Southwest Louisiana Report

Post-hurricane growth spreads across region

By Karla Wall

The southwest region of Louisiana is enjoying the sort of growth normally experienced after a natural diaster such as Hurricane Rita, said Loren Scott of Loren Scott and Associates, co-author of the annual Louisiana Economic Outlook.

"There has been an increase in construction activity due to new building and repair work and an infusion of insurance money into the area," Scott said. Department of Labor statistics show employment in natural resources and construction is up 33.3 percent. In late August, the construction sector in the region employed 10,100.

"Now, that number is 13,600," he added. "That's a very significant jump in the sector and that's what's driving the growth rate in the region."

The private sector will continue to experience steady growth in the building, highway and utility construction industry, said Scott Hines, Lafayette District area manager for Louisiana Associated General Contractors.

"The private sector shows no signs of slowing down and local municipalities will continue to press forward in putting bond issues on the ballots for voters to decide, mainly as an attempt to play catchup in addressing overstressed infrastructure systems," Hines said.

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A major catalyst for growth in the area will be the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act (GO-Zone), Hines said. The legislation is expected to generate roughly $7.9 billion in economic impact in the state. "The program will provide a mechanism for private businesses and corporations in the state to finance construction and reconstruction projects through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds," Hines said.

The residential construction sector in the region is booming, said Henry Florsheim, vice president of the Lafayette Economic Development Association. Florsheim pointed to the construction of a new six-story apartment complex in downtown Lafayette as an example and the development of Sugar Mill Pond near Youngsville. Developed by the same group behind River Ranch Community in Lafayette, Florsheim said.

In the commercial sector, the region should experience an increase in small to medium oil and gas industry service businesses and there's been an increasing interest in the construction of warehouse/distribution centers, since Lafayette is situated between the hurricane-damaged areas of Lake Charles and New Orleans.

Driving the construction industry in Lake Charles are several major industrial projects, including several planned LNG facilities, each valued at between $600 million to $800 million.

Sempra Inc. will invest 250,000 man hours at its Hackberry LNG facilty, said Ellis Benkenstein, Southwest region director for Associated Builders and Contractors. Construction of a $1.3 billion cogeneration plant facility at Citgo's Lake Charles refinery will also boost the area's economy, Scott said.

Benkenstein also points to a possible expansion of the Calcasieu Refinery in Lake Charles, as well as smaller projects at Conoco-Phillips and Louisiana Pigment.

While there's more than enough work to go around, the fly in the ointment may be the lack of qualified workers to help complete it. While Hurricane Rita provided an increased workload, it also meant a loss of workers as people who evacuated decided not to return. And for a variety of other reasons, the industry is facing a serious shortage of workers.

"We just don't have the manpower down here that we need," Benkenstein said.

"There's also a shortage of professional engineers from all disciplines," said Hal McMillian, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury member and head of business development for Levingston Engineers in Sulphur. "We also need drafters and sketchers."

To address the problem, ABC is working with contractors and construction leaders in New Orleans and Lake Charles, State Dept. of Education officials, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the state board of colleges and universities to form a workforce commission group. Already, 43 community colleges in the state have adopted the same construction training curriculum taught by ABC at its school. Benkenstein said BESE has already implemented the same curriculum for high school students.

McMillian said the recent development of the FEMA trailer park in Lake Charles will ease the area's housing shortage, which will allow the workforce to increase.

Other projects to watch include:

• Women and Children's Hospital expansion, $12 million
• Bridge improvement projects, Lake Charles/Kinder/Fenton, $20 million
• I-49 contraflow lane, Lafayette, $3.5 million
• Stirling Ventures retail outlet, Lafayette, $20 million
• Hilton Homewood Suites (proposed), Lafayette, $20 million

Following are a few noteworthy projects currently under construction:

Ambassador Caffery Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade. This $23 million upgrade project, begun in June 2005, will boost the capacity of the treatment facility from 6 mgd to 9.25 mgd, and will improve odor control, said Kirby Stumpf of M.R. Pittman, primary contractor for the project. The project will allow the facility to better accomodate an increasing demand from a growing population.

The upgrade includes installation of a three-cell equalization basin with a capacity of 7 million gallons. The concrete basin is 25 ft. tall with 2-ft., 3-in.-thick walls and was poured using 9,500 cu. yds. of 4,000-psi concrete. The project also calls for the installation of two 2,700-gpm pumps and two 3,000-gpm pumps as well as a new four-celled sequencing batch reactor unit with a 12-in. discharge blower that will increase odor control for the facility.

A new secondary chlorine contact chamber is also being installed. A new control center, fed by two distribution centers, will allow remote control of power and communication throughout the facility.

North Generation Project, Lafayette. This two-phase project, involving the North and South power plants, is being handled by TIC of Lafayette. The $40.9 million project began in July 2004 with the upgrade to the 8-acre North Plant, said project engineer Randy Stephenson of TIC. The North Plant was completed in August 2005. Upgrade to the 5-acre South Plant will be completed by in mid-June.

The work at each plant calls for the installation of two CTG gas-powered peaking units designed to offset the normal power supply. The units, 30 ft. wide by 90 ft. long by 40 ft. high, consist of a jet engine, hydraulic systems and a generator. The unit is housed in .75-in.-thick steel plate and the turbine is enclosed in a sound-proofed housing with a 3-in.-thick layer of closed cell polyeurethane foam. A retention pond, with a capacity of 40,000 cu. ft. of water, was also installed at each plant.

The project will boost the capacity of the two plants from 500 mw to 700 mw, Stephenson said.

Sulphur Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade. McInnis Brothers Construction of Minden is spearheading this $18.6 million expansion to the Sulphur Wastewater Treatment Facility. The project was begun in May 2005 and is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, said project manager Sam Bethea. Project engineer Wayne Harris with Meyer Associates said the project will boost the plant's capacity by 50 percent, raising peak flow from 18 mgd to 27 mgd.

Roughly half of the plant's existing equipment, most of which is at least 20 years old, is being removed and the process is converted, Bethea said. A four-cell sequencing batch reactor is being added. Roughly 11,000 cu. yds. of 4,000-psi concrete are being used for the 400-ft.-long, 200-ft.-wide, 25-ft. deep unit. A 33-ft. deep lift station is also being added, constructed of 750 cu. yds. of 4,000-psi concrete.

A new headworks structure is also being added to screen out solids using a rotary drum screen. A 72-ft. by 34-ft. blower building is being built, constructed of 12-in. heavy-duty CMU, and a 2,800-kw generator is being installed for backup power. Two 20-hp floating aerators will prevent the water from becoming septic, Bethea said.

One challenge to the project has been the construction of the SBR walls, Bethea said. The walls are battered, tapering up from 2 ft., 3 in. thick at the bottom to 12 in. thick at the top.

"The walls are tilted inward to make it more resistant to overturn," Bethea said. Some of the walls are battered on both faces and some only on one face. "The challenge has been dealing with the complex intersection angles," Bethea said.

Critical Care Hospital, Franklin. Woodrow Wilson Construction in Baton Rouge began work on this $11.7 million project in November 2005 and project manager Greg Rome said work will be completed by April 2007.

The 64,000-sq.-ft., one-story hospital will include an ER unit, 26 patient beds, a respiratory care unit, surgical and imaging suites and administration offices. The new hospital will replace the older, larger hospital, which will be rented out for commercial space, Rome said.

Roughly 45,000 cu. yds. of dirt were brought in for the project from a borrow pit in Franklin. The fill was necessary since new FEMA flood plain regulations required an extra 8 in. of height in the footprint.

Oriented Strand Board Plant, Oakdale. Martco Ltd., a division of Roy O. Martin Lumber Co. LLC, will begin production at its new $210 million facility in October. Work began on the project in May 2005.

The 210-acre plant will be, for a time, the largest facility of its type in the U.S., said Adrian Schoonover, Martco vice president of engineering.

"There are a couple of plants under construction that will be larger once they're in operation," Schoonover said. The plant will house about a dozen buildings, including a 14-acre warehouse, a 5-acre process building and a storage area for about 250 truckloads of pine thinnings per day.

Schoonover said the thinnings will be cut into flakes, dried using three rotary heated-air dryers, coated with resin, layered into different directions for strength and pressed together with a press made of 5 million pounds of steel.

The process will be powered by the heated air produced when the bark from the thinnings is burned in two heated energy units, each capable of producing 215 million BTUs.

Schoonover said the plant will also have electrical power supplied by Beauregard Electric for other operations.

I-10 Widening, Coone Gully to Hwy. 27. Despite delays caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, this $42.4 million project to widen a 10-mi. stretch of Interstate 10 just west of Sulphur is moving at a brisk pace, with crews working around the clock. The project is expected to be complete by this fall.

The project will add a 12-ft. lane and a 10-ft. shoulder to each side of the interstate, said project manager Marc Dinnat with Diamond B Construction. The project also calls for the widening of four bridges. Subcontractor for the bridge work is T. L. Wallace Construction Inc. of Columbia, Miss.

Increased traffic flow, caused by emergency workers and evacuees from the hurricanes, has been a problem, Dinnat said. Concrete barriers have been placed to leave two lanes open for traffic.

Camelot of Broussard Nursing Home/Assisted Living Facility. This $13 million new construction in Broussard will house nine buildings for a total of 135,000 sq. ft. The Lemoine Co. LLC of Lafayette began construction on the project in June 2005 and the facility is expected to be completed by this month.

The facility will consist of an apartment-style assisted living area, a traditional nursing home unit, an Alzheimer's unit and a behavioral health unit as well as centralized kitchen and dining areas.

State regulations have forced a fairly tight schedule for the project, Wesley said. Vertical construction had to begin by October 2005 to avoid a state-mandated moratorium on new nursing home facilities. High material prices have also hampered progress somewhat, Wesley said.

Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, Lafayette. Acadiana will soon be home to cutting-edge technology when this new $27.5 million facility opens this summer. The facility will utilize two supercomputers that run 3-D software to provide advanced visualization technology.

The facility will consist of four rooms, one of which is a 3-D cave, or immersion auditorium, said Robert Billeaud, president of J.B. Mouton of Lafayette, primary contractor for the project. It will also include a 50,000-sq.-ft. office rental space, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 175 and a 37-ft. 3-D screen, and a conference room.

The 80-ft., 3-story glass dome will have six projectors which will display images on the walls, floors and ceiling. The effect will be a 3-D representation that can put users in virtually any environment. The technology will have nearly unlimited applications and will attract a wide variety of businesses and industries.

The project, a joint venture between ULL, the Lafayette Economic Development Association and the state, was bid in a unique way.

"Public work in Lousiana, by law, can be bid on by any company," Billeaud said. "This project was bid by invitation-only. There were three bidders. LEDA was able to bring the spirit of cooperation that is normally found in a private sector bidding process and make it work in a public project."