A judge can cost you $5 million.
That’s Ryan Cos.’ own estimate of the damage from a delay on one of its Google data center projects, after an environmental group’s challenge convinced a court there were real questions about whether the state review process had been followed. Two of the firm’s mission-critical operations leaders, senior vice presidents Eric Abrams and Michael Beadle, walked through that and other headwinds in an interview with Construction Dive.
Data center construction timelines run on physics, not software
Abrams put the mismatch plainly: “Construction timelines are determined by the constraints of the physical world and not digital innovation.” He points at power availability and at the procurement and assembly of specialized electrical and cooling equipment, “which can take years given the current state of the global supply chain.”
And later: “The AI revolution is happening at a fast pace, but the physical foundation is a marathon of strategic planning and execution.”
The specific bottleneck is worth naming. The volume of data center projects in planning or under construction now exceeds the equipment and material supply chains that feed them. That breaks the just-in-time assumption underneath most commissioning schedules, where startup and testing get compressed into the tail of the job because the gear shows up when you need it. It doesn’t anymore.
Siting is a labor problem now
Beadle’s siting checklist starts where you’d expect: “The success of a project is tied to securing a site with access to a significant amount of reliable power, which requires strategic and lengthy relationships with utility partners.” Utility relationships are a multi-year asset, not a procurement item.
Then he adds something less obvious. Site attractiveness to the craft workforce has become a hyperlocal factor — how far tradespeople have to drive, what’s nearby. Subcontractors and suppliers are now picking projects based on where their in-demand craft workers actually want to work. That’s a real reversal from a market where the GC picked the sub.
Liquid cooling changes the building
Design is shifting from air cooling to advanced liquid cooling, with newer facilities engineered to minimize water draw — a direct response to the scrutiny driving local opposition and utility caution in a lot of markets.
The structural consequence: electrical and mechanical equipment, not the data hall, is now driving building size. More gear at higher energy densities means more hazard analysis before energization, and safety planning that starts at design rather than at startup.
Dodge Construction Network data shows data center planning eased in June from earlier 2026 levels. The sector still dominates the backlog at the largest contractors. Zoning and permitting remain, in Ryan’s telling, the thing keeping builders selective about what they chase.