Boulder, Colorado-based Flatiron has nabbed two new resiliency projects worth about $350 million combined, the firm announced in a Feb. 1 press release. The contractor will build flood protection infrastructure in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and storm surge upgrades in Port Arthur, Texas.
Resiliency work — which has become a significant market for Flatiron, per the release — aims to help communities brace for impacts of storm surge, sea-level rise and other environmental threats exacerbated by climate change. The firm has about $350 million in resiliency work already underway in New York and New Jersey.
Virginia Beach, Virginia, resiliency work
The City of Virginia Beach picked Flatiron for phase one of a resiliency project that aims to improve stormwater management, protect the fresh water supply and relieve widespread flooding in the neighborhoods of Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza and The Lakes. Amsterdam-based Arcadis was picked as subcontractor for design work.
The project was initially valued at $225 million to $275 million and is being built under a progressive design-build contract. The project team will work to mitigate project risks and develop a design and construction schedule that is cost effective, according to the release.
The work is part of Virginia Beach’s comprehensive flood protection infrastructure program designed to protect city assets. Significant project elements include water storage and drainage improvements through the use of large pump stations, tide gates to minimize tidal impacts and flooding, and flood barriers along with upgrades to the drainage channel.
Port Arthur, Texas, storm surge upgrades
The Army Corps of Engineers selected Flatiron to build $102 million in surge protection upgrades to three Port Arthur, Texas, pump stations in order to better guard the energy-producing region against the impacts of extreme weather and sea level rise.
Work includes earthen levees, concrete flood wall replacement, levee armoring, replacement of a closure gate and roadway replacement near pump stations. Preliminary work is anticipated to begin this month, according to the release.
Flatiron is working on other resilience projects as well.
Whitestone, New York-based E.E. Cruz, a heavy civil construction contractor jointly owned by Flatiron and Turner Construction, is building flood protection in Hoboken, New Jersey. The $251 million contract is part of the Hudson River Resiliency Project.
An E.E. Cruz and Turner Construction progressive design-build team is also building the $631 million North & West Battery Park City Resiliency Project in New York City. The project will include approximately 8,000 linear feet of flood and seepage barriers, including a deployable barrier crossing of West Street that extends uptown to Tribeca, to protect one of lower Manhattan’s most vulnerable points for storm surge flooding.
