Industry News

Singapore-based Flextronics International is engaged in a $20-million, 560,000-sf expansion of its Youngsville, N.C., manufacturing facility. One of two U.S. technology campuses, the facility will house design, engineering, testing, and manufacturing operations for optical communications products. The project will enable Flextronics to add approximately 1,500 additional jobs.  

Certek, a Raleigh, N.C., builder of modular biodefense research laboratories, was awarded a $2.1 million contract to construct a biodefense lab for the Pentagon. The lab will be manufactured in Durham, N.C., and transported to Washington D.C. for use by military services.

The Smithsonian Institution will open the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport in December 2003. Contractor Hensel Phelps Construction of Greeley, Colo., began building the $309-million, 760,000-sf facility in June 2001. The facility will house 80% of the National Air and Space Museum collection not displayed at the National Mall location.

San Diego-based Guepard Energy will construct four 5-megawatt plants in Imperial County, Calif., that will use methane gas from cow manure to make electricity. Construction of the first facility, located near a beef-processing plant in Brawley, will begin in April 2003. The four plants will cost $50-million to build and will process 1.6 million pounds of manure a day. The San Diego office of Archer Western, a division of Chicago-based Walsh Group, will oversee the project.

San Diego State University (SDSU) has selected Highland Partnership of San Diego as the design-build contractor for a $10.4-million, 60,000-sf classroom and office building. Construction of the four-story addition to SDSU's Gateway Center facility is expected to begin in December 2002. Construction manager for the project is O'Connor Construction.