Pennsylvania Construction Recap – Top Stories for the Week Ending December 19, 2025

This week’s top stories in Pennsylvania:

KCA’s Mental Awareness Task Force Announces Monthly Seminar Series: Titled, Building A Stronger Workforce, the KCA announced this week that starting January 28, 2026, the Association will host a monthly seminar series. Construction is a tough industry and this series tackles real life mental health issues impacting our industry. For more info: A 2026 Construction Seminar Series Building A Stronger Workforce.

Groundbreaking on Massive Southern Berks Industrial Park: A huge 5.5 million-sq-ft industrial park officially broke ground in Southern Berks County, on land once part of the Bethlehem Steel site. Once complete, it’s expected to generate ~2,750 jobs and roughly $2 billion in economic activity, with Phase I scheduled by late 2026. READ MORE.

Pennsylvania Continues Explosive Data Center Expansion: Despite environmental and grid capacity concerns, Pennsylvania’s data center construction boom is accelerating—with approvals like converting the former Cheswick coal plant into a data center moving forward. This positions Pennsylvania as a major hub for AI-driven infrastructure, though some communities and energy regulators are pushing back. READ MORE.

Stay Safe, Stay Informed & Keep Building Pennsylvania!

May Is Mental Health Awareness Month

The Keystone Contractors Association is hosting virtual discussions each week in May for Mental Health Awareness Month. These webinars aim to address mental health issues in the construction industry, provide resources for companies and workers. The series ends on a hopeful note with a personal story of overcoming anxiety and depression.

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, the Keystone Contractors Association is offering some excellent virtual discussions/presentations each week to help us all on our journeys. This journey starts Monday, May 6, at noon and we hope to help many with these events.

Let’s Talk about Mental Health!, Mon, May 6, 2024 at 12:00 PM

To kick off the Mental Health Awareness webinar series, we’re going to first lay the foundation to build off of. Kara McCaffrey starts the conversation, making it known that’s ok to talk about mental health issues. Safety is undeniably critical in construction to ensure you take care of your employees and your business. But did you know that more people die by suicide in construction than from all fatal work-related injuries combined? In this webinar, learn more about mental health, why the construction industry has such high rates of suicide, and hear how one construction company is making a difference in this space. Prioritizing and putting more of an emphasis on worker well-being and mental health, and not just safety, could end up saving more lives than you know.

Construction Wellbeing Initiative, Mon, May 13, 2024 at 12:00 PM

After this opening webinar, and its’ established that’s it’s ok not to be ok, this next webinar focuses on resources for construction companies and workers. When it comes to supporting your field employees’ mental health, you do not need to reinvent the wheel! Sebastien de Ghellinck and his company SkillSignal partnered with Princeton University to identify, analyze, and curate positive interventions from construction professionals that have demonstrated a positive impact on workers’ wellbeing.

Naloxone 101, Mon, May 20, 2024 at 12:00 PM

You’ve heard about NARCAN and you may have even known someone who has used it but are you prepared to save someone’s life? As you may know, the KCA supports the annual Construction Opioid Awareness Week and we encourage every construction company to partake in some educational outreach during this week, which is the last full week of July. Each year we build on our resources and feature a new goal or resource. Our goal this year is have every construction jobsite to have Naloxone on it and we are excited to be able to feature Chris Lalevee from Operating Engineers Union 825 deliver this talk. Chris was one of the first advocates in the country for Naloxone on every jobsite.

Living, Working & Fixing Anxiety & Depression from a Construction Executive, Tue, May 28, 2024 at 12:00 PM

At the KCA we are really excited to offer this webinar series during May. We wanted to finish it on a high note with a story of hope and we think we accomplished that goal! Chris Linton is a construction executive from the southeastern area of Pennsylvania who has struggled with major anxiety and depression. It’s a new day for him and his mental health struggles and challenges have improved. He wants to share his story and help others.

Please feel free to share these virtual offerings with your network.