Northeast Regional Report

Growth expected, buoyed by Alexandria projects

By Angelle Bergeron

The northeast region of Louisiana is in a growth mode in the industrial and commercial markets, a trend that will likely continue throughout 2006, said Rhonda Reap-Curiel, director of economic development with the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce in Alexandria.

"That's because we're out of the hurricane region and below the freeze line," she said.

Leading the pack are a $100 million Union Tank Car project that is wrapping up this year, a $137 million Paragon Casino Resort expansion in Marksville, a $1 billion Cleco Corp. electrical generation plant in Alexandria and a $200 million Martco wood products plant that is currently in the site work phase.

"At England Air Park, there is $51 million in ramp work in progress, as well as additional terminal construction," she said.

While construction in south Louisiana will be dominated by the reconstruction of storm-damaged areas, new construction will be the hallmark of the industry in the northern part of the state, said Dr. Dave Norris Jr., professor of economics at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.

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"In the northeast region, the growth will be highly localized rather than region-wide," Norris said.

He added that while some of the new construction will undoubtedly be sparked by "intra-regional relocation" some will also result from people moving from outside the state for new businesses.

"New business starts in early 2006 in Ouachita, Richland and Morehouse parishes could create as many as 500 new jobs in the region," Norris said. "There is significant potential for new residential construction resulting from this and a small potential for new business construction."

The impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita will continue to be felt throughout the state in a variety of ways. Norris said that although oil production and refining activity have significantly recovered, the hurricanes contributed to a sharp hike in the price of energy, petrochemicals and some construction prices.

The upward prices have begun to subside, which "could re-ignite business investment leading to new construction in the northern part of the state, beyond what was expected shortly after the storm."

Storm evacuees in north Louisiana stimulated the real estate market for apartments, but storm-related construction in the northern part of the state will primarily include temporary housing, trailer parks, manufactured housing and a small amount of new home construction, Norris said.

"How much of this construction actually takes place will depend heavily on federal dollars, and it is uncertain how much of that money will come through, when it will come and to whom," Norris said. "The uncertainly about federal assistance has replaced the uncertainty about energy and prices in general in the aftermath of the storm."

Following are some ongoing projects in the region.

Student housing at ULM, Monroe. JPI Apartment Construction LP of Fort Worth has almost finished the final phase of a project to revamp the student housing at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

This fall, the contractor will complete the last of the current $21 million phase, which began in January 2005 and includes three new buildings and 315 suite-type units, said Doug Sorey, project manager for JPI. The phase also includes demolition of eight buildings.

"This project poses the typical challenges of student housing construction," Sorey said. "The schedule is not forgiving and not completing on time is not an option."

Material delivery has also been difficult because student traffic and storage space is minimal.

"We have experienced some shortage of labor and material with so much effort going to the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region," Sorey said. He added that the project is still on schedule.

Esler Field projects, Pineville. Ratcliff Construction of Alexandria is performing two projects at Esler Field totaling more than $31 million. The $13 million helicopter maintenance facility (or Army Aviation Support Facility No. 2) is an addition and renovation to the existing hanger that was built in 1941, said Rob Ratcliff, project manager.

"This is a National Guard facility and will be a new flight operations center and helicopter maintenance facility," Ratcliff said.

After being awarded the contract in April 2005, Ratcliff gutted the entire 70,000-sq.-ft. structure, removed the exterior skin, slab and walls.

"The only thing remaining was the foundation of footings and grade beams," Ratcliff said.

Despite encountering some bad soil that wouldn't support the building and underground fuel tanks and lines, Ratcliff expected to beat the March 2007 deadline.

The project will almost double the size of the facility and will include the construction of several small outbuildings and more than 400,000 sq. ft. of concrete paving.

Ratcliff said the most interesting aspect of the project is the structural steel hanger with metal skin and a decorative roof. The yellow and black checkerboard roof is modeled after the original building and will make the hangar "a pretty good-looking facility," Ratcliff said.

Ratcliff Construction is also handling the $18.2 million construction of a consolidated maintenance facility for the National Guard at Esler.

"This is a maintenance facility for heavy equipment and administrative offices for the maintenance wing of the Guard, which is relocating from Camp Beauregard," said Reggie Deloach, project manager.

The project, which consists of 46,000 sq. ft. of office space and 80,000 sq. ft. of mechanics shops, is made of structural steel and masonry with metal roofing, Deloach said.

"We are ahead of schedule and rolling. It's a good new facility for the central Louisiana area."

US 165, Grayson to Columbia. Baton Rouge contractor Denton-James Construction is four-laning a stretch of U.S. 165 in Caldwell Parish from Grayson to Columbia and converting the open-shoulder/ditch highway to concrete with drainage.

The $25.6 million contract includes a 6.5-mi. stretch of road that had no existing drainage, said Gerald Denley, manager.

"It's a big job that involved some 45,000 lin. ft. of pipe," he said.

In June 2004 the contractor cleared the site but due to "utility conflict problems" didn't actually resume construction until June 2005, Denley said.

"We also had some environmental stuff where we had to remove some underground storage tanks from old gas stations and contaminated soil, and we're still in the process of doing that," he added.

The contractor will build on the east side of the existing highway, then follow with widening on the west side and the removal of the old road. Construction will consist of 8 in. of soil cement, 8 in. of stone base and 9 in. of concrete.

Rerouting the traffic and ensuring safety will be a primary challenge, Denley said.

"The traffic is horrible and it's near a high school," he said. "In the afternoon, when school lets out, there's a lot of traffic."

US 167, Ruston to Vienna. James Construction Group of Baton Rouge should finish the $18.3 million widening of U.S. 167 in Lincoln Parish from Ruston to Vienna a couple of months early. The 960 calendar-day contract to four-lane (five-lane for half the job, if one counts the curb and gutter) the 4-mi. stretch of highway will be complete November 2007 instead of the January 2008 deadline.

"The major challenge is trying to build in all the details because the existing road snakes through the proposed roadway," said David Huckaby, superintendent.

The contractor used a portion of the 500,000 cu. meters of excavation to build the 350,000 cu. meters of embankment.

"This job has a lot of catch basins," Huckaby said. "It's all curb and gutter." James has precast all 300 catch basins and will install 30,000 lin. ft. of pipe.

"We have a batch plant on a previous job that is being built right now and we will truck it from that batch plant," Huckaby said. This month, crews began paving.

Biomedical Engineering Building, La. Tech. The biggest challenge for Mann Construction Company of Columbia while constructing the $7.9 million Biomedical Engineering Building on the campus of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston is keeping students and their automobiles off the work site, said Benny Douglas, superintendent.

"They park anywhere they can."

The rotunda area that characterizes the main entrance to the three-story building was also a challenge.

"It's on an ellipsis and it's a solid glass curtain wall reach higher than 40 ft.," Douglas said. "It looks like the spaceship Enterprise when you look at the top of this thing."

At the end of January, the contractor had all of the structural steel, exterior metal stud walls and exterior sheeting in place, and expected to be setting metal trusses and finishing the roof by March.

"After that, we'll be doing interior walls," Douglas said "We've already got the bricklayers lined up, plumbers, duct work and HVAC."

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita also made getting employees difficult, especially carpenters. "It's hard to get any workers at all, but I could use three carpenters right now," Douglas said.

He predicted the labor problem will worsen in a few months. "They are still in the cleanup phase down south, but within the next six months the real construction will take place," he said.

By that time the project will be nearing completion, which is scheduled for August.