Other public projects
SpawGlass broke ground during the summer on a $20-million, 30,000-sq-ft Brownsville Intermodal and Multimodal Terminal for the city of Brownsville. The center is one block from the international border. SpawGlass will demolish nine large buildings on two city blocks, close existing roads and run new utilities before constructing the multimodal center, which includes ticketing and express package areas, administrative and retail space, a bus transfer hub and an intercity bus transit area.
Skanska anticipates starting work in December on a $21.5- million, 110,000-000-sq-ft regional office in Weslaco. The new Texas Facilities Commission Regional Office will serve both public and private users, including a regional administration office building, drivers’ license building, crime lab and ancillary building. Completion is scheduled for February 2011.
One bright note is potential work at the Corpus Christi Army Depot, Beecroft says. He estimates about 2 million sq ft of construction will be completed at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, including work at the Army depot. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District has advertised in June for sources for an interior renovation of Hangar 46 at the depot. It anticipates construction to cost between $1 million and $5 million. While many of the projects are small, Beecroft anticipates depot projects will generate work for a number of contractors.
Energy
Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis is building a wind farm outside of Corpus Christi for E.ON Climate & Renewables North America of Austin, a wholesale power provider. The Papalote Creek project, with 109 turbines, will provide 179.9 megawatts of power.
“The site has ample transmission and it has a very good load profile,” says Patrick Woodson, chief development officer for E.ON. “The wind tends to blow more at times when power is needed the most. There’s more daytime wind than at West Texas sites.”
This is E.ON’s first South Texas wind farm, and it is expected to be complete this fall. Woodson would not release the cost.
Zachry of San Antonio is repowering the units at the Barney Davis Energy Center and the Nueces Bay Energy Center for Topaz Power Group of Austin. Work on both Corpus Christ projects began in fall 2007, and they are expected to wrap up in spring 2010.
NRG Energy Co. of Princeton, N.J., is working on the permitting for construction and operation of South Texas Project 3 & 4, two additional advanced boiling-water reactor, nuclear-powered generating units in Bay City. The plant is managed by the STP Nuclear Operating Co. and is owned by NRG Energy (44%), CPS Energy (40%) and Austin Energy (16%).
David Knox, spokesman for NRG, says the company anticipates construction on the $10-billion project to begin in 2012, with the first unit operational in 2016 and the second in 2017. Nuclear Innovation North America, a nuclear development company jointly owned by NRG Energy and Toshiba Corp. of Japan, completed negotiations for the engineering, procurement and construction agreement and contracted with Toshiba America Nuclear Energy of Alexandria, Va.
Fluor Corp. of Greenville, S.C. received a contract from Toshiba to provide engineering, procurement and construction-related services.
