South-Central Texas Projects Top Activity

Construction on relocation of $170 Million Caterpillar assembly plant under way; More than $100 million in BRAC contracts awarded for San Antonio projects.

San Antonio BRAC Construction Awards $101 Million in Construction Contracts

Three construction contracts worth more than $101 million were awarded for San Antonio Base Realignment and Closure projects at Fort Sam Houston, Randolph Air Force Base, and Port San Antonio, formerly known as Kelly Air Force Base.

The BRAC program awarded about $1.2 billion in construction contracts in fiscal year 2008. The $101 million in contracts are the first for fiscal year 2009, which began Oct. 1, 2008.

Ongoing construction of one of the three dorms that will be part of the Medical Education and Training Campus. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

The construction is part of a program that will consolidate all of the enlisted medical training programs of all branches of the U.S. military to one site in the Medical Education and Training Campus on Fort Sam Houston.

“This project is significant as it transforms San Antonio into the center for military medicine,” said Randy Holman, program manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Joint Program Management in San Antonio. “At the end of construction in 2011, this will be the home of all enlisted medical training for all of the services within the Department of Defense.”

These contracts are for the construction of dormitories, renovation of two buildings, and modifications to a hangar in preparation for the arrival of new military missions. About 90 percent of the program is design-build to help move projects out the door faster, Holman said.

The ongoing construction of a dorm that will be part of the Medical Education and Training Campus on Fort Sam Houston. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

Hensel Phelps Construction Co.’s Austin office was awarded a $73.4 million contract for a dormitory built for METC. Hensel Phelps also received the contract to build the two other dorms and has started constructing those facilities.

San Antonio-based Environmental Chemical Corp., which will oversee the project, was awarded a $24 million contract for renovation of two buildings at Port San Antonio totaling approximately 452,000 sq ft. The two buildings will be altered to create administrative and support space for as many as 2,700 military personnel.

San Antonio-based Technical Solutions Inc. was awarded a $4 million contract to modify Hangar 6 on Randolph Air Force Base to support the realignment of a pilot training mission from Moody Air Force Base. Approximately 15,000 sq ft of the hangar will be renovated to accommodate an Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals training mission.

The dorms are being built with a modular construction approach. This photo shows one of the modular dorm units being lifted into place. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

A total of 29 contracts worth more than $700 million are scheduled to be awarded for BRAC and other military construction projects in fiscal year 2009, which runs through Sept. 30.

“Our peak of construction will be the end of the summer and the beginning of fall,” Holman says. “We’re expecting to have more than 2,200 construction workers employed and 26 more projects to award. We’re leaving lots of opportunities for prime contracts and even more opportunities for subcontractors.”

A Web site has been created for the project and companies wanting to do business can visit www.sanantonio.gov/oma and follow the construction opportunities link, Holman said.

“[The Web site] shows what opportunities and the price range to get companies ready for bidding,” Holman told Texas Construction. “It will also tell who a project was awarded to, the duration of the job and the primary point of contact for those looking for subcontracting opportunities. We’ve greased the line of communication,” Holman says.

A rendering shows an aerial view of the Medical Education and Training Campus that will include the dorm for which the contract was awarded and two other dorms already being built. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

Construction work is scheduled to take place across San Antonio at Fort Sam Houston, Camp Bullis, Lackland and Randolph Air Force Bases through September 2011. The BRAC program involves building and renovating as many as 78 major facilities that amount to more than six million square feet of space. The total cost is projected to exceed $2 billion.

Caterpillar Relocates Primary Manufacturing Facility to Central Texas

Fortune 50 company Caterpillar Inc. is moving one of its primary global assembly, test and paint facilities to Texas. The move is expected to create more than 1,400 jobs.

The state will invest $10 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund in the company as a deal-closing incentive for the consolidation and movement of its manufacturing and testing facilities to Seguin, which will generate $169.7 million in capital investment. Targeted occupation is the end of 2011.

Texas was in competition with South Carolina and Mexico for the facility.

Caterpillar manufactures construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and medium and high-speed diesel engines. The company has operating locations across the state, including Amarillo, Channelview, Coppell, Dallas, De Soto, El Paso, Fort Worth, Garland, Houston, Laredo, Mabank, McAllen, McKinney, Midland, Sherman, Waco and Waskom.

With this investment, Caterpillar will consolidate and relocate its assembly, paint and testing operations from Illinois and South Carolina to Seguin. The facility will provide engines for Caterpillar machines and electric power generation, as well as petroleum, marine, and industrial customers. Construction began around the New Year.

Walton Builds at Texas School for the Blind

Rendering of the Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Main Instructional and Public Square Buildings. (Courtesy of Halff).

The Dallas Division of Walton Construction Company, LLC was awarded the $29 million contract to build new buildings for the Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired, marking Walton’s first work in Austin.

This project includes the construction of five new buildings including a two-story main instructional building, a natatorium, student activity center, kitchen and dining facility, and fine arts auditorium. Construction on the more than 118,360-sq-ft-project began in December. Construction is expected to finish in December 2010.

Halff Associates Inc. of Richardson is the project architect.

Burt-Watts Constructs LEED-Certified MRI Suite

Austin-based Burt-Watts Industries, Inc. will provide general contracting and construction management services for the expansion of a new $10.8 million dollar intra-operative MRI suite at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.

The IMRISneuro is a fully integrated operating room that includes a unique, movable MRI machine that allows surgeons to safely image patients in the operating room during brain surgery.

Dell Children’s Medical Center’s 6,000-sq-ft suite, scheduled to open this summer, is one of less than 20 medical facilities in the world to have the IMRISneuro. The suite, to be located 20 ft below ground-level, will have copper shielding. A room will be also specifically designed to house the IMRISneuro when not in use.

The new MRI suite is following LEED Platinum standards. Dell Children’s is the first hospital in the world to receive the designation.

Ascension Group, Skiles Group Complete Winkler County Hospital

Arlington-based Ascension Group Architects and Dallas-based Skiles Group recently worked together to complete a more than $13.2 million project to replace Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit. The original hospital, about 40 mi west of Odessa, was built in the late 1940s and was replaced because it was deemed too expensive to renovate.

Construction began in July 2007 and included building 10 patient rooms, which nine were semi-private rooms and one was an isolation room. There also is an emergency department.

The new 34,000-sq-ft Winkler County Memorial Hospital functions as a critical care-access hospital, which doesn't require operating rooms. The hospital includes 27,400 sq ft of new space. The remaining renovated space is used for support functions, including administration, maintenance and physical therapy.

Studio RED, Tellespen Builders Complete Jersey Village Baptist Church

Designed by Studio RED Architects and built by Tellepsen Builders, both of Houston, Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston recently opened its new sanctuary building. The church features several unique design elements including a feature behind the asymmetrical stage--a backlit, floor-to-ceiling, architecturally designed cross built as a bas relief in the wall.

A fabric back wall in the sanctuary provides a cost-effective yet fully functional, acoustically correct addition to the new space that allows the new sanctuary to increase the number of available seats from the 1,500 to 2,000.

United Rentals Helps Keller Family with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

United Rentals recently joined forces with ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and hundreds of volunteers to build a new home for the Augustin family in Keller. Following a surprise visit by the Extreme Makeover team, the United Rentals branch in Keller began delivering more than 75 pieces of equipment to the site of what became a new house for Peter and Amber Augustin and their three children.

The popular television show has relied on United Rentals for aerial lifts, light towers and power generators on projects across the country. The air date for episode featuring the Augustin family has not been announced.

More Than One Million Sq Ft Under Construction at AllianceTexas

After a busy year of new construction and openings, Fort Worth-based AllianceTexas has more than one million sq ft of projects under construction. As an addition to Alliance Town Center, which opened in 2008, the 168,000-sq-ft Sam Moon outlet is under construction and set to open in spring.

Additionally, a 50,000-sq-ft expansion office building for Galderma, a 220,000-sq-ft data center for Health Care Services Corp. and the 600,000-sq-ft expansion office building for Fidelity Investments at its Circle T Ranch campus are all under way.

Daimler Financial Services Americas moved more than 500 employees into its new 160,000-sq-ft office building in September. In June, Deloitte purchased 107 acres at Circle T Ranch to build its learning and leadership development center that will employ approximately 450 workers. DynCorp International expanded into 75,344 square feet in the Heritage Commons II building and now has approximately 800 employees at AllianceTexas.

On the industrial side, Cinram will move into its 788,000-sq-ft distribution center and ENTECH moved into 71,250 sq ft in the Gateway 23 building, which is part of the five-building, 1.8 million-sq-ft speculative building program that Hillwood completed at Alliance in 2008.

Another phase of Alliance Town Center opened in 2008 and the first phase of 288 units was completed in Monterra Village, the first 100% smoke-free apartment home community in North Texas.