Building is Booming in South Texas

Population Growth and Increased Industry Spurring Construction

By Jennifer Hiller

More than $48 million in construction permits were issued in March in cities throughout the Valley, according to the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. As of March the Rio Grande Valley had issued $109.7 million in commercial construction permits for the year, up from $101.6 million at the same time in 2003.

"You name an area, we're building it," said Nancy Boltinghouse, marketing manager for the McAllen Economic Development Corp. "The growth is just phenomenal."
Several factors have driven the construction spree, including NAFTA, rapid population growth, increased trucking traffic and the continued development of the maquiladora industry.

For years, Laredo, the McAllen-Mission-Edinberg area and the Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito area have been mainstays on the U.S. Census Bureau's list of the country's fastest-growing communities. McAllen is the fastest-growing city in Texas and the fourth-fastest-growing city in the nation, but the entire Rio Grande Valley has seen double-digit growth for more than a decade, fueling building for churches, schools, medical facilities, shopping centers and roadways.

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Development of the Interstate 69 corridor from Mexico City through the Valley to Canada, which will eventually connect South Texas with the rest of the country through the interstate highway system, has spurred development and road improvements.

"The expressways from one end of the Valley to the other are literally all under construction," said Perry Vaughn, executive director of the Rio Grande Valley Chapter of Associated General Contractors of America. To comply with federal regulations for interstates, roadwork throughout the Valley has concentrated on adding overpasses where there used to be stop signs at intersections, Vaughn said.

NAFTA has also brought the maquiladora, or twin plant, concept of manufacturing to border cities. Labor-intensive work is done at a lower cost in Mexico, while support facilities are located on the U.S. side of the border. There are 200 maquiladoras in Reynosa, McAllen's sister city.

Companies with facilities on one or both sides of the border include Black & Decker, Corning Science, GE Electric Motors, Maytag and Nokia. In Brownsville-Matamoros, more than 150 plants on either side of the border include Delphi Automotive, Tyco Electronics and Parker Hannifin.

The Foreign Trade Zone in Brownsville-Matamoros is the largest general-purpose trade zone in the United States, according to the Brownsville Economic Development Council.

Border crossings also have increased. In Laredo alone, an estimated 2.7 million trucks crossed the border in 2003, according to the Laredo Development Foundation. Laredo's World Trade Crossing represents more than 60 percent of all Texas-Mexico truck traffic.

While the population growth and business relocation has spurred construction, it has also put a strain on water and road systems.

Water quality will continue to be a major issue driving construction in the Rio Grande Valley as the population grows and industrial activity increases.
In Rio Bravo, an $11.6 million water treatment plant broke ground in March and should be completed by next summer. The new plant will be able to pump 2.4 million gallons per day and will replace the current 600,000-gallon-per-day county-run water treatment plant.

The project has been several years in the making and is funded with money from the Texas Water Development Board and a small match from Webb County.

The general contractor is Houston-based Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc., which will keep the older, outdoor facility maintained and running until the new plant is complete, said project manager Bill Estes. The project includes a new clear well, a two-acre sediment pond and an administration building, which will hold the chemical feeding system, disinfection system and filters.

Design engineers are CH2M Hill from Austin. The water treatment facility will include deep-bed carbon filters and the state's first UV disinfection system, said Joe Jenkins, project manager. "Our intent is to try to give them an ability to get rid of some of the organisms and organic compounds that might come from industrial activity in the area," Jenkins said. "We've had to balance cost. They have to be able to maintain the facility down the road."

Recent research on UV disinfection has shown the benefits of the system, in which water flows in sheets across the fluorescent lamps and the light breaks down cell membranes and DNA. UV disinfection is low-cost and easy to maintain - an important factor in making sure that Webb County can afford to maintain and run the system for years to come.

"If you had to go get that same level of treatment through ozone or membrane treatment, it would probably cost 100 times more," Jenkins said. UV systems cost from 8 cents to 10 cents per gallon of treatment, while membrane equipment costs about $1 per gallon, he said.

Webb County Judge Louis Bruni said improving water treatment is a critical issue for communities that draw their water supply from the Rio Grande. As more factories locate along the Mexican side of the border, the risk of water contamination increases, he said.

"I consider the Rio Grande a wastewater canal," Bruni said. "It doesn't make me popular to say it." He said aerial photos show that upstream from Webb County, at least 10 sites are pouring untreated wastewater directly into the river.
Despite the environmental issues, Valley communities remain eager to either widen bridges or construct new ones to be able to expand the maquiladora industry and hook up with the Autopisa, the fastest route to Monterrey and a key thoroughfare for IH-69.

Final permitting is expected early this summer on the new Anzalduas International Bridge, to be located 3 mi. south of the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, said Boltinghouse, the McAllen Economic Development Corp. marketing manager.
The U.S. presidential permit was signed in 1999 and supporters initially hoped the bridge would open by 2005, but diplomatic paperwork and the resolution of land ownership issues have come together slowly on the Mexican side of the border.

A presidential permit is the first step of the federal process to begin construction of an international bridge. Since 1995, sponsors for new bridge construction over the Rio Grande also need approval from the Texas Transportation Commission before requesting a presidential permit to build.

Mexican and U.S. officials in March signed the final construction plans of the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge.

There are plans to add a second span to the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, which would be the biggest project in a decade for Pharr.

Cross-border efforts to improve traffic flow have included a master plan for improvement by Los Caminos y Puentes, the bridge authority in Reynosa. The $10 million plan (100 million pesos) will improve customs offices in Reynosa and Veracruz and is funded by the Mexican government.

Higher education has provided a steady source of construction projects recently. The South Texas Community College approved a $100 million bond issue last year and BFW Construction Co., D. Wilson Construction, Construction Partners and SpaGlass are working on campuses in McAllen, Weslaco and Rio Grande City.

However, Valley contractors also are keeping an eye on the Legislature's attempts to retool the current school funding system. Known as "Robin Hood," the funding method has been a boon for Rio Grande Valley construction. "Schools were frankly foolish not to build," said Vaughn. "State money paid for most of the construction."

A few school bond issues have failed recently, along with some city bonds. "It has the industry somewhat concerned," Vaughn added.

In Edinberg, voters turned down a $64 million bond that would have built three new elementary schools, a new middle school and renovated several buildings. South Padre Island residents voted down a plan to build a $7.6 million municipal complex and $2.2 million community center. And Harlingen voters last September turned down a $42.7 million bond package.

Farther north in Corpus Christi, the failure of a $230 million school bond package has caused City Council members there to rethink a $70 million to $100 million bond package they had planned to take to voters in the fall. The Corpus Christi Independent School District bond package would have funded 13 new schools, including a new high school, eight elementary campuses and four middle schools.

While contractors are wary of what may happen in K-12 education, medical has been a constant area of growth for the Rio Grande Valley.

A $30 million expansion and renovation is nearly complete at Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen. Construction manager R.J. Griffin of Atlanta, Ga., started work in October 2001 and in April completed a five-story addition and seven major renovation phases. An elevator expansion of the new tower will be finished in November, said Chris Chelette, senior project manager.

Contractors completed the five-story addition first, allowing hospital staff to move into the new space while the original building was renovated. Crews then leapfrogged around the existing building for the remodel, completing 5,000-sq.-ft. sections at a time to avoid disturbing hospital patients and employees, said Bryan Thomas, senior project manager with Comfort Systems USA of Houston, which provided HVAC, ductwork, plumbing and insulation.

The yearly influx of winter Texans to the Rio Grande Valley at times limited what crews could do both inside and outside the facility, said Mark Roan, associate with the Dallas-based architecture firm of Perkins & Will, which designed the expansion.

"Access to certain areas might become difficult, or the hospital would need to set aside more beds," Roan added.

The project eventually gave the hospital an additional 136,000 sq. ft. of new space and an 85,000-sq.-ft. renovation.

Perkins & Will's design used a combination of manufactured masonry units and face brick to fit with the existing 1982 building. A drive-through entry canopy indents into the building underneath floors 2 through 5, while a steel awning and sun shades protect patients and visitors.

Glass entry doors lead into the new lobby with terrazzo floors and an inverted barrel vault ceiling feature.