Continued expansion at the Tower 55 site in Fort Worth and other improvement projects are part of BNSF Railway Company’s $199-million maintenance and expansion plan in Texas this year. BNSF announced its 2012 capacity enhancement projects May 23. The planned capital investments in Texas are part of BNSF's total 2012 capital commitment of $3.9 billion. The plan includes expansion of rail capacity at Tower 55, the realignment of its mainline for the extension of the Alliance Airport runway just north of Fort Worth, replacement of the Galveston Causeway Bridge, installation of wheel detectors in Galveston, improvements to BNSF's Amarillo car
The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas awarded a contract to Skanska to construct a hotel and expand and renovate its existing casino in Eagle Pass, Texas. The $46.5-million project includes the addition of about 183,000-sq-ft, 250-room hotel facility with restaurants, retail space, meeting rooms and a fitness center. The project also includes an 80,000-sq-ft renovation and expansion of the existing casino facility. Construction will begin in June and is expected to complete by August 2013.
North Carolina's sprawling upgrade of the Interstate 85/485 interchange near Charlotte, N.C., is proving that a bigger design can actually deliver significant cost savings. Image courtesy of STV A rare 'turbine' configuration features sweeping ramps that should be easier to build and maintain than those in standard stacked interchanges. Related Links: Owner of the Year: North Carolina DOT 2011's Southeast Top Starts Ranking Part of the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation's (NCDOT) program to fill the last six-mile gap in the 65-mile I-485 outer loop around Charlotte, the interchange uses a two-level "turbine" configuration rarely found in the U.S. Also
A consortium of Baton Rouge-based Petroplex International, Macquarie Group and Harley Franco, CEO and founder of Harley Marine Services, announced May 9 that it has raised capital to move ahead with development of a $600-million multi-modal bulk liquid terminal in St. James Parish. The facility has a projected initial storage capacity of 4-million to 6-million barrels. Construction is expected to commence during the first half of 2013, and the facility is expected to begin commercial operations during 2014. Petroplex will build a storage and distribution terminal for crude oil, refined petroleum products, fuel oil, chemicals, agrichemicals, renewable fuels, and other commercial liquid
BASF plans to build a production plant for formic acid at its integrated “Verbund” site in Geismar, La. The new plant will have an annual capacity of more than 50,000 tons. Start-up of the new plant is expected in the second quarter 2014. When completed, the project would be the only formic acid production plant in North America. BASF currently operates two formic acid production plants located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Nanjing, China, with a total annual capacity of more than 255,000 tons. Both formic acid and potassium formate are used in the oil field industry as part of the drilling
Hatch Mott MacDonald expanded its footprint in Lousiana with the aquisition of New Orleans-based Lambert Engineers, May 14. The deal enables Hatch Mott MacDonald to bolster it suite of engineering services, covering the transportation, environmental, coastal, oil & gas, and water sectors. Company executives noted that the acquisition also adds experienced staff, who are members of the local community and understand its needs. “Joining Hatch Mott MacDonald offers our local staff the expertise and resources that we need to undertake significant engineering and environmental projects in southern Louisiana,” said Dennis Lambert, a principal owner of Lambert Engineers, in a statement.
By building a research laboratory to develop technologies to reduce the earth's carbon footprint, the Georgia Institute of Technology hopes both to help solve a nagging environmental issue and to provide a construction industry model for the production of "no-frills" net-zero energy-use buildings. Related Links: Clemson Architecture Building Schools Contractors in the Art of Net Zero Apple Gets Boost From Sun for iCloud Data Center The $22.4-million Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory in Atlanta, targeting completion this fall, will develop technologies aimed at reducing global warming, such as carbon sequestration. From the start, though, the university faced an ironic twist.
There's a new giant in the No. 1 position of ENR Southeast's annual Top Design Firms ranking this year, and even though it's the firm's first time atop the charts, the company's success is anything but a big surprise. AECOM Technology Corp. soared past its Southeast competition in 2011 by grabbing a big share of the major projects throughout the region. Related Links: Perkins+Will Envisions New Future for Design More Southeast Firms While many other Southeast firms struggled over the past year to eke out a mild increase, or else suffered a decline, AECOM surged, posting a gain of roughly
Designers in the Southeast are continuing to face market uncertainty, but as 2012 unfolds, more of them are starting to see some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel as the region's owners move more project plans off the shelf and into the field. It's not a boom, but architects and engineers seem ready for any kind of improvement. Related Links: Southeast Design Firm of the Year: AECOM Technology Corp. The cause for optimism starts with a look back at the recent past. A year ago, ENR Southeast's Top Design Firms ranking revealed that 2010 revenue had declined again
The value of contracts in two of South Carolina’s three broad construction categories declined sharply in March, resulting in a 40% overall monthly decline in activity, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, publisher of ENR Southeast. Related Links: Tar Heel State Contracts Kick Up in March Nuclear Project Boosts Georgia Contracts Total Again in March In Florida, March Sees Building Markets Soar, Infrastructure Sour Overall, projects totaling about $462.4 million moved ahead in March. Residential proved the only positive sector for the month, as housing contracts totaled $344.5 million, or 17% better than the previous March.Nonresidential fell 81% in March. This category’s
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