MCL Construction is thankful for our employees every day.  Today, we are especially thankful for a select few whose work history before they joined MCL is honorable. 
 
On this Veterans Day, we recognize the MCL employees, and everyone who are veterans of the United States Military. We honor their service and commitment to our country and our freedom.  Veterans Day is a national holiday that originally began as Armistice Day.  In 1954, the holiday was changed to Veterans Day so we could honor all veterans. 
 
In 2019, MCL Construction was selected to preserve the legacy of those who have served through art.  We were asked to relocate statues from the Gene Leahy Mall and Heartland of America Park to Memorial Park as part of the Riverfront Revitalization Project.  Each piece of artwork tells the stories of Omaha history and military service. ​

MCL recognizes the following veterans within MCL Construction: 

• Tim Tiensvold, Army National Guard 
• Tyler Prucha, United States Coast Guard  
• Josh Gorczynski, United States Army 
• Wyatt Hansen, United States Air Force 
  
• Brad Lorentzen, U.S. Marine Corps
  

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Each of these individuals brings a unique talent to our company and we are proud they chose MCL.  Thank you for your service. 

About MCL Construction
​For many businesses, navigating the entire construction process and knowing who to trust can be overwhelming.  At MCL Construction, our people simplify the process by listening, planning, executing, and continuing the relationship to build their vision

John Dahir fell into the position of Safety Director 17 years ago. 
 
He grew up watching his father and grandfather work with their hands and was hooked on the way they could turn almost nothing into something.  Following in their path, he went to work in construction.  Three years into his career as a laborer, one moment changed his career path. 
 
John was working on a project site demoing a plaster ceiling when he fell off a step ladder.  He fell 8 feet to the ground and, trying to protect his face, he stuck out his arm to brace the fall.  He landed on his arm and shattered three bones in his left elbow.  He was taken to the hospital with a compound wound. 
 
“Shock kind of took over.  I stood back up ready to get back not realizing what had really happened,” MCL Safety Manager John Dahir said. 
 
John needed surgery to repair the injury and ended up with four external fixator screws to help set the bones.  During his recovery, he was given the position of Kiewit’s Safety Manager.  What was supposed to be a temporary position turned into a career.  He was passionate about preventing anyone else from going through what he did.  Injuries are preventable and he wanted to be the one to prevent them. 
 
“My goal is to make sure everyone returns home in the same condition they came to work in,” John said.  “I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.” 
 
Now, his elbow is completely healed but he carries with him a 14” scar on the back of his left arm that reminds him why safety is so important and why he is committed to protecting others on the job site. 
 
John officially joined the MCL team on October 28, 2020.  His safety career started at Kiewit where he spent 13 years as the Safety Manager.  He left Kiewit in 2015 and accepted a position as the Safety Manager for Beal Derkeene Construction.  He spent about 8 months with that company before accepting a position with another Nebraska construction firm as its Safety Director.  He held that position for five years. 
 
At MCL, success starts with safety.  It is our top priority and one of our core values the business operates on.  Under John’s leadership, the men and women employed with MCL can trust that their job site is a safe job site. 
 
John hopes that through his experience as a laborer and as someone who suffered a workplace injury, he will be a resource for our field team.  He says he wants to do more than plan.  He will be a hands-on instructor who wants to pitch in and show our team different safety techniques.   
 
“I have been on both sides of the fence.  I have worked on the management side and the craft side, so my approach is more or less to treat people how you want to be treated on all sides of the industry,” said John. 
 
Safety starts with communication. He encourages the MCL team to come to him with any questions or concerns. When it comes to your safety, he says there is no such thing as a bad question. ​

About MCL Construction
​For many businesses, navigating the entire construction process and knowing who to trust can be overwhelming.  At MCL Construction, our people simplify the process by listening, planning, executing, and continuing the relationship to build their vision

Written by: Ben VanderWert, PHR, SHRM-CP

​​This year has brought a lot of changes in the way we operate as a community.  School days are spent at home for some, most work is virtual, and gatherings with your family and friends are distant.  It’s been hard.  What we need to keep doing is remind ourselves that we are not alone.  We are in this together and together we are learning to be flexible and adjust to what comes next. 

As MCL’s Talent Acquisition Manager, meeting and interacting with people is a huge part of my job and most of our talent is discovered by meeting college students at their campus career fairs.  Much like schools going to virtual learning, career fairs have changed to virtual as well. 

​This year, MCL Construction participated in nine virtual career fairs.  I have done virtual fairs in the past and they can be challenging. It takes out the in-person interaction and, really, the opportunity to read body language.  However, I would never pass up the opportunity to meet with students passionate about his or her next career move.  So, I took a little bit of my own advice that I mentioned earlier and tried to be flexible and adjust to what comes next.

​MCL Construction opened its new headquarters in June 2020.  More than an office space, the building incorporated state-of-the-art technology in nearly every meeting room.  The office is equipped with smart labs with interactive screens, video conferencing in collaborative meeting spaces, and conference rooms with wide-lens cameras to virtually bring an entire group to any meeting.  Having these resources made adjusting easier and allowed us to connect during a time where we feel disconnected from others. 

During each virtual fair, students would sign up for time slots before the fair.  Each student was slotted for about 10 minutes of conversation in MCL’s virtual booth.  At a traditional career fair, 10 minutes is typically enough time when there are a lot of employers and students jammed into some sort of hall or gymnasium.  Since these conversations were just one on one, they felt like a more formal interview than a quick conversation. I found that 10 minutes was not even close to being long enough with most students interested in a career with MCL Construction.  But again, we had to adjust.  We were able to set up a lot of students with second video conversations and have hired several of them for our summer internship program.  We also set up group presentations virtually using our training room’s wide camera. 

Going back to that crowded gym with a bunch of employers and students, it can be hard to gauge who is genuinely interested in your company or who just stopped by casually.  In a virtual setting, students sought you out ahead of time and prepared to spend time one on one with members of our team.  It was clear that students who signed up for our booth were seriously interested in their future in construction management. 

​There has certainly been a theme with everything going on. In order to be successful in what you are trying to accomplish these days, you need to be agile and adjust where you can.  Also, remind yourself you can control what you can and adjust to what you can’t.  Thank you to everyone who made that adjustment with us and attended our virtual career fairs.  We look forward to seeing some of you over the summer.

About MCL Construction
​For many businesses, navigating the entire construction process and knowing who to trust can be overwhelming.  At MCL Construction, our people simplify the process by listening, planning, executing, and continuing the relationship to build their vision

Just like doctors know their patients, MCL Construction knows the anatomy of a building.  From detailed planning meetings to intricate virtual designs, our team knows the safest approach for the best project outcome.  This is particularly important when renovating a hospital. 

CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center - Bergan Mercy selected MCL and design partner Leo A Daily to renovate and redesign the fifth floor Heart and Vascular Institute (HVI).  The project included complete demolition of the existing floor and a remodel and upgrade to include 18 larger patient rooms, an isolation room, a bariatric room, and core support areas.  

“The existing HVI bed unit was at capacity almost every day.  Cardiovascular admissions to CUMC Bergan Mercy were also up 6.5% for the first six months of 2019,” said CHI Health Planning Design and Construction Manager Brian Lancaster.  “The HVI project was identified as a necessary first step to ensure continued growth of the Cardiovascular Institute.” 

When MCL works in a hospital, the entire campus is treated as a workspace, and safety measures are in place from the start.  Hospital ventilation and med gas systems run through every floor and are essential throughout the hospital.  If you are not careful, dust and debris from the work can easily move through that system and quickly contaminate clean air in patient rooms.  

MCL has a long-standing record of successful hospital construction projects and is staffed with individuals who are experts in building spaces designed for active healthcare.  Our staff and the hospital had regular collaborative meetings before and throughout construction to develop plans to mitigate dust and control airflow to the outside of the building.  

MCL Project Manager Clayton Wachal knows exactly how to keep our workspace safe and isolated from patients.  

“I enjoy the detail in planning and collaboration because it is a lot more detail than what you need in a general construction environment,” said Wachal. 

Part of the fifth floor renovations included new restrooms.  It was a simple thought that soon required detailed planning and coordination.  The new restrooms were built on top of an occupied fourth floor and, in order to relocate them to opposite sides of the fifth floor, our team needed to access and move plumbing from the fourth floor ceiling up to the fifth floor.  MCL worked with the hospital to isolate a handful of rooms at one time and turn them back over to the hospital for use before starting new ones.  Again, airflow and isolating our space was crucial to completing this part of the renovation. 

“We set up negative air spaces meaning all the air from the hospital was flowing into our space and then outside of the building,” said Wachal.  “Nothing from our workspace went back into the hospital.  Additionally, anterooms were created to build barriers between occupied rooms and rooms we were working on.” 

MCL’s experience with hospital renovations and knowledge of the building helped the hospital modify their existing med gas structure to allow for future renovations without having to shut off entire systems.  Knowing that we needed to shut off gas temporarily, MCL proposed an idea to the hospital to bring more people in and add additional new valves to allow the hospital to isolate only the floor that needed repair rather than the entire tower in the future. 

“The MCL team quickly became a trusted partner by the project team’s willingness to help achieve the goals of our project from budget to completion,” said Lancaster.  “The knowledge, experience, and integrity that MCL brought to the table were greatly appreciated.” 

Construction is complete and the fifth floor is fully functional for staff and patient use. 

About MCL Construction
​For many businesses, navigating the entire construction process and knowing who to trust can be overwhelming.  At MCL Construction, our people simplify the process by listening, planning, executing, and continuing the relationship to build their vision

Cobalt Credit Union broke ground on their new Northeast Lincoln branch on a windy Thursday morning last week.  A fitting forecast for the new branch that makes banking a breeze for its members. 

The roughly 4,800 square foot branch is located off Windmill Drive and 84th Street.  The member-focused building is the first stand-alone branch in Lincoln.  Designed for accessibility and efficiency, it will include both personal and commercial banking services in addition to two interactive teller machines that provide customers with all their banking needs. 

“We will always have a branch strategy to grow our branches into several different neighborhoods, so this is a great opportunity for us,” said Chief Operations Officer Robin Larsen.  “We have a brand standard on what our branch will look like and we are excited to grow that into many more communities in the future.” 
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This is MCL’s second groundbreaking with Cobalt Credit Union in less than three months.  MCL broke ground on a new branch in Gretna, Nebraska, in August.  That branch will open in the spring of 2021. 

“We are excited to continue this long-lasting partnership with a great client and great project in Lincoln,” said MCL Project Manager Chad Tresslar.  “Cobalt understands MCL and we understand the expectations of Cobalt.” 

Cobalt Credit Union has a 74-year history serving customers in both eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.  The Lincoln location is its 27th branch to help serve its 110,000 members. 

“MCL is my favorite partner to work with as they really take the pressure out of building a project.  They take care of their customer and they are our preferred contractor for all of our projects,” said Larsen. 

The Lincoln credit union will open in the winter of 2021.

About MCL Construction
For many businesses, navigating the entire construction process and knowing who to trust can be overwhelming.  At MCL Construction, our people simplify the process by listening, planning, executing, and continuing the relationship to build their vision.

Creighton Preparatory School officially opened the Lannon Learning Commons on January 6, 2020.  The majority of the project is now complete; however, MCL Construction continues to work on the renovation of classroom and office space and adding new restroom space inside the high school.
 
We will share more detailed information about this project in the weeks and months ahead but wanted to share the completed time-lapse video of the new addition and the construction of the bell tower and plaza. 

The Lannon Learning Commons is named after former Creighton Prep and Creighton University President Timothy Lannon, S.J. The new addition will be a one-of-a-kind multi-use building, catering almost completely to the well-being of the student population.
 
About MCL Construction:
MCL Construction is an Omaha, Nebraska, based Construction Manager and General Contractor. It builds relationships with business partners by using construction expertise with innovative building strategies to provide a collaborative building experience.