Northeast Regional Report
Things are picking up in traditionally stagnant area

By Martin Schwartz

Economic indicators are forecasting growth in northeast Louisiana in the coming year, but area professionals are taking an "I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it" attitude.

In the 23rd edition of the Louisiana Economic Outlook, LSU researchers Loren C. Scott and James A. Richardson and SLU researcher A.M.M. Jamal are projecting more than 3,000 jobs will be added in the region in the next two years.

Louisiana's smallest metropolitan statistical area is Alexandria, but the city is expected to be the second-fastest-growing MSA in the state thanks to the $100 million Union Tank Car project and continuing projects at England Air Park.

Monroe remains the poorest performing MSA in the state with the loss of 400 jobs from the closure of the city's State Farm facility and claims center. Employment is expected to increase only marginally in 2006.

But Miriam W. Russell, regional representative for Northeast Louisiana Economic Development in Monroe, is optimistic about several plans either in progress or being developed for the area.

These include:

• The possible expansion of Pilgrim's Pride in Union Parish. Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is the second-largest poultry producer in the United States and is one of the largest employers in the area.

• A Vineyard Furniture warehouse expansion in Franklin Parish.

• The $68 million renovation of the Student Union Building and construction of new student housing at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Louisiana Tech has similar projects underway.

"We're working on several projects through economic development >> agencies such as Ouachita Economic Development Corporation and Northeast Louisiana Economic Alliance, which handles the rural parishes outside of Ouachita Parish," Russell said, declining to name specific projects or price tags.

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Retail development also continues along the I-20 Economic Corridor running parallel to the interstate from West Monroe to Monroe.

"There's a private group that has bought some properties in West Monroe that includes the old K-Mart building and they're doing some development there," Russell said.

Project snapshots

Procter & Gamble liquid detergent plant expansion, Pineville. Everything is on track for an early spring opening of Procter and Gamble's $120 million plant expansion in Pineville, said Bonnie Lemoine, P&G public affairs coordinator.

Though production of liquid detergent will be underway, the plant won't reach total completion until summer. It will be one of only two liquid manufacturing plants in the country.

Work began in early 2003 and involved the largest continuous concrete pours in P&G's history with more than 30,000 cu. yds. required for vessel and tank foundations. The vessels themselves were largely fabricated offsite with only those too large for transport fabricated on-site.

Fru-Con Construction Corp. of Ballwin, Mo., is the project's construction manager; Inland Construction of Pineville is the general contractor; and Lockwood-Greene Engineers of Spartainburg, S. C., is the engineer. At the peak of construction, 800 workers worked alongside P&G employees.

Utilizing Louisiana's Economic Development's business clustering model, P&G has been able to attract front-end suppliers to locate near the plant. Plastipak Packaging Inc. is building a 500,000-sq.-ft. facility on 62 acres adjacent to P&G. The $45 million facility will provide containers for P&G's Heavy Duty Liquid (HDL) detergents and will employ more than 100 workers.

Union Tank Car plant, Alexandria. Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) was doggedly determined to see that the Chicago-based Union Tank Car Company brought its new plant to Louisiana. Code-named "Project U," Blanco refused to take no for an answer, even after it seemed the project was bound for Texas.

The results became official in September 2004 when Blanco and Union Tank Car officials signed a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement to bring the $100 million, 850-employee plant to Alexandria. The plant will encompass up to 1 million sq. ft. adjacent to the England Industrial Air Park and Community in Rapides Parish.

When fully operational in 2006, the plant will have the capacity to produce as many as 70 tank cars per week. The Shaw Group of Baton Rouge will provide design and engineering for the project.

State and local incentives to bring the plant to Alexandria have been valued at approximately $65 million, including more than $30 million from the state for infrastructure improvements and construction.

Federal medium-security prison, Pollock. On 120 acres at the Federal Prison Camp in Pollock, Memphis-based Flintco is engaged in a $93 million project that is part construction, part manufacturing. The new medium-security prison being built for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) will consist of 14 buildings using precast, tilt-up walls and cells all fabricated on-site.

"We took about 20 acres down here for our cell casting area," said Darryl Harris, construction manager. "Then we did another 10 acres and put in a tilt-up wall manufacturing plant." The on-site construction helps keep down transportation costs on the design-build project that will vary in height from one to six stories and will include special housing units, kitchen, recreational facilities, power plant and administration for the prison.

Harris said approximately 80,000 cu. yds. of concrete from TXI will be used in the construction of walls and cells. An average of 320 workers is on the job, including 26 subcontractors. This is the >> company's third project for the FBOP. The prison is on schedule for completion in July 2006.

U. S. Highway 165, Grayson to Columbia. Clearing is completed and utility relocation is in progress for the $25.6 million road widening and repair on U. S. Highway 165 from Grayson to Columbia, said Don Young, operations manager for Denton-James LLC of Baton Rouge. Work started late last year with removal of underground storage tanks and contaminated soil along the construction route.

Part of Louisiana DOTD's Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development, the project is just one part of the widening of 162 mi. of U. S. 165 in 31 segments from I-10 to the Arkansas border.

Young said current work in the area is at a standstill while relocation is in progress, but he expects to begin phase two of the project on-schedule in March with a crew of about 60.

The project includes adding additional lanes and reconstructing existing lanes to create 5.5 mi. of five lane roadway.

The road is essentially made of concrete with only a small amount of asphalt transitions, Young said. About 60,000 cu. yds. of concrete will be used in the road project that is on target for a spring 2007 completion.

U. S. 165, Columbia. "A snail's pace" is how project manager J. D. Steward describes the current progress on $19.8 million project as workers await utility relocation.

"We've got just a skeleton crew trying to work whenever we can to get ahead of the game," he said.

Steward said his part of the project runs from the Ouachita River a mile south and a quarter mile to the north, through the city of Columbia and the approaches on either side of the Ouachita River bridge.

"We've got about 1,700 ft. of approach including 10 drill shafts averaging 130 ft. deep and 10 ft. in diameter," he said.

What makes the project unique is the length of the bulb-t girders being used in the approaches, some of which run 140 ft., 10 in.

"That's some of the longest bulb-T girders in the state," he said.

The first test pile was driven in February 2004, and Steward said he expects the project to be completed on schedule in early 2006. Jensen Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., is the contractor for the project.

England Air Park terminal, Alexandria. The Alexandria International Airport is getting a new $23.9 million terminal at the former site of England Air force Base in Alexandria. The two-story structure features 34,000 sq. ft. on the ground level with a "tug" area covered in part by the 50,000-sq.-ft. second level.

The project broke ground in May with a scheduled completion date of May 2006, and is a part of several planned phases of expansion at the airport.

"We're doing Package Two," said Greg Corbett, project manager for Ratcliff Construction of Alexandria. "Package Three, which will be a separate project, will include the parking lot and drive associated with the new terminal. Package Four will be the airport side, the taxi way and places for planes to park. We're not involved with those because those plans are not out for bid yet."

The new terminal is being built with structural steel, metal studs, brick veneer and window walls. The foundation consists of wood pilings, pile caps and grade beams under a 6-in. floating slab.

Health & Physical Education Building, Grambling State University. Grambling State University's President Neari Warner, speaking at its groundbreaking, called the new $19 million Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Building at Grambling State University "long overdue."

Nat Mixon, project manager, said Ruston-based Lincoln Builders' part of the project comes to about $16.5 million.

The structural steel building has some precast for the bleachers and will have a brick and steel siding exterior. The 135,000 sq.-ft. structure will have a 96,000-sq.-ft. events level and a 49,000-sq.-ft. second-floor concourse and will seat 7,500 for basketball games and up to 9,000 for non-sporting events.

Mixon said the building required extensive cutting-in to an existing hill on the campus to establish the ground floor.

"We had quite a few yards of dirt to move," he said. "I'm not sure what the quantity was, but it required four weeks of steady hauling."

The project is on target for a Spring 2006 completion.

US 167, Winnfield. An $18.6 million project to widen U. S. Highway 167 for 3 mi. in the middle of the town has met with delays due to miscalculations in some of the cross sections on the south side of the project.

"I just updated my schedule and we're about six weeks behind, if we started today," said Bernie Sincavage, project manager for James Construction Group. "We were scheduled to be completed June 2006. Right now I'm projecting August 2006."

And that's if work can get started soon.

The two- to four-lane conversion for the TIMED project started out with no problems before hitting the snag in late Autumn 04. In addition to 100,000 sq. yds . of paving for the new road, the project involves replacing a 1,000-ft. bridge that crosses the railroad tracks in town and putting a smaller bridge on the south end of the job to replace an existing box culvert.

"We were able to proceed with the bridge construction, in fact, we're a couple of weeks ahead," Sincavage said. "I've made some suggestions to the state about putting some temporary detours in so we could take traffic off the old highway. We could possibly continue with our bridge construction if we are able to put these temporary detours in."

But in the meantime, he said, his crew is waiting on the engineers.

US 167, Ruston to Vienna. Work is also progressing slowly on roadwork on US 167 from Ruston to Vienna.

"We're not very far along," said David Huckbay, project manager for James Construction Group. "November killed us with all that rain we had."

But unlike the Winnfield project, work is progressing on the $18.3 million project to build four miles of concrete roadway on Highway 167. Three miles of that project will be five lanes (four plus center turn lane) with a curb and gutter and the last mile will be four lanes.