It was neither the biggest nor smallest project ever undertaken by Zachry or its joint venture partner Sargent & Lundy, but the odds are good that it might have been the tightest in terms of space. The joint venture team, called SLZ, finished installing the third of three auxiliary boilers earlier this year at Air Liquide’s Bayport Complex in the greater Houston area. Sargent & Lundy was responsible for engineering and specialty procurements, while Zachry carried out all other procurement and construction.

“Construction took place in an operating plant and, with as little elbow room as we had to work with, it never got easier,” Project Executive Byron Ozenberger said. “When we installed equipment, we would cut off access to other areas, so our sequencing had to be very deliberate to ensure that plant workers could continue performing their jobs and that we didn’t box ourselves in.”

The boilers each supply as much as 400,000 lbs. per hour of steam to the complex, which produces gases, such as nitrogen, hydrogen and helium, for industrial customers.

The success of the project, which was awarded in May 2013, is underscored by the team’s safety achievements. No recordable incidents occurred during more than 240,000 direct work hours.

“It took many individuals working together to achieve this,” Project Manager Glenn Atkinson said. “Communication was the key to our success due to the tight space we had to work in. Everyone understood the task at hand, and what their responsibilities were, so we could successfully and safely complete the job.”

Zachry’s performance contributed to Air Liquide’s decision to award Zachry an additional project to install an air separation unit (ASU) at Air Liquide’s Port Neches, Texas, facility. That project is scheduled to conclude by the end of this year.

ONE OF THE FIRST POWER PLANTS WITH ENVISION™ SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE RATING

On the shores of Lake Michigan lies a quaint Dutch-like village that bustles with residents and visitors alike. The city of Holland, known for its annual tulip festival and as one of Michigan’s top tourist destinations, is going to become one of the few cities with an Envision™ Sustainable Infrastructure-rated power plant through the development of the Holland Energy Park.

The new 145-MW combined cycle natural gas plant is scheduled to be fully operational in early 2017, replacing the city’s existing coal-fired plant. Zachry is performing the engineering work on the project to build the plant, which will showcase a variety of environmental and aesthetic features:

• A modern building design that creates an attractive eastern gateway to the city
• A 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions and the virtual elimination of solid particle pollutants
• Double the fuel efficiency of Holland’s present power generating station
• The development of open, public space that will integrate with the Macatawa Greenway trail system
• An expansion of Holland’s innovative snowmelt system

BRING ON THE HEAT

Zachry’s plant design includes a means of transferring waste heat conducted from the plant’s heat rejection system to expand Holland’s underground piping system that melts snow in the downtown area.

“A portion of the flow from the hot side of the circulating water system, flowing from the condenser to the cooling tower, is pumped through the city’s snowmelt system,” said Peter Quist, Zachry senior project manager.

Downtown Holland has the largest municipally-owned snowmelt system in the United States. It includes more than 60 miles of one-inch plastic pipe arranged under street surfaces and sidewalk brick pavers. The system can melt one inch of snow per hour when temperatures are between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

“There’s roughly 7,000 gallons of water per minute running through the snowmelt system,” said Quist. “With an annual average snowfall of 75 inches, and a peak of 154 inches in 2013, the snowmelt system is a big benefit to the city.”

The practical and environmental advantages of not having to salt or plow streets help further set the Holland Energy Park apart from the majority of Zachry’s many other power plant projects.

SUSTAINABILITY INCLUDED

The level of thought involved in aligning the plant’s design with environmental standards is another unusual aspect of the project. The Envision™ Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System is the product of a joint collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

“I don’t know of any other companies that are doing a project like this,” Quist said. “It puts us at the forefront of integrating our design and procurement efforts with the Envision™ rating requirements.”

Envision™ provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects. It evaluates, grades, and gives recognition to infrastructure projects that use transformational, collaborative approaches to assess sustainability over the course of a project’s life cycle. When completed, the Holland Energy Park will be one of the first power plants with an Envision™ Platinum certification.

To read the full article in the July/August 2015 edition of the Force Report, please click here.

SAN ANTONIO, TX (July 24, 2015) — The National Safety Council announced that Gulf Coast Partners, CPChem U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project has been honored with a 2015 Industry Leader Award. The award is a component of the Council’s member-exclusive Safety Motivation and Recognition Awards Program. The Industry Leader Award benchmarks outstanding safety achievements among member companies based on self-reported data.

Zachry Group Gulf Coast Partners/CPChem received the accolade in recognition of being among the top 5 percent of member companies, units and facilities that have met the criteria and qualified for the 2015 Occupational Excellence Achievement Award (based on 2014 calendar year data) from NSC. Winners are selected based on NAICS code, lowest total incidence rate and employee work hours.

The project team accumulated more than 1.8 million work hours in 2014 at a recordable incident rate (RIR) of 0.32 or 10 times below the national average identified for the industry. The team has continued this trend with an even lower RIR through the first half of 2015.

“We’re extremely honored to be recognized at this elite level of safety excellence,” said Carl Richardson, Zachry Group Vice President, Safety, Health and Environmental. “It shows the magnitude of safety commitment by the project leadership team and craft workers to maintaining a culture where potential hazards are recognized and work processes are actively managed to minimize the opportunity for accidents.”

The USGC Petrochemicals Project in Old Ocean, TX includes two world-scale polyethylene units that will each produce 500,000 metric tons of plastic resin every year. Zachry Group and Technip formed Gulf Coast Partners to build the facilities for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (CPChem).

“This is a major project that involves more than 1,600 craft workers working approximately 6 million field construction hours,” noted Ralph Biediger, Zachry Group’s President of Construction. “To be truly successful, safety has to be planned and communicated in everything we do. This award is testimony that our primary core value of safety continues to permeate this important project.”

Construction of the USGC Petrochemicals Project began in early 2014 and continues toward a projected completion in early 2017.

Some of the recent beneficiaries of Zachry Care Team activities have included Tampa General Hospital’s Regional Burn Center, Anchor House Ministries, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Junior Olympics and several elementary schools that have received school supplies. The Care Team also has donated welding hoods to shop classes at a local high school.

Another example of community outreach concerns the Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center in nearby Ruskin, Fla. This 160-acre nature preserve is a project of a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and run entirely by volunteers. Its purpose is to sustain a portion of Florida’s original habitats in the Little Manatee River Watershed and to promote appreciation and better understanding of the area’s natural resources, local history and culture through education.

The center offers adult and children’s educational programs. It supports a Florida Master Naturalist Program, stages workshops for school teachers, and hosts visits by school children, scout troops and members of other community organizations.

Zachry and TECO volunteers partnered to enhance and refurbish several areas of the center. Volunteers assembled picnic tables and park benches, and installed signage for nature trails and the butterfly garden. They also provided loads of backfill, spreading soil to level off spots where erosion had occurred at the canoe launch, along several trails and at the park’s entrance.

Photo: ISG employees and their TECO counterparts at the Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center, a nature preserve that is an example of their ongoing community investment in the Tampa area.

Project Executive Brad Reece said the back-to-back home runs that Zachry produced for Florida Power & Light Company have set Zachry apart.

“Power-Gen is ‘the conference’ when it comes to power plants. We were able to capitalize on the lessons learned at Cape Canaveral and move our performance to a new level at Riviera Beach,” Reece said. “Being recognized for that accomplishment at a conference with the scope and prestige of Power-Gen is certainly significant when it comes to landing new business. It’s going to be difficult for any other power company to consider a project of this magnitude without Zachry being part of the conversation.”

The 1,250-MW Riviera Beach project, completed in April 2014, provided a chance for Zachry to pursue its community investment goals as well.

“Riviera Beach is a community of hard-working people,” explained Area Business Manager Rick Hart. “We were able to hire a lot of helpers locally during the Riviera Beach project and that was an investment in the community we were excited to be able to make.”

“We also got involved with the Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School, building a cover over its playground. There were about 20 Zachry employees involved in that project. It was great to be able to help kids and their families as it made us feel like a real part of the community.”

Zachry and JVIC, a Zachry Group company, are taking on a project that showcases their distinctive capabilities by combining construction and turnaround work in one job. The project is part of a larger ethylene expansion program that LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest plastics, chemical and refining companies, has launched for its plants in Channelview, La Porte and Corpus Christi, Texas.

The work involving Zachry and JVIC will double the production capacity of LyondellBasell’s Corpus Christi petrochemical facility. This plant produces ethylene, propylene and fuel products that form the basic chemical building blocks used in consumer products, such as plastics for food packaging and containers. The project represents yet another outgrowth of the heightened drilling activity along the Eagle Ford shale formation in South Texas.

NEW PROJECT, FAMILIAR TERRITORY

While the project is new, the client relationship is well established. Zachry’s Industrial Services Group (ISG) has provided maintenance services at the plant for approximately 15 years, and JVIC has performed turnarounds there since 2004.

“Because of the relationships on both sides, I think it gives Lyondell a level of comfort to have Zachry and JVIC tackling this big endeavor together,” said Bruce Hessler, vice president, project controls for JVIC. “Certainly, Zachry’s strength in construction is just huge, and JVIC’s experience and knowledge in turnarounds, especially with regard to the way Lyondell does business, is paramount also.”

PERFECT PAIRING FOR RARE PROJECT MIX

When Zachry acquired JVIC in 2012, it was a strategic partnership designed to add the country’s best, most in-depth turnaround expertise to Zachry. JVIC is a recognized industry leader in turnarounds, which are scheduled outages at industrial facilities that allow for repair, servicing or upgrades.

While Zachry offers turnaround services as part of ISG’s continuous-presence work for maintenance clients, JVIC focuses strictly on turnarounds in the petrochemical and refinery industries. JVIC not only complements Zachry’s established lines of business, but adds highly specialized skills that Zachry didn’t offer before, such as catalyst services.

“We really make a great team,” Hall said. “Zachry can go in and do large construction jobs and can rely on JVIC for the turnaround work. Acquiring JVIC strengthened the business as a whole, so now we’re a one-stop shop.”

This arrangement also provides other advantages to clients. For example, because so many services are available under the Zachry flag, subcontracted work is kept to a minimum, creating cost efficiencies by avoiding overhead from subcontractors.

MUTUAL BENEFITS

Since the acquisition by Zachry, JVIC has retained its independent structure and brand, as well as its own employees. On the LyondellBasell project, a borrowed employee agreement between Zachry and JVIC allows employees of both companies to easily transition over to the project while maintaining their current employee status. This approach allows project leaders to easily tap the right people for the job.

“I think the two companies are breaking new ground in taking on a project like this. It’s really a joint venture within the larger company,” Hessler said.

Both groups stand to gain from the opportunity to learn from each other as they work side by side on the project.

This blog is an excerpt from the March/April 2015 edition of the Force Report. You can read the entire article here.

In a heavily forested area of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, nine First Nation communities, known as the Meadow Lake Tribal Council Resource Development LP (MLTC RDI), have taken their commitment to sustainable energy to the next level. With the help of Zachry Engineering Corporation’s (ZEC) Minneapolis Design Center, this entity is developing the Meadow Lake Bioenergy Center, a 39-MW power plant fueled entirely by organic waste from the Norsask Lumber Mill and other sources.

“It’s a small power plant, but it will run solely on organic matter,” ZEC Minneapolis Senior Project Manager Don Bobber said. “As we moved through the environmental permitting process, the Council and our team recognized that the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of size was a 39-MW power plant, due to the availability of feedstock (fuel source), well proven technology within this size range for biomass plants and overall economic capital considerations.”

At the present time, waste from the lumber mill is being burned in a beehive burner, releasing emissions into the atmosphere.

“The Council recognized five or six years ago there was a better way to sustain the forest and environment for which they have a long-term agreement to manage,” Bobber said. “They could protect their environment by reducing carbon emissions, as well as create jobs and supply a power source for SaskPower — the local power provider.”

Selected by the builder, Lill & DiFazio Constructors Canada Corporation (LDCC), ZEC Minneapolis has been providing engineering, design and project support for about two years.

The Norsask Lumber Mill, owned by the Council since 1998, produces 160 million board feet of lumber annually. Fully half of the waste needed to power the plant will come from the lumber mill, which generates an average of 40 to 50 tons of organic waste per hour. The remaining 50 percent of the fuel for the plant will come from organic matter such as roadside debris, mill residues, and a wide range of other forest biomass resources.

The organic waste will be burned efficiently in a stoker boiler to reduce emissions, and an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) will be used to reduce particulates in the air. The fly ash will be collected and sold to local businesses.

Construction of the Meadow Lake Bioenergy Center is expected to take two and a half years, which accounts for the extreme winter weather that can be a significant challenge in northern Saskatchewan. Project completion is anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The Council has executed a 25-year, 36-MW power purchase agreement with SaskPower, which is the largest electric utility in the province of Saskatchewan.

This posting comes from a series of articles that reflect Zachry’s efforts to promote health and wellness in its employees.

The story is admittedly an extreme one, but definitely impressive. It introduces us to Ed Brown, a startup planning manager for Zachry Engineering in Houston. 

A few years ago Ed didn’t exercise at all, and his main hobby was work. But when he found himself weighing in at 280 pounds, he knew it was time to change.

He started by buying a treadmill, but found it way too boring. “The dreadmill is what I called it, the hamster wheel,” he said. “But once I started running outside, I started enjoying it.”

With encouragement from runner friends he set his sights on a big goal: the 2009 Rock ‘N Roll Marathon in San Antonio. “I ran 10 miles one time and thought if I could do 10 miles, I could do a marathon.” And he was right, completing the race in 5 hours, 21 minutes.

Shortly after that he moved to Florida with Zachry. There, in October 2010, he ran his first ultramarathon, completing a 50k-race in just over five hours. And that was so much fun he signed up for a 50-mile trail race in Texas — followed by his first 100-mile race in February 2012, where he finished in 24 hours, 35 minutes.

But even that wasn’t enough. He set a goal to run the Cactus Rose 100-Mile Trail Run in Bandera, Texas in October 2012. This is marked by rocky trails with steep climbs and descents and often treacherous footing—so much so that the race website warns, “No whiners, wimps or wusses: A nasty, rugged trail run. Bonus points for blood, cuts, scrapes & puke.”

The course won that day with Ed pulling up after 70 miles with an ankle injury. But eventually he was ready to run again, this time in the Leadville Trail 100. He finished this inside the 25-hour cutoff time, earning a coveted silver and gold trophy belt buckle.

If you ask Ed he’s not doing anything that anybody else couldn’t do. He believes anyone can run — they just have to get off the couch, lace up their shoes, set a clear goal to finish the race, and go. That may be a slight understatement, but Ed is still an inspiration for all of us.

Texas A&M is stepping forward to address this critical state and national need through an innovative, sustainable and systemic change of their educational enterprise. The 25 by 25 initiative is a transformational program to increase access for qualified students to pursue engineering education at Texas A&M to an enrollment of 25,000 engineering students by 2025. “The 25 by 25 initiative is not just about increasing enrollment, but also about providing better instruction and student opportunities. We will transform engineering education to mold the engineer of the future,” said M. Katherine Banks, Dean, Dwight Look College of Engineering.

How does this transformation happen?

A contribution from Zachry Group will support the construction of the Zachry Engineering Education Complex (EEC), establishment of the Zachry Leadership Program and the Zachry Group Professor of Practice within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The 550,000 square foot EEC building will become the hub of the college’s undergraduate program. The building project will include an extensive renovation and addition to the existing Zachry Engineering Center. Construction is underway and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2018.

A second component of the gift creates the Zachry Leadership Program at Texas A&M. The program is a joint effort between Texas A&M Dwight Look College of Engineering and Zachry Group to expand leadership development for engineering students. The purpose of this program is to further empower engineering students to become future leaders who are well-versed in our free enterprise system, collaborative in their decision-making, and humbly self-confident in their behaviors.

The five semester program, commencing spring of sophomore year, is designed to provide students with a broader perspective of the world in which they will live and work. “The desire of the Zachry Leadership Program is to maximize each participant’s potential to contribute to business and society at large, allowing the opportunity for students to not only learn about leadership, but become overall better citizens in the community as they enter the workforce,” according to Tinsley Smith, director of community investment & philanthropy, external affairs for Zachry. When fully established, 100 students will participate in the program and will receive scholarships each semester of the program. Upon completion, students will receive 15 credit hours and a certificate in Engineering Leadership. The first cohort of the Zachry Leadership Program will begin in January 2016.

The third element of the gift from Zachry Group will establish a Professor of Practice in mechanical engineering. Recognizing the need for real-world experience and application, the endowment will enable the department to engage and place industry leaders in the classroom to share their experiences and mentor the next generation of engineers.

“We are very proud to make this gift as an expression of our commitment to corporate citizenship and education. At a time when there is a national shortage of engineers, we are excited to support the vision of Dean Banks and Texas A&M University to produce more engineers than any other institution. We view this as an investment in the future of our state and our country,” said John B. Zachry, Chairman and CEO of Zachry Group.

The massive shale oil and gas expansion across the United States, and South Texas in particular, is dramatically changing the domestic energy and economic landscapes. Last year, the United States ranked number one in worldwide natural gas production, reaching a new all-time high production volume of 328 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD).

The increased natural gas production has, in turn, created a demand for facilities where this natural gas can be liquefied for export to other countries.

FREEPORT LNG SECURES REGULATORY APPROVALS

Against this backdrop in the fall, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Freeport LNG (FLNG) final authorization to proceed with construction of a three-train liquefaction facility on Quintana Island next to Freeport, Texas. About the same time, the Department of Energy (DOE) granted final authorization to FLNG to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-Free Trade Agreement countries.

Zachry is part of a joint venture with CB&I that will perform engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services in delivering the first two trains of this project. Japanese engineering firm Chiyoda will join the Zachry-CB&I joint venture in developing the third train of the project.

ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

FLNG turned to Zachry to get the job done because of its trust in the company. Their strong relationship first developed from 2005 through 2008 when Zachry constructed a regasification terminal for FLNG that’s adjacent to the new liquefaction project site.

“This contract is the direct result of our work on that original project and the relationships we enjoy with FLNG,” said Senior Vice President and Director of Projects Steve Dedman. “We work well together and value the importance of that as we engage in a project of this magnitude.”

CAREER ADVANCEMENT AND JOB CONTINUITY

“This is a ‘project of choice’ and the type of project upon which careers are built and career paths advanced, and we are excited to have this opportunity available to our employees,” Joint Venture Project Executive Chet Lloyd said.

When the project peaks, there will be approximately 3,000 craft workers; 500 supervisors, clerical staff and inspectors; 500 subcontractors; and around 400 engineering employees working on it directly.

“For craft workers in particular, the project presents a longer continuity of employment in one area than they are accustomed to,” says Ralph Biediger, Construction Group President.  “And not just because of the expanded size and duration of this project alone, but also because of the other two large projects Zachry is executing in Brazoria County.”

Those projects, for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Phillips 66, mean that when Zachry begins pouring foundations on the FLNG project in 2016, the company will already have hired more than 2,000 skilled craft workers in the immediate vicinity.

“This is an attractive situation for craft workers who will move from the CPC (Chevron Phillips Chemical) job to the Phillips job, and from there, to FLNG, for what will amount to five or six consecutive years of employment,” Biediger said. “It also gives us a major advantage to work with supervisors and craft workers who understand our processes and know how to work safely.”

This blog is an excerpt from the March/April 2015 edition of the Force Report.