Southeast’s Top Projects - 12

Spirit AeroSystems

Project Cost: $112.5 million

After receiving a contract from France’s Airbus, Spirit AeroSystems is building a 585,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility at the North Carolina Global TransPark near Kinston. The plant will produce a 65-ft-long, 20-ft-wide, nearly 9,000-lb composite fuselage structure, known as Section 15, for the A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) Airbus airplane, which will be transported to Europe for assembly.

The Haskell Co. of Jacksonville, Fla., broke ground on the project in September. By spring, soil surcharge, foundation stabilization and column foundations were under way. Concrete crews were working on grade-beam installation and steel erection. Spirit expects to open the plant in May 2010.

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Spirit will invest approximately $200 million in the multiphased facility for the Airbus A350 XWB. Spirit’s long-term plans for the Global TransPark plant are for it to serve as a composite engineering and manufacturing Center of Excellence, using advanced technology in its production processes.

Key Facts:

Location: Lenoir County, N.C.
Owner: Spirit AeroSystems, Wichita, Kansas
Design-build Contractor: The Haskell Co., Jacksonville, Fla.
Start Date: September 2008
Completion Date: Summer 2010