Cousins Properties Inc. of Atlanta recently announced plans to develop a 31-story, 500,000-sq.-ft. office tower, with more than 50,000 sq. ft. of retail space, at the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont roads in the heart of Buckhead, Atlanta's financial district. The new building, part of the developer's evolving 10-acre master plan that will eventually include additional office, retail and residential buildings, will be Buckhead's first office tower since 2001. Construction is scheduled to start by mid-2005, with completion targeted for mid-2007.

Durham, N.C.-based Duda Paine Architects is the design architect for the project. Duda Paine's previous work with Cousins includes Charlotte's Gateway Village and Frost Bank Tower in Austin, Texas.

Georgia Contract Activity Down 3 Percent in September

With declines in its two largest sectors, the value of contracts for future construction in the state of Georgia decreased by 3 percent in September, compared to the same period of a year ago, McGraw-Hill Construction reported recently. Overall, contracts for the month totaled approximately $1.7 billion, just under last year's $1.8 billion pace.

Nonbuilding was the only category to improve, increasing by 54 percent over last September to end up at roughly $152.9 million. The biggest sector, residential, declined by 2 percent to total approximately $1.1 billion for the month. Nonresidential declined 16 percent from a year ago to total $470.7 million.

Even so, for the year-to-date, Georgia activity is 20 percent ahead of 2003's pace, with about $17.7 billion in contracts reported. Residential is 24 percent ahead of the first nine months of 2003, with approximately $11.2 billion reported. The second-largest market, nonresidential, is 7 percent ahead of a year ago, with roughly $4.4 billion in contracts reported to date. Also, the nonbuilding category is 26 percent ahead year-to-date, with a $2.1 billion total.

Atlanta Reaches Milestone on Sewer System Overhaul

A joint venture team finished boring an 8.3-mi., 18-ft-dia sewage tunnel in Atlanta in late September, hitting a project milestone in a race to comply with a federal sewer overflow remediation consent decree. The work is part of a $3-billion, 14-year program to improve the city's wastewater system.

The Sept. 27 hole-through occurred "on schedule, under budget and we have no claims - the three nicest things you can say," said construction manager Mike Robison of Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Norcross, Ga. "All the drilling and blasting of the main tunnel and blasting for the connecting tunnels is done." Construction of the $130-million Nancy Creek Tunnel is a joint venture project of Obayashi, San Francisco, and CJB Contracting, Atlanta.

"The tunnel is the linchpin in the city's whole effort to solve its combined sewer overflow problem," said Janet Ward, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Watershed Management.

Work now shifts to lining and grouting. A pair of Robbins tunnel boring machines cut the tunnels through hard, stable rock in two sections at an average rate of 70 ft per day. "We were close to 100 ft. per day at the end," said Tony Gomez, a city spokesman. "We had good, solid granite. Atlanta has good rock for tunnels." Source: Engineering News-Record. By Tom Sawyer