Dive Brief:
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Apple will replace Swedish construction giant Skanska and American commercial contractor DPR Construction on its buzzed-about spaceship-shaped headquarters in Silicon Valley after a string of reported delays and cost overruns. The company broke ground on the project in 2014, but the completion date has been repeatedly pushed back.
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The two companies, in a joint venture, have overseen building of the secretive, multibillion-dollar Apple Campus 2 project in Cupertino, CA, which reportedly involves some first-ever construction techniques. The tech giant had already retained another company, Rudolph & Sletten, rather than Skanska, for the interior build-out — a mid-project switch that is unusual for jobs of this scope.
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The Silicon Valley Business Journal, which reported the shakeup, quoted an internal Skanska email as saying the company and DPR “will transition completely off the project in the next several weeks,” but did not say why Apple severed the relationship.
Dive Insight:
"It’s challenging when you’re doing first-of’s,” David Shields, director of the construction management program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Journal. “They certainly have a lot more schedule and cost risk associated with them."
The Journal speculated that Atlanta-based Holder Construction might replace Skanska, one of the world’s largest contractors. Skanska stands to lose a reported $800 million in the departure.
