Southeast Pulse: July 2024
Planning and Proposals
Alabama
Construction has started on a $600-million design-bid-build project to construct an expansion to the Facebook Data Center in Huntsville. Owners Meta Platforms Inc. and Starbelt LLC have not listed a completion date for the project, which calls for adding two new one-story structural steel buildings to the data center for a total addition of 1 million sq ft. The project team includes architect Burns & McDonnell, civil engineer Barge Design Solutions Inc., electrical and mechanical engineer Environmental Systems Design Inc., general contractor DPR Construction and structural engineer Peoples Associates. Meta Platforms Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, Calif., 94025. DR#22-00837972.
Florida
The Florida Dept. of Transportation has begun work on the $908-million design-bid-build project to improve and construct new interstate infrastructure along Miami’s State Road 826—known as the Palmetto Expressway. Funded in part by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the public-private-partnership effort broke ground March 1 with a targeted completion date of July 2031. Improvements include a new interchange ramp along SR 826/Palmetto Expressway to SR 9A/Interstate 95 Northbound along SR 7 and SR9/Golden Glades Interchange with other various ramp improvements. The project includes replacing the Golden Glades Interchange Bridge and adding lanes along Golden Glades Interchange as well various ramps and added lanes along SR 9A/I-95 from NW 143 St. to east of NW 2nd Avenue and along SR 9A/I-95 Southbound from NW 135th St. to Biscayne Canal in Miami-Dade County. GGI Constructors JV is contractor. Florida Dept. of Transportation Dist. 6, 1000 NW 111th Ave., Miami, 33172. DR#22-00779014.
Georgia
Cobb County is in the predesign phase of an $895-million design-bid-build project in Marietta to establish new arterial rapid transit (ART) pending approval of a bond referendum in November. No construction schedule has been set for the project, which will use funding to implement high-priority ART routes for bus service to operate in dedicated lanes and serve high-quality stations approximately every quarter or half mile at a frequency of 15-20 minutes. The ART program will include transit signal priority and real-time passenger information technology and new vehicles. The county has identified three high-priority routes based on a comprehensive transportation plan’s regional travel demand models, demographic analyses and public input. Routes in consideration from Marietta Transit Center to Johnson Ferry Road/Roswell Road, from Marietta Transit Center to Moore’s Mill Road/Marietta Boulevard and from South Cobb to Cumberland. Cobb County, 122 Waddell St. SE, Marietta, 30060. DR#23-00457526.
North Carolina
In Wilmington, the North Carolina Ports Authority is in the planning schematics phase of an $846-million dredging project—the Wilmington Harbor Navigation Improvement project in New Hanover County. Moffatt & Nichol’s Wilmington office is listed as the consulting engineer for the project, which will deepen the Wilmington Harbor on the Cape Fear River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is listed as owner’s agent. The harbor is currently 44 ft deep within its ocean entrance bar and 42 ft along the channel to the port, and plans call for it to be dredged to a depth of 47 ft. Additional widening to accommodate the world’s largest ships is also proposed, and an estimated 26.9 million tons of sand and rock will be dredged from the river bottom. North Carolina Ports Authority, Attn: Laura Blair, 2128 Burnett Blvd., Wilmington, 28401. DR#21-00856171.
