Dallas-Fort Worth Earns EPA Approval for Clean-Air Plan

Also, DART crates 30-year district for tax increment financing; green efforts across the state work to improve air quality, water management.

Dallas Creates First TIF District Focused on Transit-Oriented Development

After four years of collaboration between the city of Dallas, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and a number of area stakeholders, the Dallas City Council created its first Tax Increment Financing District focused on multi-station transit-oriented development.

Working with Southern Methodist University, Prescott Realty Group and various Lancaster Corridor stakeholders, city leaders and DART came up with the plan for the new TIF.

Developers of The Shelby hope it serves as a catalyst for transit-oriented development. It is under construction with a targeted completion of August.

“Basically, the stakeholders in the northern and southern sectors tried to figure out a way to really jumpstart transit-oriented development in both areas and the concept came together to create the TIF district down the rail line targeting it at certain station areas where development could occur or is about to occur or in the southern section where it needs to occur,” Jud Pankey, CEO of Prescott Realty Group, told Texas Construction. Prescott plans two developments in the area.

The TIF district includes 559 acres, in addition to public rights-of-way, and stretches from the Lovers Lane/Mockingbird area along the DART rail line to the Lancaster/VA Medical Center region. The District will have a 30-year life, during which real property values are forecasted to grow to $3.52 billion by 2038. The incremental tax revenue expected to accrue to the district is projected to be approximately $328 million during the life of the TIF.

The primary focus of this effort is to encourage high-density, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly developments around existing DART rail stations, according to the city of Dallas. The TIF provides a development tool to encourage the redevelopment of important, centralized areas of the city, as well as new development.

Prescott Realty Group is planning development projects in the University Crossing area that have a combined, projected taxable value of close to $100 million and will begin contributing incremental taxes as early this year. These projects include The Shelby, which is planned to include 55 residential lofts and 3,500 sq ft of retail and The Shamburger Lofts, with more than 400 planned residential units and 8,000 sq ft of retail space.

“Part of the goal of the TIF is to help create a more pedestrian-friendly environment that utilizes the light rail and utilizes the area,” Taylor Stone, managing director for Prescott, told Texas Construction. “The TIF will help create the streetscape, lighting and signage that are all similar.

Stone says The Shelby will serve as a catalyst for the area, and is under construction with a targeted completion of August.

“A project like the Shelby is an absolutely necessity as part of a toolkit to create good transit-oriented development,” Pankey says. “Having a public-private partnership helps drive these goals.”

The three sub-districts designated by the TIF include eight DART Rail stations - The first sub-district includes areas around Lovers Lane and Mockingbird Stations; the second includes the Cedars DART station and 8th and Corinth station that are tied to the Trinity River Corridor project, and the third is the "Lancaster Corridor" which includes Illinois Station, Crest Shopping Center, Kiest Station and VA Medical Center Station.

In the vicinity, Southern Methodist University has development plans including the George W. Bush Presidential Library and several campus facilities that will rely on the public improvements for connectivity to area transit.

Country’s Fourth Largest Metro Area Becomes First for Clean Air

The Environmental Protection Agency has given final approval to the Dallas-Fort Worth clean air plan for ozone, making the region the first in the nation to receive such an endorsement.

Under the plan, ozone-forming pollutants will be reduced by 88 tons per day, and officials expect air quality in the area to meet the federal ozone standard of 84 parts per billion by 2010.

The clean air plan, referred to as the State Implementation Plan, or SIP, will improve air quality by more than 55% over 1999 levels, which, in combination with previous plans, will result in a total of 409 tons per day of ozone pollution reduction.

This summer, the DFW area had the lowest levels of ozone in three decades. The area had 32 fewer days in 2008 when air monitors exceeded the smog standard than in the late 1990s -- a reduction of 78%.

Jacobs Engineering Group to Oversee $1.4 Billion Bayport Terminal Project

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. received a contract from the Port of Houston Authority to provide program management services for Phase Two of its $1.4 billion Bayport Terminal project. Officials did not disclose the contract value.

The Port of Houston is a 25-mi-long multi-modal complex of diversified public and private facilities. Jacobs will manage and coordinate the planning, design and construction for $300 million of improvements at the Bayport terminal, including expansions of the containership wharf and container yards, an inter-modal freight yard, a container freight station and various other roadway and rail facilities.

Three Texas Cities Receive National Sustainable Leadership Awards

Three Texas municipalities were recognized for their leadership in sustainable construction by the Portland Cement Association, which recently presented, along with its Texas affiliate the Cement Council of Texas, three of the eight 2008 Sustainable Leadership Awards in Texas.

The cities of Dallas, Lubbock, and Fort Worth were honored for “leadership in enacting policies and completing projects that promote sustainable development through the use of concrete and other cement-based products.” The awards underscore how cement and concrete solutions can help “green” Texas cities, reduce costs to taxpayers, and aid in affordable home ownership for low income residents.

The Department of Street Services for the city of Dallas received the Leadership in Sustainability Policy Award by applying Dallas’ “reuse, reclaim, and recycle” environmental policy and establishing an innovate street rehabilitation program that utilizes cement to recycle 80% of its worn out street materials.

Lubbock’s municipal inspection coordinator Brad Reed was honored with the Homes and Residential Building Projects award for his leadership in spearheading the construction of more than 100 low-income housing units to date, using insulating concrete forms to build energy efficient, low-maintenance, and economical homes.

Najib Fares, P.E., the city of Fort Worth’s infrastructure manager with the Transportation and Public Works Department, received the Infrastructure Project Award for his leadership in saving construction time, money and natural resources on the annual street maintenance program for the city of Fort Worth.

TCEQ Allots More Than $9 Million to Retrofit School Buses

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced it received applications requesting more than $13 million to retrofit more than 3,100 school buses from an available $9.3 million available this grant round to retrofit diesel school buses under the Texas Clean School Bus program.

Retrofits use technology that improves the air quality by reducing emissions for school children riding the bus. The Texas Clean School Bus program will provide grants to more than 80 independent school districts and charter schools to retrofit more than 2,300 buses this year. Since the TCEQ has requests for more money than there is to allocate, school districts that are not funded this round will be placed on a waiting list for when additional funds become available.

Austin-Based Acequia Named a 2008 Water Efficiency Leader

The Environmental Protection Agency recognized Austin-based company Acequia as a 2008 Water Efficiency Leader for exceeding expectations in water management. Acequia earned its place among the nation’s most innovative water leaders by surpassing its own five-year goals of sustaining measured water reductions from 20% to 54% across nearly 70 commercial properties.

Acequia increased water use reduction by measuring a consumption baseline for all its properties and using this data to establish water management best practices. That resulted in significant water savings at all of its properties.

Chambers County Sells Largest Incinerator in Southwest for $25 Million

Chambers County Commissioner’s Court sold the largest medical waste incinerator in the southwest to Waste Management for $25 million. The county built the incinerator unit in 2001 for approximately $17.5 million.

Proceeds from the sale of the Chambers County medical waste incinerator will be used for capital improvement projects throughout the county.

The Chambers County incinerator began operations in 2002 as one of the only active medical waste incinerators and was used to burn the county’s municipal solid waste. The unit is certified by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality and all local, federal and state environmental regulatory agencies. The unit can support medical waste, sharps, non-hazardous industrial waste and pharmaceuticals, document destruction, USDA Marpol/APHIS, illegal drugs and contraband, laboratory and municipal waste and counterfeit and confiscated items.

The 28,000-sq-ft facility is situated on 40-acres 45 mi east of Houston and 24 mi west of Beaumont. Proceeds from the sale of the incinerator will be used for capital improvement projects throughout the county.

Texas Water Development Board Approves $97 Million in Projects Statewide

The Texas Water Development Board approved financial assistance totaling $97.2 million for a variety of programs from water system improvements to development projects.

A $5 million loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund was awarded to the Harris County Water Control and Improvement District No. 36 to finance wastewater system improvements.

The city of Commerce is set to receive a $2.74 million loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund’s Disadvantaged Community Program as well as a $466,000 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund’s Disadvantaged Community Program to finance water system improvements.

The Rural Water Assistance Fund provided a $900,000 loan to finance construction of water system improvements for the Trinity Rural Water Supply Corporation in Trinity, Polk and Walker Counties.

The Texas Water Development Board Fund provided a $33 million loan to finance water system improvements for the Dallas County Park Cities Municipal Utility District.

The Water Infrastructure Fund loaned $38.9 million to the city of Amarillo to finance construction of water supply project; $5.9 million to the city of Cleburne to finance development costs for water supply projects; $835,000 to the Greater Texoma Utility Authority on behalf of Northwest Grayson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 to finance development costs for a water supply project; and $9.9 million to the North Texas Municipal Water District to finance development costs for a water-supply project.

Amtrak Studies Feasibility of Fort Worth-Kansas City Route Revival

The revival of a 606-mi passenger rail service from Kansas City, Mo., to Fort Worth might be on the horizon. Amtrak has agreed to study the feasibility of reestablishing the service that it discontinued almost three decades ago in a round of budget cuts.

The proposed Fort Worth-Kansas City route includes stops in Gainesville, Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kan. The route would use tracks shared by freight trains on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas transportation departments will help fund an Amtrak study to identify construction and equipment requirements for the proposed route. It also will estimate annual operating costs to run the service, as well as consider potential schedules, availability of railcars and locomotives and the cost of rail improvements to accommodate the service.

If the study shows the service is viable, legislatures in the three states would have to agree to come up with the money to pay for it.

Amtrak currently operates two long-distance trains through Texas: the Texas Eagle, providing daily service from San Antonio to Chicago via Dallas; and the Sunset Limited, with trains three times a week from New Orleans to Los Angeles via Houston, San Antonio and El Paso.

TCEQ Approves Fines Against 69 Entities Statewide

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved penalties totaling $877,222 against 69 regulated entities for violations of state environmental regulations.

Included in the total were fines against BASF Fina Petrochemicals LP in Jefferson County for $203,125 for various violations found during routine inspections conducted between February 2006 and February 2007. Of the fine total, $101,562 will be used for a Supplemental Environmental Project to fund home energy audits and assist low income residents in the West Port Arthur area, through the Southwest Texas Regional Planning Commission.

Agreed orders were issued for the following enforcement categories: one agricultural, 21 air quality, three field citations, one industrial and hazardous waste, two multimedia, four municipal solid waste, three municipal waste discharge, 17 petroleum storage tank, five public water system and three water quality. Also a default and shutdown order was issued in one petroleum storage tank enforcement action.

ExxonMobil to Pay Penalty for Violating Agreement

ExxonMobil has agreed to pay nearly $6.1 million in civil penalties for violating the terms of a 2005 court-approved Clean Air Act agreement, according to the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The 2005 settlement already required ExxonMobil to pay a $7.7 million civil penalty, perform an additional $6.7 million in supplemental environmental projects in communities around the company's refineries and install pollution controls at six of its U.S. refineries.

The agreement penalizes ExxonMobil for failing to comply with the 2005 settlement at refineries in Beaumont and Baytown; Torrance, Calif.; and Baton Rouge. Most of the penalties are for failure to monitor and control the sulfur content in certain fuel-gas streams burned in refinery furnaces, as required by the 2005 settlement and EPA regulations. The other refineries covered under the 2005 settlement are in Joliet, Ill. and Billings, Mont.

Between approximately 2005 and 2007, ExxonMobil did not monitor the sulfur content in some fuel-gas streams and subsequent testing revealed sulfur content in excess of EPA limits. The burning of sulfur-containing gases emits sulfur dioxide, which can cause serious respiratory problems.

The 2005 settlement and the most recent penalty settlement with ExxonMobil were reached as part of a broader EPA initiative to reduce air pollution from refineries nationwide. To date, 95 refineries in 28 states, representing more than 86% of the nation’s refining capacity have been required to install new controls to significantly reduce emissions.

Fluor Gets Multiple Contracts Including Brazos Electric, Refinery Expansion

Irving-based Fluor Corp. was awarded a contract for the construction and construction management of process, utility and off-sites in connection with a coker refinery expansion project by WRB Refining LLC, a joint venture between ConocoPhillips and EnCana.

Fluor completed the front-end engineering and design in 2007 for all process and utilities and off-sites for the entire refinery coker expansion project prior to this transition into detailed execution. The project is approximately 25 mi northeast of St. Louis, Ill. In early 2008, Fluor was awarded detailed engineering and procurement for selected portions of the project.

Fluor's total scope of work for this project includes detailed engineering, procurement and construction services for the refinery's utilities and offsites as well as retrofitting portions of the existing refinery to accommodate the new Canadian feedstock. Fluor will provide owner management team support to WRB Refining throughout the project's duration.

Fluor began front-end loading engineering services in May 2006 with completion in late 2007.

Fluor also secured a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for Brazos Electric Power Cooperative's Jack County Generating Facility Unit Two power plant located near Bridgeport. The new 620 MW gas-fired, combined cycle expansion will provide electricity with low emissions. Completion is targeted for the second quarter of 2011.

Fluor was previously the contractor for Brazos Electric Power Cooperative's Jack County Generating Facility Unit One power plant. A similar design will be used for the new generating facility. Jack County Unit One was completed with no lost-time accidents and no OSHA incident recordables over the project lifespan of 900,000 work hours.

Brazos Electric issued Fluor a limited notice to proceed in June to begin preliminary engineering and procurement of the new unit. Fluor's Irvine, Calif., operations center will execute the project.

Fluor signed a contract to relocate its current UK headquarters and operations centre to SEGRO's IQ Farnborough development in Hampshire. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The real estate contract with SEGRO is to build a new company headquarters. The four-building complex will include approximately 210,000 sq ft. The new headquarters will consist of one building of approximately 76,000 sq ft owned by Fluor and an additional 134,000 sq ft of leases in three adjoining buildings. All buildings will be new construction. Fluor's current UK office is located in Camberley, Surrey, which is less than 5 mi from the new office site.

IQ Farnborough is a SEGRO-owned work/live development approximately 35 minutes southwest of London. Construction of the buildings began in January with completion expected by mid-2010