Construction is well under way on a $300 million pipe manufacturing plant in Tunica County, Miss. The plant is the first manufacturing facility in North America for Wilh. Schulz GMB of Krefeld, Germany.
The Schulz Xtruded Products plant will produce pipes for the oil and gas industry, and plans are to initially employ 200 workers. Over the next five years, the number of employees will increase to 500.
The project began on Aug. 20, and is currently running on schedule with substantial completion projected for July 1, 2011.
The facility will include approximately 190,000 sq. ft. (17,651 sq m) for the manufacture of stainless steel pipe. The building was designed under the direction of Byrd Consultants LLC, Tupelo, Miss. Construction consists of a conventional structural steel framework and metal deck with a single ply TPO membrane roof system. Walls include a tilt-up concrete wainscot with insulated sandwich panels above to the eaves. Floor slabs vary in thickness from 8 to 24 in. (20 to 60.9 cm).
The building also includes multiple girder bridge cranes in both the hot mill and the cold mill areas. Special foundations are included for a horizontal extruder press, a rotary furnace, quench tanks, vertical press and ancillary equipment needs.
Allen & Hoshall are the engineers for Tunica County, and the general contractor is JESCO Inc. The project manager is David Bryant, and the project superintendent is Bill Howell.
“Dewatering of the vertical press pet in the hot mill has been one of the biggest challenges,” Howell said. “Another series of challenges has involved expediting construction of the project on a fast-track basis as information on the process equipment needs are continually integrated with the overall building design elements.”
In the next few months, construction employment will peak at approximately 200 workers.
Earthwork and geo-pier work was handled under a separate contract between Tunica County and L & T Construction. Concrete volume is in the range of 12 to 14,000 cu. yd. (9,175 to 12,000 cu m). The concrete supplier for the project is MMC in Tunica.
Structural steel tonnage is approximately 1,000 tons (907 t), and is supplied by Ellis Steel Company of West Point, Miss.
Subcontractors include Century Construction, Tupelo, Miss., for temporary road and parking; F.L. Crane and Sons, Fulton, Miss., for metal wall panels; T. Gene Edwards, Chattanooga, Tenn., for sheet piling and the vertical press pit; Ellis Steel Company/Bracken Erectors, West Point, Miss., furnishing and erecting structural steel; Gephart Electrical Construction Co., Robinsonville, Miss., for temporary electrical; Jay-Ton Construction Company, Burlison, Tenn., for concrete foundations, partial floor slabs, horizontal extruder, and foundations; Jolly Roofing, Collierville, Tenn., for roofing and sheet metal; L & T Construction, Hernando, Miss., for loop road work; Magnolia Underground, Olive Branch, Miss., for the drainage package; Mersino Dewatering, Davison, Mich., for dewatering; and All-Star Security Services, Southaven, Miss., for guard services.
The equipment list includes the following:
For JESCO: a Kawasaki Mule 3010 KAF 620J.
For Bracken: a Sumitoma 150 Crane LS 238 RH; a LinkBelt 110 Crane LS 218 H; a Genie forklift, an LG forklift; two JLG boomlifts; four Genie boomlifts; four Miller welders; and two Lincoln welders.
For Gephart: a Case trencher.
For Mersino: an HS2 Freight Liner drill rig.
For Magnolia, a Cat 318 C trackhoe, a Cat 312 C trackhoe, a Cat D5G bulldozer, a Cat 420 DIT backhoe, a Cat CP323C roller, an Ingersoll Rand SD 40 D roller, a Milasa MTX80 tamp and a Belle Group PCX 450 sand tamp.
For Jay-Ton: a Cat D5C dozer, two John Deere tractors, two John Deere pans, a Ford F-750 water truck, two JLG forklifts, a Miller welder, a Cat FF200 CX506170 trackhoe, a Stone roller, a General generator and a Mikasa tamp.
For Edwards: five Red-D-Arc generators, two Red-D-Arc welding machines, a Kobelco SK 250 LC excavator with a long boom, a Skytrak forklift, a Bobcat mini-excavator, a Takeuchi mini-excavator, a John Deere dozer, a Terex backhoe, a Kawasaki mule and a Grove 875E crane. CEG
Brenda Ruggiero
Brenda Ruggiero has written for CEG for over 20 years. She lives near the town of Accident in far western Maryland. Her favorite assignments so far involved interviews with Survivor’s Boston Rob and hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut. Both were involved in construction at one time.
Brenda holds a BA in Mass Communication with a writing focus from Frostburg State University and minors in Public Relations and Political Science. She works full time as a staff writer for a weekly newspaper, the Garrett County Republican. She enjoys feature writing the most, which gives her the opportunity to talk to people and share their stories.
Brenda and her middle school sweetheart, Reuben, have been married for over 34 years and have three grown children and four cats.
Read more from Brenda Ruggiero here.
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