McCarthy Awarded Trio Of Port Houston Construction Contracts
The Houston office of St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies has announced it has been awarded three port construction projects at sites on the Houston Ship Channel. Two of the three contracts, which total $99 million, are for Port Houston Authority. The Port Houston projects include Wharf 6 at the Bayport Terminal and Container Yard 3N at the Barbours Cut Terminal.
The third contract is to build a barge dock for a private petrochemical company.
“We are very pleased to continue our more than 25-year working relationship with the Port Houston Authority and assist them in modernizing the port, and we are happy to have earned the trust of a new client,” said Fitz O’Donnell, vice president of marine/industrial for McCarthy’s southern region. “Our vast experience and ability to self-perform work provides us a great basis for successful and on-time completions.”
Wharf 6 Project
The Wharf 6 project at the Bayport Container Terminal will involve construction of a 1,000-foot-long wharf that will be able to accommodate gantry cranes capable of servicing neo-Panamax ships. The project will involve drilled shaft foundations, pre-cast and cast-in-place concrete, crane rail installation, a fendering and mooring system, and dredging activities.
McCarthy began work on Wharf 6 in May. Construction will take about 26 months. Wharf 6 will connect to Wharves 4 and 5, where McCarthy is currently completing rehabilitation work.
The Bayport Wharf 6 project is partially funded by a $21.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.
The Barbours Cut Terminal Container Yard 3N project will add about 10 acres of new container storage space to that terminal. The project is a rehabilitation of an existing site and includes utility upgrades, high-mast light poles and the realignment of the main road through the terminal. Work at this site also began in May, and McCarthy expects to complete the project by next February. McCarthy previously did work at Container Yard 1N and 2N, which are directly adjacent to the 3N project.
The third project, which McCarthy is doing for a petrochemical company, began in April and will be complete early next year.
McCarthy claims the title of the oldest privately held national construction company in the United States, with more than 150 years of experience. The company has about 5,000 salaried employees and maintains offices in St. Louis; Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Kansas City, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Denver; Dallas; Houston; and five cities in California. The company is 100 percent privately owned.
The Wharf 6 project is part of a $200 million development plan underway that the port is overseeing at the Bayport Terminal. In addition to the work by McCarthy, the Port Houston commission recently approved a nearly $37 million contract for three dockside electric container cranes. When fully built out, the Bayport Terminal will offer seven container ship berths and have the capacity for handling 2.3 million TEUs. The terminal will feature an inventory control system to track each individual container on site.
