1) Mixed-Oxide Fuel Facility
Cost: $4 billion

Seldom does a construction project have the lofty goal of helping maintain world peace, but that’s the purpose of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.

The $4.8 billion facility being built by Shaw Areva MOX Services will process weapons-grade plutonium into fuel that can be used in nuclear reactors. Construction began in August and is expected to be complete at the end of 2016. The facility, a seven-story, 500,000 sq-ft building, is being constructed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards for nuclear fuel processing facilities, says Clay Ramsey, the federal project director for the facility.

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The Shaw Areva joint venture is 70% owned by Baton Rouge, La.-based The Shaw Group and 30% owned by Areva of Paris, France. The group has a three-phase contract with the government to design, construct and test the facility; operate it for about 20 years; and then demolish it in the mid 2030s, Ramsey says.

Shaw Areva began designing the MOX facility in 1999, and its design is based heavily on two MOX facilities built by Areva in France. The French have used MOX technology for almost two decades and currently supply MOX fuel to over 30 reactors worldwide.

The final contract is still being negotiated, Ramsey says. About $1 billion has already been spent on the project.

The facility will remove impurities from the plutonium and then mix it with uranium oxide to form MOX fuel pellets for fuel assemblies that will be used in commercial nuclear power reactors.

According to the DOE, when operational, the facility will be capable each year of turning 3.5 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium into MOX fuel assemblies.

Construction of the facility should require 170,000 cu yds of concrete; 35,000 tons of reinforcing steel; 23,000 instruments; 1,000 tons of heating vents and air conditioning; 500,000 lin ft of conduit; 3 million lin ft of power and control cable; and 80 mi of piping.

2) West County Energy Center
Cost: $506 million

Zachry’s latest project for FP&L will have twice the nominal capacity of the power company’s more typical combined-cycle plants. The West County Energy Center will have a nominal capacity of 2,400 megawatts with an advanced cycle that operates at 2400 PSIG. Previous FP&L combined-cycle plants built by Zachry were nominally1,200 megawatts. Zachry reports this is the largest single-project electric output it has ever signed under one contract.

The contractor mobilized onsite in February 2007 to begin underground work, soil stabilization and construction of access roads. The project will be constructed in phases with target operation dates of April 2009 for phase one and November 2009 for phase two.

Each of the two units include three Mitsubishi G-series combustion turbine generators, exhausting into three triplewide Nooter/Eriksen heat-recovery steam generators and one reheat condensing Toshiba steam turbine generator. The units will rely on high-efficiency, G-class technology.

3) St. Regis Resort & Residences
Cost: $480 million

While the condo market in South Florida has run aground, hospitality projects there and elsewhere in Florida have been flourishing. The third-largest project in the Southeast to have started construction during 2007 is actually a mix of those two project types.

Miami-based Coastal Construction started in late 2007 on its St. Regis Resort & Residences contract, which will measure more than 2 million sq ft and feature three 26-story buildings over a three-story podium. Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Bal Harbour, the development will contain 268 condominium units and 243 hotel and fractional-ownership units. Amenities will include two restaurants, a ballroom, wine bar and spa and fitness center.

The project will feature fully furnished hotel condominium residences designed by Yabu Pushelberg, along with one-, two- and three-bedroom residences with balcony “living rooms.”

4) Interstate 75 Road Expansion Project (iROX)
Cost: $480 million

Contractors are at work on a $430 million Interstate 75 contract that represents Florida’s first foray into alternative financing.

ACCI/API, a joint venture of Anderson Columbia Co. of Lake City, Fla., and Ajax Paving Industries of Nokomis, Fla., won the Florida Department of Transportation’s first design-build-finance contract for the I-75 Road Expansion Project, referred to as iROX.

The 30-mi widening of I-75 from four to six lanes in Lee and Collier counties in southwest Florida began in October and will wrap up by the end of 2010. The state will pay the joint venture over five years.

“Design-build-finance is the kind of innovative approach that makes megaprojects happen,” says Stanley M. Cann, FDOT District One secretary. “With this financial approach, iROX accelerates I-75 improvements as many as five years.”

5) Wachovia First Street Office Project
Cost: $480 million

Atlanta-based Batson-Cook Co. is leading the effort to build Wachovia’s LEED-registered, 51-story office tower in Charlotte, N.C., that will anchor a mixed-use development featuring a cultural campus with three museums and a performance hall; 300 residential condos; retail space; and a 2,200-space, eight-level parking garage.

The contract includes a $240 million office tower; $90 million, eight-level underground parking deck; and $30 million subgrade. Batson-Cook Co. is the lead contractor, handling the infrastructure, including tunnels and the garage, as well as the 43-story condo tower. The company is partnering with R.J. Leeper Construction on the subgrade and parking deck sections, and with H.J. Russell & Co. of Atlanta on the office tower.

According to Batson-Cook, the office tower will require two of the strongest tower cranes made along with a self-jacking concrete placing boom to complete the construction. A unitized curtain-wall system will adorn the exterior of the building and the office tower will consist of a concrete tube frame construction with precast double-tee infill. The top five levels are structural steel.