A $1.7 billion project, which Robinson Construction Company had a part in completing, has been recognized by Engineering News-Record (ENR); a weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide. The John W. Turk, Jr. Power Plant project near Fulton, Arkansas has earned the honor of ENR Texas & Louisiana’s 2013 Best Project in the Energy/Industrial category, as well as the ENR Best Project Excellence in Safety Award.
As the 600 megawatt power plant is evaporative cooled, it is necessary to have a source of plant makeup water available near the plant site. Robinson Construction Company was contracted by CB&I (formerly The Shaw Group) to design and build this water supply portion of the power plant project on the Little River. Robinson’s $8.4 million contract included design and installation of the caisson, microtunneling of the raw water line into the river, installation of an intake screen with hydroburst system, construction of a pump house, and installation of all pumps, piping, electrical, and controls. Due to the dangerous nature of this work, Robinson Construction provided a full-time on-site safety professional for the duration of the project and achieved an outstanding safety record of zero lost-time, restricted workday, or OSHA recordable incidents in the execution of their work. The site manager for CB&I stated that, “Robinson Construction Company executed their work safely and timely.”
According to ENR, as a whole, the project team (including the owners, contractors and subcontractors) recorded 12.8-million man-hours on the project and logged a recordable incident rate of just 0.64 and a lost-time accident rate of 0.11, greatly impressing the competition’s panel of safety judges. The John W. Turk Power Plant is the first ultra-supercritical, coal-fired power generation facility in the U.S. The power plant is owned by American Electric Power’s Southwestern Electric Power Co. CB&I and The Babcock & Wilcox Co. were the two prime contractors on the project.