Utah's four biggest general contractors have forged alliances with even bigger national companies in a spirited pursuit of the contract to build the $1 billion Utah Data Center at Camp Williams.
All are waiting anxiously for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision, expected later this month, on which of perhaps a dozen contractor teams will survive the cut and advance to the short list of joint ventures vying to build the so-called spy center for the National Security Agency.
"Every one of the locals are ready, primed and excited for one of the biggest construction projects that will take place in the country in the next few years," said Alan Rindlisbacher, spokesman for The Layton Companies.
His Sandy-based company has teamed for the bid with Clark Construction Group LLC, which formed in 1906 and was described last year by the trade publication Engineering News Record as the sixth-largest general contractor in the United States.
Their competitors include:
» Salt Lake City-based Jacobsen Construction Co., which has formed a joint venture with Turner Construction (New York City) and Kiewit Building Group (Omaha). The latter two companies collectively had revenues of almost $19 billion in 2008.
» Okland Construction, the 92-year-old Salt Lake City contractor whose partner is New Jersey-based Skanska USA, which had revenues of $6.3 billion in 2008 and more than 8,000 employees.
» Big-D Construction Corp., a fixture in Salt Lake City for 42 years, which has teamed with Dallas-based Balfour Beatty Construction and DPR Construction Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., whose review of its 2009 work starts out, "We exist to build great things."
That's how all of the competitors feel about their desired roles with the Data Center, a facility that will cover 200 acres of Camp Williams on the border of Salt Lake and Utah counties.
The heart of the data center will be 100,000 square feet of computer space, where the country's intelligence agencies will collect data to be used by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to protect national security networks and issue warnings about cyber-security threats.
"With our data center experience," said Jacobsen President Doug Welling, "our team is well-suited to build this project that is so vital to our country's security."
Compare that self-endorsement with Rindlisbacher's plaudits for the Clark/Layton team.
"Clark is the largest American-owned, privately held construction company in the country. We consider ourself the top privately owned company in Utah," he said. "It's a perfect partnership to bring the best of local and national together."
Big-D and Okland are just as vocal about their expertise in pulling off a project of this dimension.
Then again, word-on-the-street is that 10 to 12 joint ventures in all may have submitted initial proposals last week, each undoubtedly stressing team assets that would enable them to build the data center better than anyone else.
Once the Corps of Engineers comes out with its short list, surviving contractor teams have until mid-summer to produce a more detailed design-build proposal. That includes identifying subcontractors in a work force that could number up to 10,000.
The Corps of Engineers expects to award the construction contract in October. A June 2012 completion date is anticipated.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to announce later this month which contractor teams make the short list to build the $1 billion Utah Data Center.
