Any great construction company knows you can’t just dig a hole or install pipes anywhere. Many factors must be evaluated even to begin the groundbreaking process. We aren’t just talking about permits and screening for regulations; while those are important, many more external factors must be evaluated.

Every geographic region Equix operates in has a unique set of obstacles and extraneous limitations we must consider. These obstacles can range from extra permits to working to protect local endangered species or topographic setbacks. Luckily, Equix’s subsidiary, Mi-Tech, has experts specifically for environmental factors. Mi-Tech is there for all our projects’ testing, evaluation, and planning needs. 

Stephanie Finamore, the Environmental Manager and Senior Environmental Scientist for Mi-Tech, shed light on some of these essential externalities. She explained how wetland and bedrock have proven problematic when making a site plan. Wetlands can only be delineated within their specific growing season, and for the Midwest, that is a very short time slot between May and October. In the case of bedrock, amounts of overburden vary greatly, making it essential to pinpoint where the bedrock occurs. These factors, unique to every project, require detailed planning and sufficient testing.

Another hurdle Stephanie finds herself crossing over is the avoidance periods for endangered species. In many cases, states have different regulations regarding their native species. This means there are time intervals where construction isn’t allowed due to potentially disturbing the natural species. For these timelines to be adequate for building and meeting client deadlines, extensive research, testing, and forethought must be brought to the table to ensure honest and prompt service is delivered on every project. 

We are fortunate to have experts like Stephanie on our team to conduct extensive and careful research to guarantee a safe installation and workspace for our site teams. It carries into our core values of maintaining our promise to environmental stewardship and confidence that research has been done to construct responsibly.