A multiyear building boom, the likes of which hasn't been seen around here since the two North Shore stadiums and the David. L. Lawrence Convention Center were under construction, is on the horizon for Pittsburgh's contractors and architects.

By the end of this year, it's probable that a new Penguins arena will be under construction, as will a shiny new casino along the Ohio River. The Children's Hospital project will still be consuming workers, along with a new Westinghouse campus in Cranberry, the Allegheny River tunnel project, new skyscrapers and Downtown condos, and smaller projects, like outfitting power plants with air scrubbers.

The simultaneous projects mean the supply of local workers may at times struggle to keep up with demand. But that's a good problem to have, trade groups agree, and it shouldn't greatly affect construction schedules.

"It's going to put a strain on it. It's going to stay like this for four or five years," hopes Richard Stanizzo, business manager of the Pittsburgh Building and Construction Trades Council. The council is the umbrella organization representing about 20,000 tradesmen and women in the seven-county Pittsburgh region.

Mr. Stanizzo said the trades council will have to add to its ranks just to keep up with the local demand for iron workers, carpenters, electricians, steam fitters, boilermakers and the rest. That means reaching into high schools and vocational-technical schools, and it also means advertising on billboards and print publications. And it may also mean reaching into neighboring markets, shifting union workers from Erie or Altoona, if need be.

Already, said Jason Fincke, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, carpenters and iron workers are at full employment throughout the region. The Western Pennsylvania region includes about 40,000 men and women, pretty much all of the tradesmen west of Harrisburg, and Mr. Fincke expects that his umbrella guild might also reach full employment over the next year, as projects move off of the drawing board.

He, like Mr. Stanizzo, is convinced the workers will be available as needed, but there won't be much flexibility when it comes to scheduling, Mr. Fincke said. Workers can't afford to sit idle for days at a time at one construction site when another site is in need. And in order to meet the various construction deadlines, laborers shouldn't expect an abundance of vacation days, either. "It's going to be a real juggling act," Mr. Fincke concluded.

Plan B bubble bigger

This particular juggling act arises as Pittsburgh encounters a construction bubble, its biggest since the late 1990s and early 2000s. PNC Park and Heinz Field were under construction, the convention center was expanding -- collectively, the work was spurred by Plan B, the public funding mechanism that allowed the threesome to be built. At the same time, Pitt's Petersen Events Center was being built, as were PNC's new riverside office building, a Mellon Bank operations center, the Waterfront shops, SouthSide Works, a Station Square expansion and the Summerset at Frick Park homes.

It was the biggest boom in decades, more fruitful than the late 1980s and early '90s, when the Pittsburgh International Airport terminal was being assembled.

"People said it couldn't be done," recalled Mr. Fincke.

But it was.

And it was busier then than it will be in the years to come.

When skilled craftsmen are in demand, that also typically translates into a higher demand for laborers -- the guys who clean up at the site, or build the scaffolding, or operate forklifts. Paul Quarantillo, president of the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania, said his 6,500 workers are employed at 75 percent capacity right now (some are out of work because of the winter lull). He hopes that the jobs on the horizon could push employment toward full capacity.

"We feel confident that we'll be able to man the projects," if not within Allegheny County, then within the seven-county region.

Still: "The biggest challenge is to have the people who are trained and productive," he said.

Labor is the main concern, but secondary to that is equipment and materials. And if a few projects -- say, the Majestic Star casino and the new arena -- are taking up most of the available drilling equipment, there isn't much equipment for the rest of the jobs.

On the design side, architects and engineers are also gearing up for the busy stretch.

"There's a lot of work on the board right now," said John Schrott, president of IKM Inc., a Downtown architectural firm.

Especially in boom times, architects must prepare for any price or scheduling adjustments that would be necessitated by temporary labor shortages or unexpected surges in subcontracting and materials costs.

Like his labor-side counterparts, Mr. Schrott shares the opinion that Pittsburgh's regional stable of architects will be able to meet the challenge.

And today's burden is further eased by the reality that two landmark projects -- PNC tower and Majestic Star -- have hired architects from out of town.

"We are very capable of producing the amount of work that is needed," he said.