Mapco Inc. is collaborating with a number of other contractors on the challenging Fort Bliss Expansion Project in El Paso, Texas.

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Border Concrete CF Jordan Jobe Materials

San Antonio-based Mapco Inc. is in the midst of completing one of its most significant projects to date: the Bliss Expansion Project, a Batallion Combat Team Complex Hardstand (parking lot) in El Paso, Texas, assigned to Mapco by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.       

Although Mapco works with the government on 99 percent of its projects, this particular assignment was unique because it required collaboration with multiple construction companies, at least 5,000 workers and a multitude of government agencies, Project Manager Rocky Aranda says. The $4.1 billion Fort Bliss expansion assignment includes at least 90 projects, involving about 300 buildings to accommodate more than 30,000 new soldiers in four heavy brigade combat team complexes, two infantry brigade combat teams campuses and one combat aviation brigade facility.

Mapco is performing the concrete paving, lighting installation, storm sewer system installation, construction of retaining walls and fencing and various utility adjustments for the parking lot, which is about the size of a dozen football fields, Aranda says.

To complicate matters, there was no leeway on the schedule. “This was a time-sensitive project,” Aranda explains. “For example, thousands of troops will be occupying the building the day after we are scheduled to complete the project. It was identified very early on that we could not exceed that timeline, and it took a commitment by CF Jordan, our prime subcontractor and our partnering first/second-tier subcontractors and suppliers to make sure that happened, as well.”

Thinking Out of the Box
Aranda says the biggest challenge Mapco faced was collaborating with the other general contractors and their subcontractors on the job. “Typically, a project is totally within the confines of a single prime contractor,” he notes. “In this case, because of the time constraints and the need to work together, there has been a lot of collaborating with the range of contractors.”

The company met with the other contractors weekly to coordinate traffic and also monthly with everyone involved to discuss safety. “There were thousands of employees,” Aranda notes. It’s difficult to safely work with all those employees at once, especially with heavy equipment, from vehicles all the way to up to large excavators. Being able to coordinate all that is pretty astounding.”

Aranda says Mapco made “a lot of effort to ensure our employees and others in the general area were exposed to a very safe working environment – we worked very diligently in that matter.” In addition to monthly safety meetings, all contractors conducted small breakout meetings with employees to stay on top of potential hazards posed by the many workers on-site, Aranda says.

“I think the overall product is something that the construction industry should be proud of,” he continues. “Everybody got out of the box by working together.”

Changing Methods
Mapco also saved the government $1.2 million, Aranda says. CF Jordan Construction Services and Jobe Materials employed value-engineering processes early-on to help identify ways to reduce construction costs.

“This helped us provide an end-product that can still yield the customer/user requirement’s of having a parking lot for heavy equipment at a reduced cost by changing methodologies and materials without changing the outcome,” he says.

Other contractors on site adopted new methodologies that impacted the cleanliness of the site, Aranda adds.

“The concrete material supplier, JOBE Materials, took the position that they were not going to wash any equipment out on the site,” he says. “Typically, in our industry, trucks have residue and are washed out with water before they leave, leaving potentially non-environmental-friendly residue on site.

“For the sake of the environment, they chose to clean material offsite. We had a cleaner work environment and we want to recognize them for that.

“This was an environmentally-friendly thing that consequently reduced the negative impact to the environment.”

The residual chemicals could have wound up in the local water supply, Aranda says, had they not been removed carefully.

The use of the value-engineering group was a typical strategy for Mapco, Aranda notes. “Mapco has, throughout the years, surrounded itself with subject-matter experts,” he says. “We believe that we currently have the expertise and the talent to undertake any construction work immediately with the network of subcontractors, suppliers and consultants.”

The company also needs the labor to take on large work with such short notice, and “[Mapco has] done a very good job of recruiting talent,” Aranda notes.

Although he says finding good labor is challenging, the company is willing to pay its employees more than the competition and “you really see the end-result,” he says. “The compensation we provide is more than the dollar amount.

“Working with us] is a chance to be part of a great team and to gain experience, especially when performing jobs such as The Fort Bliss Expansion Project.”