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Union Tank Car is building its $110 million manufacturing facility on 140 acres near Alexandria. The "just-in-time" design-build project will be finished in the spring.
When Gov. Kathleen Blanco began her dogged pursuit of the Union Tank Car plant in Alexandria, the future impact to the state was clear. The $110 million job would translate into 850 jobs and would be a major feather in the cap of economic development in the region.
The Shaw Group of Baton Rouge became involved in the project when Alexandria Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Elton Podie introduced the group to Union Tank Car Director of Manufacturing Engineering James A. Shirvinski.
"They got us a meeting with Union Tank Car - it took about two weeks," said Andy Dupuy, Shaw's executive vice president, capital construction. "The Union Tank Car guys came to our office, we did a little dog and pony show and by the time they walked out of there, we almost had a commitment to do the job."
Shaw's portion amounts to roughly half of the total price tag, or about $55 million, Dupuy said.
"I know that the governor and the head of economic development probably worked hard to get Union Tank Car here, but we really didn't have anything to do with that. We were just a bunch of guys looking for a job."
Union Tank Car chose 140 acres of an old cotton field on the site of the former England Air Base. The fields had been purchased by the air base because of their proximity to fuel tanks used by the military.
The land housed no hazardous materials, so clearing the land for construction was an easy task.
"We took the cotton off and started hauling in dirt," said Bobby LeBlanc, site construction manager for Shaw. The dirt contract was already let to Gilchrist Construction of Alexandria when Shaw was brought into the project.
"They're a big road contractor, but they were hauling fill because they had to bring the site up 2 or 3 ft.," Dupuy said. Work on the project began in October 2004, but Shaw arrived on the site in November.
"Once we got the contract to design/build, they took Gilchrist and put them into our contract, so now Gilchrist is a subcontractor of Shaw."
The facility is being built as a "just in time" design-build project, which means each stage in the construction process begins as the design phase is completed. In September, the design stage was about 60 percent complete while the actual construction stage was 25 percent complete.
There are four major buildings on the project, LeBlanc said, including a 50,000-sq.-ft. specialty building, a 100,000-sq.-ft. paint building, a 780,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing building and a small administration building to house the staff. The administration building is ready for occupancy and the specialty building is about 90 percent complete.
"We're building 1 million sq. ft. of buildings," Dupuy said. "These are not little buildings. They have 50-ft. eve heights."
All the drill footings have been completed and 970 augurcast pilings have been placed. The 20-in.-diameter pilings have been drilled 45 ft. deep and are topped with pile caps and grade beams. LeBlanc said the project would use 30,000 cu. yds. of concrete, varying from 6-in. pavements to 12-in. pavements in the manufacturing area.
The buildings are pre-engineered metal with sheet metal roofing, LeBlanc said.
When completed, the Union Tank Car facility will be able to manufacture 70 to 75 tank cars a week with a 14-day turnaround from beginning to completion of a single car. Rails placed throughout the facility will keep cars rolling from building to building and back to the Union Pacific spur on Louisiana Highway 1 for delivery across the country.
"It's incredible to see one of these things in operation," Dupuy said. "We've seen both plants - Sheldon and East Chicago - and these cars are rolling through there like a conveyer line in an auto plant, only bigger."
The two existing plants fabricate about 30 to 35 cars a week. Doubling that output required a refinement of the system and state-of-the-art equipment that is still being streamlined in the mind of Union Tank Car's Shirvinski.
"It's a little different than what we've done in the past," Shirvinski said. "It's a philosophy more than anything else."
He added that the actual construction process of the tank cars is "pretty much set in stone," but he has been redefining the layout and designing the project's construction on a tight schedule and tight budget.
"Usually we like to engineer first and then build it, but we're designing as we go."
That "just-in-time" engineering has been a special challenge of the job, Dupuy said, with engineers working just weeks ahead of the contractors.
"We're designing and building this thing and some of the equipment hasn't even been bought yet," he added. "We'll be working one month from now on items that are not even designed today. We're really on a fast track schedule."
About 120 people are working on the project, but LeBlanc said the number will grow to 250 when major electrical and mechanical piping work begins. Union Tank Car hopes to have manufacturing operations up and running by March on a limited basis and be fully operational by late spring.
Shirvinski said the company will then look into redesigning its Sheldon operation to make it more efficient.
Union Tank Car and the Shaw Group are particularly proud of the way the facility will impact the local economy.
Morgan D. David, manager of media relations for Shaw, said Shirvinski is excited about the project because it provides an opportunity for a Louisiana-based company to employ local citizens.
"That's something he wants to do as much as he can," she added.
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