GSA makes sustainable investments at the Erie Federal Complex Library Building

August 13, 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 $1.2 million contract award to Gale Construction Company, a woman-owned small disadvantaged business based out of Joliet, Illinois, for repairs to the skylight support framing of the Federal Complex Library Building in Erie, 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 the removal of the existing deteriorated skylight, and framing, construction of a new roof support structure and the installation of a new roofing assembly.

The funding for the improvements–made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history–will be used for low-embodied carbon materials that have fewer greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production, including cold-formed steel framing, steel channel, steel plate and steel decking.

“The investment in the Erie Federal Complex Library building is an example of how we’re making strategic investments in buildings across the region,” said Tom Lyman, Acting Regional Administrator for GSA’s Mid-Atlantic Region.  “We are not only addressing crucial infrastructure repairs using sustainable materials but also supporting small businesses in the process.”

The Erie Federal Complex project is one of more than 150 low-embodied carbon material projects that GSA announced last November. Construction is expected to begin in September 2024 and be completed by summer 2025.

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 low-embodied carbon 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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