Southwest Report

Despite petrochemical downturn, region sees strong growth

By Karla Wall

Though high natural gas prices have forced an overall downturn in the petrochemical industry, southwest Louisiana is experiencing a period of heavy construction activity. And this growth is expected to continue.

"This is a very good period for the southwest Louisiana area," said Loren Scott, president of Loren Scott and Associates Economic Consulting of Baton Rouge. "And that's odd, because southwest Louisiana has the second-highest concentration of chemical industry in the state, and the chemical industry as a whole is not doing well right now."

Two major factors in the region's growth are continuing expansion at the Citgo Lake Charles refinery and the planned construction of five liquefied natural gas facilities in the area, each totaling $600 million to $800 million. With two facilities already underway in Hackberry and others in the permitting stage, the area will see three to four years of construction jobs from these projects, Scott said.

Citgo will begin construction on a $1.3 billion co-regeneration project this summer and recently completed a $300 million project that has allowed the plant to increase production to 155,000 barrels per day, making it the fourth largest Citgo refinery in the nation, Scott said.

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The Lake Charles facility is also planning a $1.3 billion project that will include a power plant, a 670 net-megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle plant in Calcasieu Parish; and will receive a decision soon on a possible $250 million diesel desulfurization plant.

"Citgo's going to more than offset the overall slump in the chemical industry," Scott said.

The commercial and private sectors are also healthy, said Scott Hines, Southwest Region president for the Louisiana Association of General Contractors. "The private sector is driving construction at an unprecedented rate, especially in the retail, banking, lodging, restaurant and medical industries," Hines said. "We feel that 2005 is going to be a tremendous >> year for construction."

Major projects include the $365 million d L'Auberge du Lac Hotel and Casino, opening this month in Lake Charles, school upgrades for the Calcasieu Parish School System, and several construction projects planned for the Lafayette area, including a $9.8 million road extension, a $6.7 million arts center construction project, and the planned construction of the $42 million Chateau de Leon Golf Course.

A federal highway bill recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives will mean additional funding for several projects in the region, Hines added, including $13 million for construction of an access road from I-210 to the Port of Lake Charles and a bridge over Contraband Bayou in Lake Charles; $5 million for improvements to the I-10 interchange with Ryan Street in Lake Charles; and $30 million for projects on I-49 and I-69 in the Lafayette area.

A downturn in the petrochemical industry isn't the only obstacle to construction growth in the region, Hines said. Contractors in all sectors have been faced with steel and concrete supply shortages.

A more pressing concern, Hines said, is a shrinking labor force.

"More and more contractors are having to do on-the-job training," Hines added. "We don't have a big enough qualified work force." The Incumbent Training Worker Program, begun six years ago to give contractors easier access to funding for training workers, has helped, Hines said, but won't solve the problem.

"The state is trying to get a handle on the situation," Hines said.

Jennings Rehab Hospital and Medical Office Building, Jennings. J. B. Mouton and Sons Inc. of Lafayette began work in August 2004 on a $6 million project involving a two-story medical office building and senior care center and an elevated walkway connecting the new building to the existing Jennings Rehab Hospital.

Despite weather delays and a steel supply shortage this past summer, the project will be completed in June.

The new building will include an orthopedic surgeon's office on the lower floor and a senior psychiatric care center on the second floor. The care center, said project manager Danny Eldridge, has required a few unique accommodations in the construction process. To avoid having patients leave the facility unattended or injure themselves, Eldridge said, the building's ceiling is hard sheetrock rather than tile.

The supply grill for the HVAC is tamper-proofed and toilets and other plumbing fixtures are bolted rather than screwed into blocking.

"We finish one side of the wall, attach the fixtures, then go to the other side and bolt them in with nuts, and then finish that side of the wall," Eldridge said. The windows are made of tempered glass.

The elevated walkway, consisting of steel framing and fireproofed metal exterior, is being constructed with a standing seam roof to improve wind resistance, Eldridge added.

Crews are working five to six 10-hour days each week to compensate for delays, said Ronald Dugas of Mouton and Sons.

Hilton Garden Inn and Hotel, Lafayette. Work began in November 2003 on a $12 million six-story Hilton hotel located on the corner of Congress Street and Cajundome Boulevard in Lafayette.

Complete with indoor pool and restaurant, the hotel will house king and queen-sized rooms as well as suites. Fontaine Construction of Youngsville has stepped up its work schedule on the project, working weekends to compensate for >> weather delays, said Hall Fontaine, project manager.

More than 200 30-ft.-deep drill shafts were required to create the building's foundation, Fontaine said. The shafts were shored up with more than $50,000 worth of rebar and 8-ft.-long pile caps.

The indoor pool and hot tub were formed as part of the building's foundation.

"It was just a matter of digging the pool inside the main foundation, rather than outside," he added.

F.G. Mouton Hall, ULL, Lafayette. BEO Contractors of Lafayette began work in January 2004 on an $8.8 million construction and renovation project that has created a new three-story business college building and will eventually create a new look for an adjacent building.

The 65,000-sq.-ft. business building, now complete, houses a 250-person lecture hall, classrooms, case presentation rooms, offices and graduate study work labs.

Bringing up a three-story building in a 20-ft.-wide space between buildings on a functioning campus proved a challenge, said Gerald Favaloro of BEO.

"We had to coordinate deliveries so that materials were delivered right when we needed them," Favaloro said. "We had to use fencing and directional information to handle student traffic flow. The university gave us plenty of off-site storage, so that helped."

The project also required completion of the fiberoptic network in the building. Each desk location in the lower-floor "smart" classrooms is connected to the university information system for in-class presentations. Data and voice ports for Internet connection are also provided at each station.

"We ran fiberoptic cable from the main communications center at the administration building and sub-routers coming off of that to each station," Favaloro said. Installation involved about 400 lin. ft. of aluminum cable trays, Favaloro said.

An elevated open walkway of structural steel, precast and poured-in-place concrete will connect the new building to the existing building slated for renovation.

Work began on the renovation in January with asbestos abatement on the structural beams on the first and second floors of the existing building, said project superintendent Phillip LaVergne of BEO. The building will house classrooms, seminar rooms, offices and a computer lab. Work is expected to take eight months, LaVergne said.

Once asbestos work is complete on the third floor, work will begin to resurface and repaint sheetrock walls, re-wire the building, change the duct work throughout the building, install new entry doors and larger windows, and rewire the computer lab on the first floor of the building.

LA 87 Spur, Iberia Parish. Boh Brothers Construction of New Orleans is undertaking the $13.3 million expansion of LA 87 in New Iberia to accommodate new construction in the area, said Mohammed Borazjani, project engineer with the Louisiana Deptartment of Transportation.

When complete, the project will have widened Hwy. 87 to three lanes and added a four-lane vertical lift bridge providing 50 ft. of clearance across a bayou, replacing a swing span bridge.

Piles have been driven for the project, said Ed Scheuermann of Boh Brothers. The bridge will include two 90-ft. towers on either side of the bayou.

Over half complete, with all of the substructure in place on one end of the bayou, the project has been temporarily halted to allow subcontractors to move utility lines that are impeding work on the bridge. Borazjani expects that the lines can be moved as early as mid-summer, and work will resume on the bridge.

US 171 Four-Laning, Gillis to Longville. R. E. Heidt of Westlake is taking on two projects to widen US 171 from Gillis to Longville. The first project, spanning 9.15 mi. from Gillis to Ragley, will cost $17.4 million and will be completed by December.

The second project, which will widen 6.27 mi. of the highway from Ragley to Longville, will cost $11.9 million and will be completed by mid-May.

Traffic diversion has been a major concern, said project manager Brent Arabie, but has gone smoothly.

"We're just keeping traffic on the old part of the highway while we're working on the new lane," Arabie said. "We recently switched traffic on the east side to the new highway, and we're now working on the west side, on the Ragley to Longville project.

Weather delays have been a problem, said Arabie, and may push back completion dates as much as two months. The company also had to deal with a concrete shortage over the summer.

"Our supplier got their concrete from Mexico," he added. "The suppliers were having trouble getting (cement) in. Demand was high and (the suppliers) couldn't keep up with it."

US 171 Four-Laning, Longville-DeRidder. A project that will four-lane and resurface 11 mi. of US 171 from Longville to DeRidder will be completed in March 2006. Headed by James Construction Group of Baton Rouge, the project began in April 2003 and involves constructing an extra lane in each direction and resurfacing existing lanes.

Trinity Baptist Family Life Center, Lake Charles. Alfred Palma Inc. of Lake Charles is heading the $7 million construction of a new family center for Trinity Life Baptist Church in Lake Charles. Begun in October 2003 and now just weeks from completion, the 63,000-sq.-ft. facility will house two gyms, fitness area, rock climbing wall, an indoor playground, women's and men's locker rooms, classroom areas, a running track and a >> 23-ft. by 25-ft. stage.

The building's size alone makes it unique, said James Palma, project manager for Palma Construction.

"I don't know of any other building in the area with dual gyms."

About 385 tons of structural steel, including 100-ft.-long trusses and 16-in. by 12-in. tube steel, was used in framing the building, Palma said. The framing was completed before the steel shortage hit last summer.

"We were fortunate that we got it all through the shop before the shortage hit," he added. "We had a window of opportunity, with little time to spare." The metal roof panels, however, were delayed due to the shortage.

About 40,000 sq. ft. of metal panels were used in the roof, as well as 32,000 sq. ft. of 8-in. panels.

Useful Sources:

For more information about upcoming development in Lafayette, go to:
http://www.lafchamber.org/site.php

For more information about upcoming development in Lake Charles, go to:
http://www.chamberswla.org/