Boise-based Washington Group International has announced it has been awarded contracts by Williamsburg, Va.-based E85 Inc. to build its first three ethanol production plants in the Midwest. E85 will invest over $750 million in the three facilities.

Washington Group will provide procurement, construction, commissioning, and start-up services for the facilities in Wahoo, Neb., and Red Oak and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Each of the facilities will be capable of producing 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. The corn-based ethanol will be blended with unleaded gasoline to create motor fuel, and the plant will produce commercially viable products in corn gluten feed and meal, corn germ, and wet and dry distiller grains with solubles.

Work has started on each plant. A peak construction force of more than 300 is expected at each site.

Moraine College to Have $89 Million Program

Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Ill., has announced an $89 million program involving four projects.

They comprise a new, 98,000-sq-ft Vernon O. Crawley Science Building; 45,000-sq-ft Instructional and Job Training Center; a 3,400-sq-ft addition and renovation to the existing College Center; and new 31,000-sq-ft Student Center.

The groundbreaking has occurred, and the project is expected to be complete between fall 2009 and summer 2010.

Elgin-based IHC Construction Cos. Inc. is the construction manager on the project.

ARTBA Projects Work on Highways Up 3% in 2008

The value of construction work on highway and bridge projects will grow 3 to 4% to just under $78 billion in 2008, says the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

Equally important, recent signs that rapid inflation in the cost of highway construction materials is easing may allow the projected federal, state and local highway investment to support more projects in 2008, says William Buechner, ARTBA vice president of economics and research.

The most important factor driving the outlook for highway and bridge construction in 2008 will be the federal highway program.

SAFETEA-LU, the highway and transit law, provided a $3.4 billion increase in federal highway investment in 2007 over the 2006 level. At least 80% of that money will go into construction work. Of the remaining 20%, about 9% goes to design work and 5% to right-of-way acquisition with the remainder spent on environmental mitigation, administration, research and related activities.

As these funds move into the pipeline, the biggest impact will occur in the 2008 construction season because of the time needed to design and start projects, Buechner says. This increase, plus other federal highway funds already in the pipeline, will support almost $30 billion of highway and bridge construction work in 2008, up from just under $27 billion in 2007.

The annual transportation appropriations bill in Congress for 2008, with another potential increase in federal highway investment, should also help contribute to federal-aid highway construction during 2008. Historically, federal funds finance approximately 40 to 45% of highway capital investments, including construction.

Buechner cautions state and local budgets, however, will, at best, finance about the same amount of highway and bridge construction work in 2008 as they did in 2007 around $49 billion.

During the past three years, state and local governments increased their own highway investment substantially in an effort to accomplish as much construction as possible while facing a 40% increase in the cost of highway and bridge construction materials. Between 2004 and 2007, state and local funds financed about $15 billion of the total $17 billion increase in highway construction work. The rapid increase in state and local spending left little in their treasuries to finance more growth in 2008.

Slower than expected growth in highway user fee revenues, and the housing downturn with fewer home sales and lower appraised housing values will also impact tax collections and local highway construction spending.

Ad Series Eyes 2009 Highway, Transit Reauthorization Bill

The men and women of the U.S. transportation design and construction industry possess the expertise, sophistication and thinking to solve the enormous challenges facing the nation’s surface transportation network.

That’s a core message in a print and online ad campaign unveiled by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

The Dec. 4 launch included the first in a series of advertisements—featuring ARTBA members—that highlight the organization’s global vision of a modernized transportation system that has the capacity to manage population growth and congestion, increase global competitiveness and provide safety and security to consumers. The first ad is appearing in “Roll Call” and has been featured in “Congress Daily.”

A companion ad running online at www.politico.com highlights the association’s legislative proposals for the reauthorization of SAFETEA-LU. In a recently released 72-page report, ARTBA called on Congress to “reform, refocus, restructure and refinance” the federal surface transportation programs, with two major components.

One would be an expanded core federal highway/transit program to protect past infrastructure investments and improve the quality of life for all Americans. Incumbent in this initiative is the need to dramatically increase investment in surface transportation improvements.

ARTBA recognizes, however, additional resources alone will not solve the nation’s transportation challenges. The association has developed a series of specific operational recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the existing programs. The second component, a “Critical Commerce Corridors,” or “3C,” program, would be focused on adding new highway and intermodal capacity to help safely and efficiently facilitate the movement of freight, which is expected to double in the next 25 years.

29 Build Wisconsin Awards Announced

Twenty-nine projects were recognized in 13 categories of the 2007 Build Wisconsin Awards, the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin announced.

Some organizations were acknowledged multiple times for awards, including Appleton-based The Boldt Co. (four awards), Neenah-based Miron Construction Co. (three awards) and Fond du Lac-based C.D. Smith Co. (also three awards).

The awards were presented recently in Madison. A list of the winning projects can be viewed on the AGC’s Web site, www.agcwi.org.

Miron Receives ‘Legacy,’ Safety Awards

Neenah, Wis.-based Miron Construction Co. Inc. has recently been presented with two awards.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials presented Miron with the 2007 Legacy Award for its involvement with the Fox Cities Trestle-Friendship Trail project. The trestle is the centerpiece of the trail system in the Fox Valley and part of the State of Wisconsin’s “Friendship Trail,” which will link Manitowoc to Stevens Point.

The project in 2005 converted an abandoned railroad trestle into a pedestrian and bicycle footbridge, which links the town of Menasha to the city of Menasha across Little Lake Butte des Morts. Nearly $1.3 million was raised in federal, state and local funds and services to convert the bridge.

Miron was also presented the 2007 Procter & Gamble Safety Excellence Award for work on the Procter & Gamble Wildfire project in Green Bay for zero lost time, zero injury and zero defect rates. Procter & Gamble called this the “safest project ever” and recognized Miron’s 800,000 labor hours constructing a 104,000-sq-ft addition to house a paper machine.