Nexii builds 10 highway rest area buildings in New York using concrete alternative

HAZLETON, PA— Green construction company Nexii Building Solutions recently completed 10 service plaza buildings as part of a larger project along the New York State Thruway.

The Vancouver-based company, acting as a subcontractor for design builder AECOM Tishman, designed and manufactured the high-performance building envelopes as efficient, sustainable alternatives to traditional commercial retail at rest stops.

The rest area buildings are part of a project that will bring 23 new service plazas along the New York State Thruway by 2024. 

Each building is between 6,400 and 14,800 square feet and made with Nexii panels using the company’s concrete alternative, Nexiite, which, according to the company requires fewer resources, produces near-zero onsite construction waste and significantly reduces end-to-end carbon emissions. 

A preliminary Life Cycle Assessment of Nexii’s panels compared to a functionally equivalent high-performance tilt-up design suggests a 36 per cent reduction in embodied carbon. Building panels for the project are manufactured at the Nexii Certified Manufacturer plant in Hazleton, Pa. and assembled onsite.

The plant in Hazleton opened earlier this year and is the company’s first manufacturing plant in the United States. It brought 100 green jobs to the community, with a goal of 250 total jobs as work begins on additional projects, including the upcoming construction of a green data center.