Louisiana AGC installs 2006 officers

New Orleans contractor Robert S. Boh was recently installed as president of the Louisiana Associated General Contractors Inc., a statewide construction trade association headquartered in Baton Rouge.

Boh, president of Boh Bros Construction Co. of New Orleans, is a longtime member of the Louisiana AGC and part of the 700-plus construction businesses comprising the organization. He has been intricately involved with Boh Bros, a family business, since the age of 16, and has served as president for the past 12 years. He is a Tulane University graduate with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's degree in business administration.

Boh is very active in Louisiana AGC and currently serves as chairman of the legal affairs committee. He has served as the past chairman of the New Orleans AGC District and has served on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Boh is also involved in many charitable organizations.

Other officers of Louisiana AGC serving in 2006 are Senior Vice President Randy Gilchrist, Gilchrist Construction Co., Alexandria, La.; Vice President Clint Graham, Lincoln Builders, Ruston, La.; Treasurer Vic Weston, Tri-State Road Boring Inc., Baton Rouge; and Immediate Past President Courtney Fenet, Jr., R.E. Heidt Construction Co., Lake Charles, La..

Other board members installed included - George Jenne, George Jenne Custom Builder, LLC, Baton Rouge; John Meek, Buquet & LeBlanc Inc., Baton Rouge; and Ray Anding, Ray Anding Construction, Monroe, La.

DOTD selects preferred alignment for I-69 route

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has selected revised Alternative 4 with Option 3 as the preferred construction alternative for Interstate 69 between Haughton, La., and El Dorado, Ark.

The proposed I-69 route heads north from I-20 at Haughton, heading northeast into Webster Parish, north of Minden, and continuing in a northeasterly direction into Claiborne Parish, just southeast of Leton. From there, the route continues north toward Haynesville, crosses U.S. 79 and continues northeast into Arkansas.

This new alignment will be further refined and presented in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project, expected for public distribution later this year.

Economic development and the protection of Bayou Dorcheat and swamp lands were the issues at the core of the decision. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries all support the decision, citing the difficulty in mitigating the impacts to recreation on Scenic Bayou Dorcheat that would result from the other alternatives.

Other alternatives under consideration were presented in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement report distributed for public and agency comment in March 2005.

DOTD announces results of January bid letting

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development considered bids totaling more than $74 million at its Jan. 25 public bid opening, according to Governor Kathleen Blanco and DOTD Secretary Johnny B. Bradberry.

With a bid of $20,122,610, James Construction Group LLC of Baton Rouge was the apparent low bidder on the state's most expensive job, a project in St. Tammany Parish calling for grading, drainage structures, class II base course, Super pave, Portland cement concrete pavement, signing, traffic signals, cast-in-place bridge and related work on U.S. 190-Y and I-10 for the interchange of U.S. 190 Business in Slidell.

J. Ray McDermott's Morgan City facility awarded fabrication work

J. Ray McDermott, a subsidiary of McDermott International Inc., recently announced that its Morgan City, La., fabrication facility has been awarded a contract for the construction of flues, ducts and reactor panels by The Babcock & Wilcox Company, also a McDermott subsidiary.

The $4 million contract is in support of B&W's Kansas City Power & Light LaCygne #1 SCR project.

"The KCP&L LaCygne #1 SCR project offers J. Ray a great opportunity to work with B&W on what we hope will be just the first of many such fabrication projects," said Steve Becnel, J Ray's general manager of fabrication operations. "With this contract, we continue to add non-traditional work that will keep operations and employment steady at the Morgan City facility.

Scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2006, the contract requires J. Ray to procure structural steel materials and to fabricate, paint, load-out and ship to Kansas City SCR system flues, ducts and reactor panels weighing approximately 2,500 tons.

Air Products' Louisiana hydrogen production facility now on stream

Air Products recently announced that its Convent, La., hydrogen production facility is now operational.

The hydrogen plant is among six facilities in the U.S. and Canada that Air Products is bringing on-stream during a 10-month period. These six new facilities will increase Air Products' hydrogen production capacity by 35 percent and annual hydrogen and related sales of about $1.3 billion by more than $400 million.

The hydrogen is used by refiners to make cleaner transportation fuels and other petroleum products from heavier, sour crude feedstocks.

"Despite some of the difficulties brought on by the hurricanes, the facilities are operational very close to their original schedule. We were pleased with the construction effort, including the support from many local contractors, and our operating team is running day-to-day production," said Jeffry L. Byrne, vice president and general manager, Refining and Process Industries at Air Products.

The Convent facility, initially announced in July 2004, is designed to produce 110 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen from a steam methane reformer.