Building in Arkansas

Share this story: Add to Yahoo Bookmarks Add to Facebook Add to Delicious Add to Twitter Add to Reddit Add to StumbleUpon Add to Digg Add to MySpace Add to Google Bookmarks
Who would you like us to say this is from?
What is your email address?
What email address would you like us to send it to?

Published: 12:00 AM, Sat Dec 05, 2009
Weekly wrap: FORSCOM building rises, but other projects must wait.




Brief opinions about events of the past week: Merit: For building contractor Hensel Phelps, which lifted the final steel beam into place on the new Forces and Reserve command headquarters on Fort Bragg Thursday. Work on the nearly $300 million building project is right on schedule. The steelwork was completed almost precisely a year after groundbreaking ceremonies.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers resident engineer on the project, it appears that the work on the 631,000-square-foot building will be completed within the 565 days remaining on the construction calendar.

One more merit: With more than 300,000 man-hours worked, no time has been lost to accidents.

Demerit: For all the other BRAC-related work outside Fort Bragg that also needs to be done, and which won't be done when Forces and Reserve commands arrive here in 2011. In this recession, state and local governments simply don't have the money to quickly finish the extension of the Outer Loop or revamp Murchison Road or build the new schools that we'll need.

With federal budgets strained as well, there hasn't been impact aid available to help get those projects moving. We hope a recovering economy will benefit those projects in the years ahead.

Merit: For Jean and Steven Moore, whose marketing and advertising business - Moore Exposure - has moved into one of the "greenest" buildings in Fayetteville. The company's new headquarters on Williams Street downtown is a renovated 70-year-old building that once housed an automotive shop.

The renovations include a curved, corrugated steel roof, skylights, low-flush toilets, building-wide recycling and many other environmentally friendly, low-energy-consuming features.

The building also will house tenants, including Sustainable Sandhills.

Demerit: For winter, which is arriving way too soon. Weather forecasters say we may get a dusting of snow tonight and we've had way too many evenings that flirted with frost.

It's not that we want to encourage global warming, but we'd sure like to have one of those balmy Decembers that we've seen in years past.

Merit: For Lumbee River Electric Membership, which is giving its 46,000 electric customers in Cumberland, Robeson, Hoke and Scotland counties a rebate - a one-time power-cost adjustment. In a time of rising energy costs, this is a welcome little break. The average credit will be just more than $22, but it's a nice step in the right direction.

Demerit: For the N.C. Department of Transportation, which is adding a security fence to a bridge on Interstate 440 in Raleigh, but doing it too late. A good Samaritan who was trying to help people involved in an accident leaped over a barrel Nov. 27 to avoid oncoming traffic and fell to his death in a ravine.

This is the kind of safety measure that should be in place before people are injured or killed. In many other states, especially along interstate highway routes, that kind of safety barrier is standard procedure. The state is finally studying all bridges, so it can prevent similar tragedies.