GSA makes sustainable investments at the Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Courthouse

August 08, 2024

Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act as part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced a $2.4 million contract award to Gale Construction Company, a woman-owned small disadvantaged business based out of Joliet, Illinois, for repairs at the Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This award highlights GSA’s commitment to collaborating and building more robust outreach to promote opportunities for small, disadvantaged and socioeconomic entities.

The work includes critical repairs to the building’s loading dock using low-embodied carbon (LEC) materials, including asphalt, concrete and steel, to repair and replace corroded steel members, delaminated and spalled concrete and damaged asphalt.

“The investment in the Weis U.S. Courthouse is an example of how we’re making strategic investments in critical facilities across the region,” said Tom Lyman, Acting Regional Administrator for GSA’s Mid-Atlantic Region. “The project will make repairs to building infrastructure, while using sustainable building materials and investing in small businesses.”

The funding for the courthouse improvements–made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act [PDF], the largest climate investment in history–will be used for LEC materials that have fewer greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production.

The Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Courthouse project is one of more than 150 low-embodied carbon material projects that GSA announced last November.

The announcement furthers the Biden-Harris Administration’s Federal Buy Clean Initiative, under which the federal government is, for the first time, prioritizing the purchase of low-embodied carbon asphalt, concrete, glass and steel that have lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production, use and disposal. These investments aim to expand America’s industrial capacity for manufacturing goods and materials of the future, address the climate crisis and create good-paying jobs for workers in the region.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes $3.4 billion for GSA to build, modernize, and maintain more sustainable and cost-efficient high-performance facilities. This funding includes $2.15 billion specifically for LEC construction materials. GSA’s Inflation Reduction Act projects will implement new technologies and accelerate GSA’s efforts toward achieving a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045. Through these investments, GSA estimates a total greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 2.3 million metric tons, the same amount that 500,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles produce each year.

This project is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, focused on growing the American economy from the bottom up and the middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

To learn more, visit GSA’s Inflation Reduction Act web page.

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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing about $100 billion in products and services via federal contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @US_GSAR3.