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Dow's Cornerstone project is being built on an 11-acre site within its existing plant in St. Charles Parish. It is the first U.S. latex plant to be constructed in decades.
Sometimes the component parts are rather insignificant, except for the integral role they play in the greater whole.
That is the case with the Cornerstone project, a new latex plant being built at the Dow facility in St. Charles Parish. Part of a $100 million investment in Dow's latex business, the new facility is comprised of piping, foundations, electrical instrumentation, tanks and structures, much like industrial facilities the world over.
But the composite plant has the distinction of being the first new latex plant to be constructed in the United States in the past 30 years.
"As far as construction goes, it's pretty routine," said Todd Beard, project manager for Dow. "But what we are building . . . this is once in a lifetime because this project is bigger than what most of us will ever do." The project covers an 11-acre site and has a workforce of 350 contractors.
Beard said that although money is routinely spent on additions, expansions and upgrades, it is unusual to build a whole new facility of this size from the ground up.
"Everything here is brand, spanking new," Beard said. "It's a chemical plant on a grassroots site in the middle of an existing Dow plant."
The new facility is part of Dow's UCAR Emulsion Systems (UES), which produces and markets emulsions or polymers - better known as latexes - for paints, sealants and caulks. With the facility, Dow is consolidating some of its processes at other locations and bringing more work to Louisiana.
"Dow saw some unique opportunities to merge the technology and expertise of Dow with the existing customer base at Union Carbide," said Beard, referring to the St. Charles operations plant that was purchased as a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company in 2000. "We're replacing some existing outdated assets and growing the market at the same time."
When the system goes on line in December, it will be one of the biggest latex facilities in Dow's global system, Beard said. Dow is managing all of the construction, which began June 2004.
Cajun Constructors of Baton Rouge handled the civil work and all of the major foundations, which required about 9,000 cu. yds. of concrete, said Ronald Barber, project manager.
"There were some very sizable pours," Barber said. Cajun started work early in the morning to accomplish the pours and fabricated a removable form at an offsite plant to satisfy Dow's intricate system of cast-in-place trenches.
"The expedited schedule was quite the challenge," said Barber, who had a six-month timetable. "As the project went on, it became more difficult to coordinate with the other contractors on site."
Finding enough qualified manpower to complete the job was also difficult, Barber added.
"At peak, we had 80 men on site and we had a hard time getting those," he added. "We went through about 200 to get 80."
Barber said the shortage was disappointing but he attributed it to the lack of industrial work in recent history, as well as the abundance of residential and commercial work in the area.
"The Dow project was the first project of any size that we've seen in about a year," Barber said. "In the past, when we'd get a project like this we would get tired of the phone ringing with people asking to work, but we didn't get the first call on this."
Scott Corrick, project manager for Industrial Specialty Contractors of Baton Rouge, agreed that the schedule is the biggest challenge on the job. ISC started in May with onsite fabrication and installation of the instrumentation and electrical, with completion expected in October.
"They (Dow) designed everything," Corrick said. "We are just trying to build it all in time."
Although ISC's portion of the project isn't the biggest it has seen, it's the largest the contractor has handled at the St. Charles plant.
"A lot of major work is coming up in the industry," said Thad Rispone, ISC's corporate business development manager, said. "Dow is a very good client of ours and we wanted to make sure we could dedicate the right resources to getting this job done right, with the quality and safety Dow expects."
Rispone said Dow's interview process is "very thorough" and the scheduling is "sophisticated and intricate."
"They want to make sure they watch every detail," Rispone said. He added that he appreciates knowing if someone is falling behind. "The E & I is always the last one to finish, so if anyone slips up our schedule gets shortened."
Industrial Design and Construction (IDC) of Baton Rouge began erecting structural steel and setting equipment in early September during the first of four contracts on the project, said Donnie McDowell, project manger. IDC began work on the first of three mechanical contracts just before Christmas and will be at the facility for the start up, he added.
Like the other contractors, the project represents a sizable chunk for IDC and the first grassroots industrial job the contractor has done in some time, he added.
"In the last few years, there has been more maintenance than construction," McDowell said. "It's a good-sized job for us and includes about 2,500 tons of structural steel. We also installed 150,000 ft. of linear pipe, placed about 1,500 yds. of concrete and set hundreds of pieces of equipment, including pumps, filters and reactors."
The biggest challenge has been coordinating work with other contractors in the same area.
"We'll probably peak out at 250 people IDC employees," he added. "Another 50 subcontractors will have a lot of people working in the same area."
Pala Interstate LLC is field-erecting the seven largest, steel plate tanks of the various "pots and pans" that will be in the facility, Beard said.
"We started at the end of January and will finish by the end of July," said Andrew Avrill, manager of tank operations for Pala. "The smallest ones are about 24 ft. tall and 19 ft. in diameter, and the largest is 58 ft. in diameter and 24 ft. tall."
"This truly is the cornerstone for our business because this plant is critical to our success," Beard said. "For me personally, it's all about the ability to create something.
"Fifty years from now, this will be here. Doing this kind of work gives you a creative blast I don't think you can get in too many other ways."
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