Boeing work wings it way to Greenville area

ANDERSON -- South Carolina's new Boeing assembly facility is under construction in North Charleston, but a lot of the work is going to companies with Greenville connections.

BE&K/Turner, a joint venture between BE&K Building Corp. and Turner Construction, is the general contractor of the $750 million project to build a 1.2 million-square-foot facility to house another line to build Boeing's 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The building will stretch nearly a quarter of a mile long and a tenth of a mile wide. Two 787 Dreamliner jets, each with a wingspan of 197 feet, will be able to fit side-by-side inside.

The joint venture designing and building the facility is working out of BE&K's regional office in Greenville. The facility is being designed to an LEED silver rating, indicating the building is environmentally friendly, and officials expect to receive LEED certification.

The project currently is "on schedule for completion in spring/summer of next year," said Kenny Anderson, construction manager and a Simpsonville resident living in Charleston during the project. When completed, Boeing said the facility will have the capacity to deliver three airplanes per month.

BE&K/Turner managed to stay on schedule despite wet weather in November and December when the rains poured as crews attempted to complete site work.

"It made it very, very challenging," he said. But "we have completed the majority of the site work and are about halfway through the steel work." Steel erection began in March with the first steel trusses set in May. Steelwork is expected to be completed in October. About 15,000 tons of structural steel will be used.

Mechanical work and roofing work is expected to begin next week, Anderson said. About 692,000 square feet will be under roof.

Hot weather is not as much of a problem as cold because it can be handled by working more at night, he said. The construction is a 24-7 project. During the hottest hours, training can be held. There also is a shaded area and supervisors continually remind workers of the signs of heat exhaustion and to drink water.

To date, BE&K/Turner has released about $220 million in contracts. And "there's more to come," Anderson said. "So far, about 45 percent of our subcontractors have offices in Greenville."

About $100 million of the contracts have gone to firms with Greenville operations.

At least five of the subcontractors have Greenville headquarters: Century Mechanical, CMS/SC Steel, Cook & Boardman, Eldeco and Graham-Hodge, he said. And more subcontractors are expected during the project.

Also, more than 75 percent of the trade contracts have been awarded to South Carolina companies, he said.

Tara Robertson, BE&K/Turner community affairs director, said the joint venture has worked to hire minority- owned subcontractors and other historically underutilized businesses for the project, with about 27 percent of the contracts going to these firms.

Hank Hyatt, Greenville Chamber vice president of economic development, said he's glad to hear that Greenville-connected businesses are so active in the project.

"Business is business wherever you get it," he said. "It's providing these firms with revenue and providing jobs."

Boeing also has announced plans to build a plant to assemble the interiors for its new 787 jetliner, creating about 150 jobs. The general contractor for the construction project has not been selected, said Joan Krause, director of communications for BE&K/Turner.

A recent analysis prepared by Harry Miley, a Columbia-based economist who was chief economic adviser for Gov. Carroll Campbell, forecast that Boeing will add $6.1 billion to South Carolina's annual economy. The study was completed before the second plant was announced.

Over the first 30 years of operation, the length of time for the state's infrastructure bond issue, the study estimates that Boeing will generate almost $2.76 billion in state tax revenues. That will far outpace the cost of incentives, according to the study.

When the announcement came that Boeing was building a second assembly plant in South Carolina, Greenville site consultant Ed McCallum, who helped the company conduct a national search for the location of its first Dreamliner assembly line, said he expected parts companies would establish their own operations in South Carolina to supply the new Boeing complex.

"There's just a lot of things that will have to be done right there on the site. You're talking a complete assembly operation," McCallum said.

It's also possible that the Upstate operations of some companies that supply the aviation industry could grow as a result of Boeing's complex on the coast, McCallum said. Those might include General Electric Co., Michelin North America, Cytec Industries and American Titanium Works, he said.

Hyatt said the Upstate's burgeoning cluster of aerospace and aviation companies could become part of Boeing's supply chain.

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"I think we have a good chance," he said. "It may not be as a Tier 1 supplier. It could be Tier 2. But that's where you start."

The initial jobs at the site, however, are the construction jobs, important in a state that has lost nearly 9,000 construction sites in the past 12 months.

BE&K/Turner recently celebrated 500,000 man-hours worked without a lost-time incident on the construction site, Anderson said.

And since the celebration, the site has added another 50,000 accident-free hours.

"We have not had an ac- cident on site," he said, adding the construction industry is considered one of the most dangerous and this achievement is a cause of pride.

Besides the desire to keep workers safe, "a safe job translates into good quality, good schedule performance," he said.

So far, 1,200 people have worked on the construction site, with about 350 people there daily, he said.