Southeast Regional Report

Region looks to other markets to take up industrial slack

By Sam Barnes

A sustained drop in industrial investment has hindered southeast Louisiana contractors in the last year.

High natural gas prices and increasing labor competition from other states and countries have virtually driven industrial expansion out of the Bayou State.

But help may be on the way. The next Environmental Protection Agency-imposed desulfurization deadline - this time to reduce sulfur content in diesel fuels - is scheduled for 2005. Several area plants, including ExxonMobil, Marathon and Shell, have announced projects to comply with the mandate that all exceed $200 million.

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Other markets are stepping up to the plate as well.

In New Orleans, the biggest news is the $454 million expansion of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, expected to break ground later this year. Designed by Sizeler Architects of New Orleans, the 1.5-million-sq.-ft. expansion will include 524,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, 61 meeting rooms and a 60,000-sq.-ft. ballroom.

The project will make the convention center the fourth largest in the country and should be completed by late 2006 or early 2007.

The Louisiana Economic Forecast predicts that New Orleans will "rise out of the doldrums of the past few years and begin to grow a little faster." Economists Loren Scott and James Richardson of LSU, and A. M. M. Jamal of Southeastern Louisiana University publish the forecast.

One of the critical factors in New Orleans' more positive outlook "is a reversal in fortunes at Northrup Grumman's Avondale Shipyard," the economists say. "The awarding of the multibillion dollar Coast Guard contract to NG and the securing of two huge Navy contracts will not only mean more jobs for Avondale, they will also go a long way toward stabilizing employment at the facility over time."

A surge in hotel construction continues in the Big Easy and several more are in the planning stage.

"About $65 million is being spent on the old Lykes office building to convert it into a Loews Hotel (to open this fall) and Harrah's will likely build a 400-room hotel near its casino," according to the forecast.

About 13,400 new jobs are projected for Baton Rouge, mainly due to planned new activity in the region, the economists report. It is estimated that there will be about $86 million in new construction involved with building state government facilities in downtown Baton Rouge.

The economists predict that, "An economy that has been expanding as fast as Baton Rouge is going to require additional single family homes, apartment complexes and commercial establishments that will boost general construction."

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Bobby Simpson said major capital improvement initiatives in the Baton Rouge area include the sewer capital improvement program, the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Corrective Action Plan, an ongoing sales tax-funded road and street improvement program and an expansion at the Riverside Centroplex.

The Louisiana Arts and Science Center's Irene W. Pennington Planetarium also opened this summer.

"The Centroplex expansion will add 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, 20,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art meeting space and a minimum of 15,000 sq. ft. for a hotel-quality ballroom," Simpson said.

The expanded facility is expected to open in 2005.

Project snapshots

University of New Orleans Business Administration Building. A $10 million, four-floor concrete structure will provide a new house for the Department of Business Administration at the University of New Orleans in September 2004.

Jobsite superintendent Ken Brassette, Gootee Construction of New Orleans, said work began on the 138,000-sq.-ft. building in July 2002.

"Business administration offices are currently in a converted building next to the site, but they share it with other university departments," he added. "This will give them a place they can call home."

The contractor had to remove an old foundation before construction could begin. The foundation had supported a warehouse used by a naval base once located there.

"We excavated about 8 to 10 ft. from the site and brought new fill in," Brassette said. About 1,200 75-ft.-long composite piles were then driven as foundation.

Concrete construction included the placement of vertical columns, shear walls and 5-in.-thick floor slabs. For the columns, the contractor is using concrete with an Agilia admixture supplied by Lafarge.

"The admixture improves the flow of the mix, which fills the voids and pockets that you would get with conventional concrete," he added.

The contractor is averaging about four concrete pours per floor during construction of the 5-in.-thick slabs, using a 4,000 psi mix.

"On the exterior of the building we'll have precast concrete, brick, glass and glazing," Brassette said.

The building will have four entrances.

The entrances are "dead in the middle" on all four sides, and will feed into an atrium in the center of the building, Brassette added. Three elevators will be located in the atrium.

"The atrium will have a structural steel and metal roof, and will allow light to filter in from the sides," he added.

LA 10 reconstruction, Clinton. Denton-James LLC of Baton Rouge is reconstructing a 6.3-mi.-long stretch of LA 10 west of Clinton.

The $12.9 million project also includes the relocation of a .75-mile section of the road as it approaches the city.

Project manager Gerald Denley said work began this summer on the relocated section.

"We're placing about 7 to 8 ft. of dirt fill, 12 in. of lime treatment, soil cement and 10 in. of asphalt on the new section," he added. Five new bridges are also being built, two with girders and three with flat slabs.

"The longest girder bridge is eight spans long and crosses Pretty Creek," Denley said. The other crosses the Comite River." The new road construction was started first to allow the contractor to finish roadbed construction prior to winter.

When the reconstruction of the existing road section begins in the spring, the contractor will first build new 10-ft. shoulders, then put traffic on them.

"We're going to tear out the whole road, including asphalt driving surface and road base," he said. The new road will be made with lime, soil cement and 10 in. of asphalt.

Work is expected to complete by spring 2005.

Tournament Players Club clubhouse, Avondale. A 20,000-sq.-ft. clubhouse and 12,000-sq.-ft. cart facility and office complex are being built simultaneously at the new Tournament Players Club of Louisiana at Fairfield golf course in Avondale.

Although the golf course is nearly finished, both buildings are in the early stages of construction. The complex will be a PGA tour site beginning next year.

Archie Sperier, assistant project manage with Carl E. Woodward Inc. of New Orleans, said the $4.5 million buildings will have a grade-beam and footing foundation, and will be made of structural metal studs with wood trusses.

"The exteriors will consist of brick and cementitious siding and an asphalt shingle roof," he said.

The one-floor clubhouse will have a pro shop with men's and women's locker rooms and lounges, a full-service kitchen and private dining room.

The two-floor cart storage building will also support administrative offices on the second floor.

"We built some other buildings out there last year, including some maintenance buildings, restrooms and turn houses," Sperier said.

At peak, about 60 crewmen will be working at the site.

"When it's finished, some of the top golfers in the world will come here every year, but it will also be open to the public during certain times of the year," he said.

Capitol Middle School, Baton Rouge. A 120,000-sq.-ft. steel and masonry building will provide the centerpiece of the $10.4 million Capitol Middle School Complex when completed in June.

The five-wing building will contain all the classrooms, administrative offices, library and cafeteria for the school. A mechanical building is also being constructed.

Project manager John Meek, with Buquet & LeBlanc Inc. of Baton Rouge, said the complex comes with football and baseball fields, although they were built as part of a separate contract.

The main classroom building is being built with concrete block, metal trusses, shingle roofing and brick veneer.

"There is some structural steel in the entranceway." The main building will contain 15 classrooms, plus five science labs.

When work began at the site, the building pad had already been prepared.

"We started by drilling 230 drilled shafts," Meek said.

The remainder of the building's construction is fairly routine, with the exception of an entranceway clerestory.

"The clerestory is exceptional. It's going to have 28-ft. ceiling heights, right in the middle of the entrance," Meek said. "Natural lighting will filter down through it." The roof for the atrium wing will be made of light gauge metal.

The roof for the clerestory is supported by 6-in. tubes that had to be fabricated on the ground and lifted into place in one piece. The sections were pre-assembled because of their complexity, the size of the members and how they had to fit together.

Riverside Centroplex expansion, Baton Rouge. The $30 million Riverside Centroplex expansion, to be completed by January 2005, is being built by Carothers Construction Inc. of Water Valley, Miss., and designed by Post Architects/Washer Hill & Lipscomb of Baton Rouge.

Project manager Gary Lambert said initial work included driving precast concrete piles for foundation, demolishing surrounding facilities for expansions and tie-ins, and relocating existing utilities.

Demolition required the use of high-pressure water to expose reinforcing steel at the Centroplex's existing plaza level to allow connections to the new facility.

"We had to hydroblast the concrete away to expose all of the reinforcing steel for the slabs and columns to tie into the existing structures," Lambert added. The hydroblasting process proved faster and less damaging to the rebar.

The crew left an existing parking lot in place and used it as a "working slab" during the driving of 320 precast concrete piles as the foundation for the exhibition hall. The parking lot will be removed once the exhibition hall roof and overhead work have been completed.

Anywhere from one to 10 piles were driven for each pile cap, which provide support for the exhibition hall's perimeter columns.

"Originally, we had 19 phases on this job," Lambert said. "We simplified that by combining operations and rearranging the schedule to shave it down to seven phases."

More than 1,800 tons of steel are going into the roof trusses. Three to five cranes were used to lift, place and bolt down each assembled truss section on top of 43-ft.-tall concrete columns. The entire process took three to four days.

An extensive mechanical phase will require the installation of a new chiller within the Centroplex's existing central plant and the installation of a significant amount of ductwork.

Inside the building, architectural concrete blocks will go up 14 ft. in the exhibit hall area as the primary wall finish, while the entry lobby will be glassed in.

Lambert said the new structure will have an exterior architectural precast concrete and stucco finish, although the south wall will have a brick finish. In the northwest corner of the building, a large overhead door will allow tractor-trailers to drive directly onto the exhibit hall floor.

Interstate-10 widening, New Orleans. James Construction Group currently has two contracts totaling $90 million that will widen two sections of both the east and westbound lanes of Interstate 10 through New Orleans.

The projects include a $60 million Southern Railroad Underpass to the Carrollton Avenue Overpass section and a $30 million Clearview Boulevard to Causeway Boulevard section.

The Southern Railroad to Carrollton project began in October 2001 and will widen 5,360 ft. of driving lanes both east- and westbound by 28 ft., while not closing a single lane of traffic.

All of the widening for the section takes place on the outside lanes.

About 2,700 ft. of elevated interstate bridges entail some difficult construction, including new pile-supported columns and caps. About 4,000 cu. yds. of structural concrete is being placed for the bridge sections.

"On I-10 westbound, we're building one additional column with a cap, but half of the eastbound bridges are being done with one column and cap and the other half is getting two columns and caps to accommodate a ramp," James said. All six existing ramps are being realigned to accommodate the widened interstate.

A new pump station, about one-third of the job, will alleviate a drainage problem at the railroad underpass.

The second contract, stretching 9,300 linear ft. from Clearview to Causeway boulevards, is being performed almost entirely at night. Construction, which began in September 2002, should also be finished in December.

The new widened roadway will consist of about 2 ft. of sand, 8 in. of limestone base and 13 in. of asphalt for the driving surface. As the project's final phase, the existing driving surface will be milled and overlaid with about 85,000 tons of asphalt.

Concrete sound wall construction is included in both projects.

First Baptist Church Sanctuary, New Orleans. General contractor Brice Building Co. Inc. of New Orleans is erecting a two-building First Baptist Church complex in a tightly bordered, triangular-shaped piece of land off Canal Boulevard.

Bobby Hurley, project manager with Brice, said railroad tracks and private property border the site.

"The only thing you can see from Canal is a little sliver of land. It expands out from there," he said.

The foundation for the buildings consists of 70 pipe piles and 650 composite piles, followed by the erection of about 800 tons of steel.

The 50,000-sq.-ft. sanctuary will have a 1,000-person capacity and will contain a couple of mechanical levels and a music area that steps up. The education building will reach about 35,000 sq. ft.

"The buildings' skins will have a brick veneer with pre-formed sheetmetal," Hurley said. "Generally, the brick is low and the metal is high. It has kind've evolved into that."

The interior height of the sanctuary ranges from 25 ft. to 50 ft.

"The way it works, the seating is sloped toward the front of the sanctuary and the ceiling slopes up as the flooring slopes down," Hurley added.

The building's trusses are fairly deep, reaching nearly10 ft. in some locations.

"They're all about the same length, going from the back to the front, reaching about 125 ft. long," Hurley said. The trusses are fabricated off-site, then delivered to the site in two pieces, which are welded together.

"The whole thing is on a radius, spanning from a small arc at the front of the sanctuary to a much more widened arc," he added. "On the north side of the building there are several things going in there, including a choir practice area, some bathrooms, changing areas, some different offices and a storage area - it's pie-shaped for the bulk of it and rectangular in the office areas."

A fellowship hall and conference area will be built on the west side of the sanctuary, with a combined space capable of supporting approximately 420 people.

The three-story education building, although rectangular, also has a slight radius. It will contain more than 20 classrooms and administrative offices.

E. Ean McNaughton of New Orleans designed the complex.

Louisiana Artists Guild complex, New Orleans. An $11.5 million project in New Orleans will build a new five-story structure connecting two existing buildings along Carondolet Street for the Louisiana Artists Guild.

Project manager Steve Sentilles of Gibbs Construction of New Orleans, said the building complex will offer art yards with kilns, sand pits, overhead pits, a painting studios, glass blowing, children's art classes and an art store.

"Artists are going to lease out studio space," he added.

The new building will be a poured-in-place concrete, post-tensioned building. Foundation for the new structure consists of 70 ft. concrete piles and 50 ft. timber piles.

"The exterior will be a combination of cast stone, aluminum curtainwall and brick," Sentilles said. "We're also performing renovations inside (the existing buildings)."
Breezeways and doorways will attach the two structures to the new building.

Useful Information:

Design and construction information for the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center expansion can be found at:
http://www.sizeler.com/Whats_New/Press_Releases/Convention_Center.htm

Check the status of the LA 10 project near Clinton at:
http://www.dotd.state.la.us/construction/baton.html#E%20FELICIANA

For a live shot of the Clearview section of the I-10 project in New Orleans, go to:
http://www.metairie.com/cam/cam2.htm