Durr Heavy Construction dealt with the challenges of alligators and snakes in a national state park’s ecological wetland, while Industrial Specialty Contractors overcame the adversity of figuring out a complex, $30 million, electrical instrumentation setup of a foreign plastics plant in Plaquemine en route to making company history.
No one said winning an Excellence in Construction Award was easy.
The Associated Builders and Contractors New Orleans/Bayou Chapter honored the best merit shop form construction projects for 2008, distributing 16 Excellence in Construction Awards at its 17th annual Excellence in Construction and STEP Awards Banquet on Nov. 5 at the Chateau Golf and Country Club in Kenner. The ABC New Orleans/Bayou Chapter, which represents 12 parishes, had a record number of entries for this year’s event with 33 nominations and also a record number of attendees at the banquet with close to 300 guests.
In addition to the 16 Excellence Awards, the chapter distributed 11 Gold awards, four Silver awards, two honorable mentions and 13 Safety Training and Evaluation Process, or STEP, Platinum awards, given to construction companies for their exemplary safety programs and for those who meet safety standards on an annual basis.
“It’s an opportunity for us to recognize the quality of our construction work in our area,” said ABC New Orleans/Bayou Chapter President Angela Latino-Geier. “It’s a reflection on their commitment to ABC and what we do as a chapter. It’s a support of us and it’s a support of them. “It’s our way of showing them our appreciation for the solid work they have done in the merit construction industry.”
Latino-Geier said the 16 Excellence Award winners can submit their projects for the National Award of Excellence by ABC, also known as an Eagle Award. ABC has 23,000 members across the nation, including 400 construction companies.
“Several of our companies went on to win national Eagle Awards last year, so our winners this year can compete for that honor,” Latino-Geier said. “It’s a good recognition tool for them to use down the road for future business. They display it in their offices and promote it as a reference for a future project. It’s to their benefit to show future clients what they can do.”
Baton Rouge-based Industrial Specialty Contractors has won two national Eagle Awards in the past three years and will attempt to secure more national recognition after winning two ABC New Orleans/Bayou Chapter Excellence in Construction awards this year for its industrial electrical work to Marathon’s Major Expansion Project in Garyville, La., and the $30 million electrical and instrumentation job to Shintech Inc.’s manufacturing facility in Plaquemine, the largest lump sum job in company history.
Shintech’s 1,725-acre site in Plaquemine manufactures chlorine, caustic soda and vinyl chloride monimer to make plastic products. ISC won the $30 million bid for the electrical and instrumentation work to the industrial facility in November 2006 and finished the job in April with more than 300,000 total man hours with no injuries and about 300 ISC workers on the project.
“This is a big honor, to go through a major project like this, with the quality of work that we did and the safety results we ended up with,” said Mike Scallan, ISC’s construction manager on the Shintech project. “The plant was designed by the Japanese company that we worked with, and the special process was very secretive and complex, and translation at times was a big challenge.
“Once they realized that we could do a good job and they could trust us, the project ran smoothly. We developed a good relationship and hopefully they will have more work coming out in the next couple of years that we can also handle.”
Harahan, La.-based Durr Heavy Construction received Excellence in Construction Awards for three of its projects in Louisiana, including Bass Pro Shops in Denham Springs, the U.S. National Guard’s Readiness Center in Covington and the WWL New Guy Wire Foundations in Barataria at Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve.
The most unique of the three honored was the WWL New Guy Wire Foundations in the swamps at Jean Lafitte. Hurricane Katrina caused the existing foundations of WWL Radio’s towers to be lifted out of the ground, causing the radio towers to be unstable. Durr had to build a road through the swamps in which cranes and cement trucks could use to maneuver in and out of the site. In just six months, Durr built the new 84-ton, concrete foundations that each measured 90 feet long.
“We had to create a whole, new foundation while not damaging or disturbing any part of the wetlands,” said Richard Mire, Durr’s project manager. “This award recognizes our ability to perform a challenging project in a short, turnaround time and to do it well, and that’s a tribute to everybody who worked on the project.”
Durr also found uniqueness in its work as a subcontractor to Citadel Builders LLC on the National Guard’s Covington Readiness Center. The project included demolition and removal of most buildings on the military site and all site work including underground utilities and parking lots.
During excavation, an unknown grave site was uncovered, thus halting all construction until the remains could be identified and removed by the military. Citadel Builders won an Excellence in Construction award in the Institutional $10 million to $25 million category for its work on the Readiness Center.
DonahueFavret Contractors Inc. won three Excellence in Construction awards for the Louisiana Army National Guard Bogalusa Readiness Center; Centennial Improvements to the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and the $26.5 million restoration and renovation of the 200 Carondelet St. American National Bank Building into a mixed-income, apartment complex.
Ten of the 16 Excellence in Construction awards were renovations and rebuilding of businesses, schools, churches and other landmarks damaged by Hurricane Katrina and recent storms, while four of the honorees included chemical company plant additions and expansions.
Renovations and rebuildings included the likes of Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church by F.H. Myers Construction Corp.; Temple Sinai by Landis Construction Company; St. Alphonsus Complex by Norman Voelkel Construction Inc.; and the construction of a new public school in St. Bernard Parish — Joseph J. Davies Elementary School by Gibbs Construction — to replace the original buildings damaged by Katrina.
Cajun Constructors Inc. took home two Excellence in Construction awards for its work on the Halliburton-Fourchon CFS Plant and also Verenium Corp.’s Cellulosic Ethanol Demonstration Plant.
Latino-Geier said the numbers illustrate a good mix of storm repairs and new business.
“It’s a good mix of rebuilding projects, renovation and new projects, so the industry is doing well in that we have such a good variety out there,” she said. “There is still a lot of rebuilding out there, but you also see a lot of chemical plants out there expanding and renovating and doing additions, using our local contractors to expand their businesses.”