For this construction giant, ‘small’ only appears to come into play when taking care of the finest details before signing off each of its estimated 30 projects annually. Erecting more than 7,000 units in just over five years has given Callahan, Inc. a coveted spot on Engineering News-Record magazine’s 2019 list of the top 400 U.S. construction firms. It is also one of the largest open-shop construction management firms in its region and the embodiment of consistency and attention to detail.

With its solid grasp of quality construction, the company provides private national developers, real estate investment trusts, institutions, universities, colleges, and smaller local developers with a variety of specialty preconstruction and construction management services from its 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Its clients’ trust in its ability means that the vast majority of its work results in repeat business.

Callahan, Inc.’s dedication is evident in its growth. Expansion is a welcome constant; the firm opened its new offices in White Plains, New York in 2019, allowing it to expand its reach to cover an area from New Jersey to southern Maine, including Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. Two of Callahan’s latest projects will be breaking ground in Yonkers, New York and Basking Ridge, New Jersey soon. In addition to increasing its footprint, the company added to its staff of over 200 employees during the pandemic, securing its place in its newly acquired territory.

Callahan, Inc. is recognized for its wide range of projects that include reasonably-priced, mixed-use, multifamily buildings and affordable housing as well as senior living, hotel and hospitality, educational, and retail facilities. The firm also creates corporate interiors and has, more recently, achieved considerable success with the construction of several highly-specialized, complex laboratory units that study life sciences. “We have made great progress over the past few years in establishing Callahan as a market leader in Greater Boston suburban lab/life sciences,” says Vice President of Business Development Stephen R. Callahan Jr.

Among the company’s many laboratory projects are the Linx biotechnology building in Watertown, MA for Boylston Properties; 200 Smith Street in Waltham, MA for Anchor Line Partners; 300 3rd Avenue for Lincoln Property Company; Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, MA, for which the firm completed multiple projects, receiving several awards; several projects for MIT; and others for Brandeis University. Callahan incorporates technology like building information modeling and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems coordination into its meticulous planning processes. This allows teams to coordinate, in tremendous detail, all the functions that must coexist in these complicated buildings.

Indeed, some of the most respected entities across New England and the Mid-Atlantic benefit from Callahan’s broad suite of services. These include a full-service civil and site-work division complemented by value-added preconstruction services. These pre-qualify subcontractors, solicit and review bids, draw up budgets and estimates, set up schedules and timeline reviews, conduct site feasibility research, and offer advice on material options and price. An in-house civil engineer, architectural reviewer, and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural (MEPS) manager, are all equipped to see the completion of its many intricate projects.

Certainly, there has been no shortage of business. One of the company’s recent projects was a U$187-million construction for Bozzuto, a well-known real estate and property management leader. The Abbey, a transit-oriented, mixed-use development in North Quincy, Massachusetts, consists of 610 residential apartments, 50,000 square feet of retail space, and a 1200-stall precast garage, all planned around the concept of optimal functioning. This gargantuan project is the firm’s largest yet.

“The Callahan, Inc. team is ready to make this project one of its best yet,” says Stephen. And, with many prestigious projects like Montaje Apartments, a mixed-use residential complex in Somerville; the Meriel Marina Bay, a residential building in Quincy; North Point Lofts II in Cambridge, and many more, there is no doubt that Callahan Inc. will make The Abbey another roaring triumph.

The company was started by Jack and Marie Callahan during the property boom that followed WWII. After opening its first office in 1954, its claim to fame was building scores of Dunkin’ Donuts and Howard Johnson outlets. Callahan quickly grew as new clients called and became a trusted name in construction management, synonymous with quality and value. Soon, Jack and Marie’s five sons were all on board, followed by more family members. Today, family is still just as important, with three Callahans still serving on the company’s executive management team.

Because family matters, Callahan, Inc. invests in its people, communities, and environmental stewardship. This includes its Constructing Communities program that partners with and invests in the communities where it builds, while employees also receive everything they need to thrive and deliver superior work. Safety and best construction practices to reduce energy consumption are other important aspects of the company’s corporate identity and remain priorities.

To ensure that safety standards are upheld, Callahan Inc. employs six qualified, full-time safety officers who keep tabs on all aspects of its people’s health and safety on site. Its safety orientation courses include a 30-hour Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training session and the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Hot Works course. Its approach to dealing with on-site dangers landed the company the National Safety Award in 2017 and resulted in ten consecutive Gold Safety, Training, and Evaluation Process (S.T.E.P.) awards from the Gould Construction Institute and Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.

With a 66-year old track record, there have been many remarkable moments for this company over the years – like when it received an Average Project Evaluation Rating of 96 out of 100 by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And the public praise it received from Deborah C. Jackson, fourth president of Cambridge College, upon completion of one of its most important projects for the institution – noted by Stephen R. Callahan Jr. as one of the proudest accomplishments of his career.

Thanks to its collective go-getter spirit, drive, and commitment to excellence, Callahan Inc. has had many great achievements, but its biggest are yet to come. “We see enormous potential for growth in the Greater Boston suburban life sciences sector due to extremely strong demand for suburban lab/lab-ready products, which has only been exacerbated by COVID-19,” shares Stephen. With sustained growth in this sector and others, Callahan Inc. will surely continue outshining its competition.

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When public transit cannot keep riders safe, what mode of transportation can support a sudden influx of commuters looking for an alternative? Cities that rely on public transport cannot simply shift commuters onto existing road systems – the capacity for a major uptick in automobile traffic simply would not be there. And, of course, not everyone owns a car. The high costs, from the vehicle itself to parking fees, insurance, and gas, mean that driving is not a solution for everyone. There is also the environmental impact. More cars on the road would mean more pollution and carbon emissions.

So what have municipalities done to provide safe transportation infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic? One solution has been to provide safer opportunities for cycling. Not only is cycling a mode of transport that allows physical distancing, it is also environmentally friendly and provides exercise, boosting both physical and mental health.

Construction workers throughout Canada and the U.S. have been at the forefront of efforts to provide better cycling opportunities during the pandemic by building bike lanes and expanding greenways. And these construction professionals have plenty of work to do. North American cities lag far behind our European counterparts when it comes to cycling infrastructure.

People regularly take advantage of this strong cycling infrastructure.For example, 43 percent of people in the Netherlands cycle every day, according to cyclinguk.org, and a whopping 62 percent of commuters in Copenhagen, Denmark get to work via bicycle, usa.streetsblog.org reports. Compare these numbers to Canada’s, where, before COVID-19 hit, only 9.1 percent of people in Vancouver biked or walked to work, 7.2 percent of Montreal’s commuters did so, and just 6.7 percent of Toronto’s commuters traveled to work via bike or on foot. In Portland, Oregon, one of the United States’ most bike-friendly cities, between five and ten percent of residents bike to work, according to usa.streetsblog.org.

A multi-city study found that cities with protected and separated bike lanes have 44 percent fewer deaths than an average city, usa.streetsblog.org reports. This means that bike lanes need more separation than just a painted line for optimal safety. Ideally, they should be segmented from the main road via a physical barrier to keep automobile and bike traffic apart. This is where the construction industry comes in. There is an astounding amount of potential work when it comes to creating a safe cycling environment in North American cities. Add to this the need to connect existing bike paths and the work increases even more. Because, in order to make cycling a viable solution, separated bike paths must take cyclists to their destination – not just dump them into a network of busy roads with no way to continue safely.

Cities have already responded to the pandemic by creating new bike lanes – and new work for the construction industry. Paris, Milan, and Bogotá led the charge in laying down hundreds of kilometers of new bike paths, theconversation.com reports. Canada quickly followed suit. Toronto approved 40 kilometers of new cycling infrastructure in 2020 to lure riders from public transportation to a socially distanced mode of transport. Citizens backed the project: in a recent survey, 84 percent of respondents supported the construction of protected bike lanes in Toronto, cbc.ca reports. Montreal, Vancouver, and many other Canadian cities have been busy putting in new bike lanes as well.

Municipalities throughout North America have also turned their attention to expanding cycling infrastructure over the past year. Major cities including New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago all announced plans to construct new bike lanes throughout their municipalities in 2020. Washington, DC alone is planning to build 20 miles of new protected bike lanes over the next three years, the District Department of Transportation reports.

And there is great potential for more, post-pandemic construction work in the future when it comes to cycling infrastructure. In North America, bike lanes are typically nothing more than a narrow lane, separated from traffic by a mere line of paint, that funnels cyclists through dangerous intersections alongside automobiles. The possibilities for improving this infrastructure over the next decade are huge.

Nowhere is this potential demonstrated more than the Netherlands, a nation brimming with cycling enthusiasts, where bicycles outnumber residents by 6 million and more than one-quarter of all trips are made by bicycle, The Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis reports. The Dutch have made cycling infrastructure a priority, with creative solutions such as roundabouts that prioritize bikes over automobiles.

Canada is already taking notice. The city of Kitchener, Ontario is planning to move forward on $6 million worth of cycling infrastructure that includes a bicycle-friendly Dutch roundabout and 10 kilometers of new bike lanes in the downtown core, kitchener.ctvnews.ca reports. The project will require raised concrete barriers and major infrastructure changes.

Of course, not all bike-related construction has been or will be road-based. Cities and towns are also recognizing the importance of bike and walking trails. During the pandemic the use of trails exploded as people looked for ways to get out of the house while socially distancing. According to the Rails to Trails Conservatory (RTC), trail use initially spiked 200 percent throughout the United States during the shutdown. Throughout the pandemic, trail use has remained 50 percent higher than in previous years. These figures demonstrate the need for better trail infrastructure. The related construction projects would focus more on improving quality of life than reducing traffic or providing alternatives to public transport.

New York State recognized this need and allowed construction to continue on the Empire State Trail during the shutdown, when nonessential work halted. The ambitious, $200 million project saw the construction of 350 miles of new paths and linked existing ones to create a continuous trail stretching from New York City to Canada and from Albany to Buffalo, timesunion.com reports. Now completed, the project has given bikers and hikers unprecedented access to 750 miles of interconnected trails crisscrossing New York State. The state estimates 8.6 million people will use the trail every year, the Democrat & Chronicle reports, and that figure could be even higher while social distancing remains in effect.

The Empire State Trail could be a sign of what is to come. With one major project successfully giving cyclists and pedestrians better access to nature, others may follow suit. After a year of frustration, loss, anxiety, and unprecedented challenges, better access to nature – and the social distancing it allows – makes good sense. And, of course, the health-boosting benefits of time spent outdoors will continue long after the pandemic abates.

The same goes for safer cycling infrastructure. With priorities and expectations still shifting from an unprecedented 2020, the coming year will be one to watch when it comes to new construction projects that prioritize pedestrians and cyclists over motorists.

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