistry and Forensic Science

When it opens its doors in 2016, the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Chemistry and Forensic Sciences will provide more than just classroom and lab space for a large segment of the university’s student population.

The $68 million center will provide state-of-the-art facilities for faculty members researching technologies and applications to benefit the nation at large, including developing advanced batteries for energy-efficient cars, improving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan machines and creating new early disease detection methods. The center will also house one of the county’s most important research and training resources in the war against terrorism, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center of Excellence for Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response. 

Read the article at construction-today.com

Beverly Middle School

Beverly, MA – Bacon Agostini Construction Joint Venture is excited to announce that they have been awarded the contract to be the Construction Manager on the new Beverly Middle School in Beverly, MA.  Bacon Agostini joins the Owner’s Project Manager, Heery International, Inc. and Designer Ai3 Architects, LLC, on this $90 million dollar construction project.  This project includes construction of a new 231,509 SF, 1,395studentmiddleschool serving grades 5 through 8. The project will include a 4-story classroom core with each floor dedicated to one grade and a common outdoor learning area.  The project will include a 535 seat auditorium, a 352 seat cafeteria on the first floor for grades 5 & 6 and a 352 seat cafeteria on the third floor for grades 7 & 8, a gymnasium, classrooms, media center and administrationspaces. The new school will be constructed at 502 Cabot Street at the site of the existing Memorial Building. The existing 103,000 SF Memorial Building will be abated and demolished, commencing in January 2016. Existing playing fields will be renovated and reconfigured adjacent to the new building. The Bacon Agostini Team will be Bob Gilchrist as the Project Manager, Bill “Sharky” Edge as Superintendent, Rob Lanzieri as Assistant Project Manager and Tricia Saviano as the Project Administrator.  Pre-Construction CM Services started in May 2015, early construction packages for sitework, concrete piles, foundations and structural steel are planned for 2016 and substantial completion is scheduled for March 2018.