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2002 Top Construction Project of the Year
Shell GOAL Venture Project

Contractor: Cajun Constructors Inc., Baton Rouge
Location: Geismar
Cost: $60.6 million
Project manager: Tommy Hutchinson
Site manager: Tim Willis
Engineer: Fluor Daniel Inc., Sugarland, Texas; S&B Engineers & Constructors, Houston, Texas; Ford, Bacon & Davis, Baton Rouge.


The Shell GOAL Venture Project established several new records in Cajun Constructors' 29-year history. The project had the largest contract value of any job in Cajun Constructors history, it had the largest number of direct craft employees (653 at peak) of any job in Cajun's history, and it had the most manhours (1,329,870) of any job in the company's history.

Cajun started the project with an approximate $6 million estimate, executed a contract not to exceed $16 million and ended the project with a combined total contract value of $60,597,069. No project in Cajun Constructors' history can match a $44,597,069 addition to the original contract value. Cajun Constructors also had the distinction of having the largest contract value of any contractor on the Shell GOAL Venture Project.

In the first year of the project, many executive managers at Cajun Constructors visited the jobsite and all had basically the same comment upon return to the home office. That comment was worded differently by each manager, but the essence was essentially the same: the Shell GOAL Venture Project was the most impressive Cajun jobsite they had ever visited.

Cajun Constructors scope and contract value grew so quickly, and so large, due solely to the fact that the company met expectations. Cajun exceeded the expectations of Shell Chemical and Fluor Daniel with the award of each additional scope of work, and executed the work with the utmost professionalism. This project was unique for Cajun Constructors because the company did not just perform concrete work.

Cajun Constructors did just about everything on the project from picking up trash, removing bee colonies, weed control maintenance, providing the project shuttle bus service, supply and maintenance of lunch tents, street sweeping, cleaning of fabricated steel ground storage tanks, supplying flagging personnel at all street intersections and roadways, and pest and rodent control.

Cajun also performed tasks typically not in the civil scope of work, such as structural steel erection, fireproofing and grouting of equipment and structural steel base plates. The most impressive feat of all was the fact that all these unique work activities were performed by Cajun, in conjunction with placing more than 65,000 cu. yds. of concrete, 80,000 cu. yds. of lime stabilized clay backfill, more than 2,800 driven piling, more than 600 drilled shafts and more than 17,000 linear ft. of underground piping. All of this was done in an existing plant with much of the work in existing processing facilities restricted by limited access.

Cajun Constructors also proposed and implemented several cost conscious and environmentally friendly work activities during the course of the project. This not only reduced the overall cost of the project but also reduced the impact, if any, on the environment. The contractor crushed 19,000 tons of demolished concrete and re-used the material for road base and laydown yards. The alternative was to haul the material off-site for disposal at a substantial cost to the project, or stockpile it on site, leaving it for future generations to deal with and adversely impacting the environment.

Cajun also processed six acres of trees and brush, which was cleared for the clay mining operation. This chipped material was hauled off site at no additional cost to the project, and recycled for use in the landscaping industry.



 

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