AECOM Pushes Early Planning as Data Center Complexity Mounts

A data center can be fully financed and still be years from breaking ground if its power, water or permitting strategy remains unresolved. That front-end bottleneck is pulling AECOM deeper into project decisions that once belonged mainly to developers and contractors.

Lara Poloni, AECOM’s president, told Construction Dive that owners are bringing advisers into projects earlier because hyperscale facilities have become infrastructure ecosystems rather than standalone buildings. Site selection now turns on utility capacity, transmission access, environmental constraints, transportation links and local acceptance, often before a final design exists.

“Money alone” will not get these projects built, Poloni said. The winning approach is to coordinate strategic advisory, environmental planning, permitting, utility work, engineering and program management from the outset, when changes are still relatively cheap and schedules remain flexible.

That shift matters commercially for AECOM, whose role can begin at the conceptual phase and extend through delivery. The Dallas-based firm has identified high-tech work as one of its fastest-growing U.S. businesses, while also positioning itself to capture spending on the supporting systems that data centers require: generation, transmission, water treatment and transportation.

The opportunity is broadening beyond a single building boom. A new campus can trigger upgrades to substations, pipelines, roads and regional water networks, creating a chain of engineering and program-management assignments. AECOM said its pipeline and backlog are growing across transportation, water, environmental services, energy and facilities.

The strategy also carries a warning. AECOM reported an $86.7 million fiscal third-quarter net loss after taking a $337 million charge on a construction-management project delayed by subcontractor productivity. Its backlog nevertheless reached a record $27.82 billion, up 13% from a year earlier.

That contrast explains why early decision-making has become a strategic selling point. AECOM is tightening the handoff between design, risk assessment and construction, while avoiding contract structures that leave it absorbing poorly defined exposure. The company said it now favors guaranteed-maximum-price arrangements in its construction-management business, with designs and subcontractor costs developed further before assuming additional risk.

For investors, the data center cycle is therefore less about counting buildings than tracking who controls the complicated work before construction starts. AECOM wants that position.