A joint venture of the BE&K Building Group and Turner Construction (BE&K | Turner), with design partner BRPH, has been awarded the design-build contract for design and construction of The Boeing Company’s new 787 Dreamliner final assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina. This project represents the largest single capital investment in South Carolina’s history, a record previously tied to BMW’s historic decision to bring its luxury car assembly to the state in 1992.
The BE&K Building Group’s South Carolina regional office in Greenville will serve as the headquarters for the BE&K/Turner/BRPH design-build team, which is in the process of mobilizing the North Charleston site. According to the BE&K/Turner project executive, Mac Carpenter, Executive Vice President of the BE&K Building Group, the permits are in hand, and the team is expecting to break ground this month. “The beauty of the design-build method is that field work can begin while design is still underway, shaving months off the construction schedule,” Carpenter said. “We are so pleased to be associated with a project of such significance for the state of South Carolina. Our team is committed to including local, small and diverse suppliers as a part of our subcontracting plan,” added Carpenter.
“Because we (BE&K, Turner and BRPH) have long-standing relationships with proven results over many years, we know how to deliver outstanding value together,” said Brian Knowles, Vice President of Turner Construction. The same team — BE&K Building Group, Turner and BRPH — worked together at Boeing’s North Charleston complex when it was still owned by Boeing’s supplier, Vought Aircraft Industries.
In 2006, the BE&K Building Group, in a design-build partnership with BRPH, delivered two major facilities at the site — a 342,000-square-foot building used for fabrication and assembly of aft fuselage sections for the Boeing 787 aircraft, as well as the adjacent Global Aeronautica production facility which is 50% owned by Boeing. Turner served as the owner’s representative on both of these projects. “Collectively, we delivered these facilities on schedule, under budget and with the safety, quality and inclusiveness which the client desired,” said Carpenter. “In fact, the first project was actually completed a week ahead of schedule, and we had an impeccable safety record, logging more than 500,000 hours worked without a lost-time accident,” Carpenter added.
The BE&K/Turner/BRPH design-build team will provide a state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner production facility which will incorporate a number of sustainable elements and will be designed to achieve LEED Silver certification. The BE&K Building Group, Turner and BRPH respectively are listed among the Top 100 Green Designers and Contractors in the United States by Engineering News Record (ENR). The criterion for inclusion on this list is based on revenue from projects registered with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
About the BE&K/Turner/BRPH Team
The BE&K Building Group and BRPH Architects-Engineers have completed 24 projects together over the past 15 years with a total project value exceeding $1.0 billion. The BE&K Building Group and Turner Construction have a long-standing relationship as joint venture partners. A formal partnership established 17 years ago for work in the Charlotte (NC) metropolitan area has led to an impressive list of high-visibility projects, each with an outstanding safety and diversity record, and with a total construction value of nearly $1.0 billion. The NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum and Convention Center Expansion, a $165 million project in uptown Charlotte due for completion in spring 2010, is their 11th major project together in that region.
