Many within the construction industry around the world are seeing the prospect of a construction boom in 2022. In the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, industry leaders are eyeing major gains within the next year — making it well worth keeping an eye on some of the most significant projects that are slated to start in earnest in 2022.
Blue Castle Nuclear Power Plant
Green River, Utah
Blue Castle Holdings Inc. is working on developing a two-reactor nuclear energy facility near Green River, Utah in a project that may generate a staggering $20 billion in construction funding.
Per construction bid documents, the project is slated to begin construction in 2022. The company notes that planning is currently “being conducted to provide predictable, cost competitive new base load electric power generation and to reduce developmental risk for electric utilities.”
Documents from November 2021 noted that the project had moved into the design stage. Once the project gets going, the owners expect it may take until 2030 — or longer — to complete.
According to Blue Castle Holdings, the project will use “less than 1% of current water diversion” in the state for its facility, while claiming that it will also increase the electricity produced in Utah by 50%. As per construction bid documents, this number is slightly lower, saying that it would increase the electricity generated in the state by 30% by adding 2,200 megawatts of electrical capacity.
Texas Instruments Fabrication Campus
Sherman, Texas
A November 2021 announcement from Texas Instruments Incorporated noted that the company intended to begin construction on two new 300-millimeter semiconductor wafer fabrication plants in Sherman, Texas in 2022.
Bid documents from the same month noted that the project was still in the pre-design stage, with the production of the two plants possibly being accompanied by two more as plans continue to develop.
All in all, the project is valued at $30 billion, with full build-out expected to take 10-20 years until completion.
“TI’s future analog and embedded processing 300-mm fabs at the Sherman site are part of our long-term capacity planning to continue to strengthen our manufacturing and technology competitive advantage and support our customers’ demand in the coming decades,” noted Rich Templeton — chairman, president, and CEO of Texas Instruments — of the project.
Texas Bullet – Dallas/ Houston High Speed Rail
Dallas/ Fort Worth and Houston, Texas
Webuild Group and Lane Construction Co.
Texas Central Partners and Matthews Southwest Properties are heading the goal of having a high-speed train line running between Dallas/ Fort Worth and Houston, Texas.
The ambitious project has a major expected price tag of $20 billion. According to Texas Central, the “approximately 240-mile high-speed rail line will offer a total travel time of less than 90 minutes, with convenient departures every 30 minutes during peak periods each day, and every hour during off-peak periods.”
Though the project is only in the design stage at the moment — with the North Central Texas Council still looking for public input on the project — it already has a number of contractors involved. Project documents list Webuild Group and Lane Construction Corp. as general contractors for the plans, with Kiewit Infrastructure South and Mass. Electric Construction also tied to the project.
Oakland Athletics’ Howard Terminal Mixed-Use Development
Oakland, California
Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics are moving into the design process for their new downtown stadium and the mixed-use development that will surround it, finally making moves following a lengthy negotiation process with the city of Oakland in previous years.
The project is expected to take $11 billion, and will reportedly fill the area surrounding the team’s newly-planned ballpark with 3,000 units of affordable housing, 1.5 million square feet of office space, 270,000 square feet of retail space, an indoor performance center, and a 400-room hotel.
Before beginning the construction process in earnest, the team had to deal with a lawsuit that derailed the project’s hope of getting started sooner rather than later.
“We were going to try to open by 2023. That’s obviously slipped,” Oakland Athletics president Dave Kaval said in February 2021. “How far it slipped, I can’t answer that. I don’t know yet. It depends on if the city can even get this to a vote this year.”
It’s worth keeping an eye on how much of this project will actually get done in 2022, given the team’s concerns.
“[The lawsuit] was completely a 100% roadblock,” Kaval added. “We are concerned about the timeline and pace of progress because of COVID and the lawsuit. It’s great that we’re off the lawsuit and we’re moving forward. But you know, I think the timelines nonetheless are one of the biggest challenges that we face with the project right now.”
Venture Global Plaquemines Export Facility
Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana
KBR and Zachry Group
Venture Global Plaquemines LNG, LLC is leading a project to develop an export facility for liquefied natural gas in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana near New Orleans.
The project is valued at $8.5 billion. According to documents, the project was approved with construction starting up at the very end of 2021, and will continue in earnest in 2022 with general contractors KBR and Zachry Group leading the way.
The company notes that once the project has been finished, the facility will have an export capacity of up to 20 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year.