News

Aug 24, 2023

Best Project, Manufacturing HOU8

Photo courtesy Alston Construction In the latest addition to the rapidly

Photo courtesy Alston Construction

In the latest addition to the rapidly developing Fort Bend Tollway Corridor in Missouri City, Texas, Alston Construction delivered a 1,325,016-sq-ft distribution fulfillment center for e-commerce giant Amazon and local developer Lovett Industrial in July 2021. Sited on 88 acres in the master-planned Fort Bend Business Park, the scope included more than 1 million sq ft of warehouse space, a 250,028-sq-ft mezzanine and 36,241 sq ft of office and support areas.

Anticipated to employ more than 1,000 full-time associates, the site also features parking for more than 1,000 cars as well as 390 truck trailer parking stalls.

Alston Construction broke ground on the project at the end of October 2020 and was tasked with completing the massive project in nine months with multiple turnovers, allowing Amazon to move into available spaces. During that time, it faced changing protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic, weather impacts, material delays and cost escalations.

Steel availability proved particularly difficult. A large portion of the project's mezzanine scope required steel. Delivery and erection needed to occur through the holidays, when steel fabrication typically pauses for two weeks around the same time. The project team worked with the steel contractor to prepurchase steel to lock in the price and ensure on-time arrival. Even if the ownership team decided to make design changes, Alston Construction says its team was able to reasonably meet any changes and impacts on schedule.

Photo courtesy Alston Construction

Multiple other trades saw unexpected delays ranging from microchips to roofing materials. With clear communication and transparency between contractors, subcontractors and clients, the team corrected the schedule before high costs or delayed materials could have a significant impact.

As Fort Bend Business Park builds out, the surrounding neighborhoods are also growing. HOU8 is adjacent to multiple residential neighborhoods that were recently built or are currently under construction. The team developed a plan prior to construction to address potential issues with the Missouri City community, scheduling work to avoid major disruptions.

All helicopter lifts for the job—113 in total—were executed in one day to minimize impacts on the nearby residents for the remainder of the schedule.

Meanwhile, the city was constructing an expansion to a major thoroughfare adjacent to the site. The team worked with local jurisdictions, including TxDOT, when the expansion occurred to minimize the impact to its delivery schedule and to local residents.

Given the project's aggressive schedule, the team anticipated that a rainy Texas winter could saturate subgrade and pose a risk to the critical path. Drawing on a case study from another Alston project, the team collaborated with HOU8's geotechnical engineers to find a way to fast-track winter work. Alston proposed the use of stone cap for the building and crane path instead of traditional clay. It added major up-front costs to the expedited project but guaranteed on-time turnover of the facility if weather became an issue.

Photo by Johnny McLendon/Johnny McLendon Photography

Through the combination of early design, planning, and coordination, the Alston Construction team built HOU8 on time, under budget and without safety incidents.

Bruce Buckley is a freelance writer and photographer based in the Washington, D.C., area.