A bridge ran through it.

Statehouse Convention Center Expansion Site Challenging From the Ground Down

Don't try to tell Bob East that site preparation isn't half the battle - especially after his current gig as project manager for the Statehouse Convention Center expansion.

While his project, a joint venture of Little Rock's East-Harding Inc. and Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Austin, Texas, hasn't encountered the kind of difficulties making recent headlines across the river at Alltel Arena, it hasn't been without its share of problems and surprises.

What might sound at first blush like a pretty straightforward $15.4 million, 120,000-SF, three-story "bump out" on the existing structure, has, in fact, been much more than that.

"The big story was the site," East says. "That's [another] $3 million worth of bridge work, railroad changes and rerouting utilities."

Unlike Hot Springs, where its convention center could spread out as needed, or the Alltel Arena, where the necessary land in a depressed commercial district was condemned, the Statehouse Convention Center site was a smallish rectangle hemmed in by Markham Street and LaHarpe Boulevard and the existing convention center. And smack dab through the middle of the area ran the Main Street Bridge exit ramp.

So the southbound ramp had to be demolished and moved east half a block to make room for the expansion. That required building a new pier too close to the Union Pacific tracks, which meant, after months of negotiation, moving about 200 feet of track 50 feet closer to the river. When workers started digging the footing for the pier, they discovered an MCI fiber-optic cable, which caused further delay and negotiation. That's just the kind of job it's been.

MCI wanted $100,000 to move the cable, East says, but the fat had already been stripped away from the project. Then someone suggested, "Why not just pour the foundation around the cable?" MCI said "Suits us" and thus the $2,600 solution.

"This is a tough business and you meet the enemy every day, usually involving big money," East says. "Fortunately, we're dealing with professionals. Some days it's really tough. On a job like this, the problems are played out in public, and the public [doesn't always] understand. Every day you adjust, modify, make changes."

If this were a private job, East and his partners would be general contractors, parceling out the work to subcontractors. Because it's a public job, they manage the project, take the plans and package bids. Then they make sure disruptions and overruns are minimized and that the sheet rock is hung before the painters arrive. When problems like the inopportunely placed bridge pier arise, they're in the middle of the fray, hammering out solutions.

The contractors work for the Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission, not for East-Harding and Hensel Phelps.

East calls construction "a misunderstood business." He says things cost exactly what the bids reflect the day they're accepted, not what the builder hopes it will cost when he draws up the plans.

East says he and his partner, Tom Harding, are joint-venture partners in this project with Hensel Phelps, which he says is among the largest contractors in the world.

East says Hensel Phelps, which did about $1 billion worth of work last year, has convention center experience, and supplies the big-job know-how. East-Harding brings to the table local knowledge. They know who to see when a new permit's needed or problems arise with a utility.

And this project had no shortage of utility concerns.

The bridge carries pipes, cables and wires across the Arkansas River.

Many utilities were buried under Markham Street, where Little Rock's two premiere downtown hotels are located.

"We were dealing with North Arkansas Telephone lines, electricity, water lines - we replaced an 1876 water line - fiber-optic cable, gas lines, we were nearly a year on moving utilities. We had to dig through trolley tracks, which were set in tons of concrete," East says. "And, on top of that, you've got to keep the street and businesses operating. We met about every two weeks with hotels, businesses.

"We're on schedule and on budget. It's a good story right now." East expects the job to be done in May.

The low bid on the expansion project came in about $900,000 over budget, according to East, but through what he called value engineering, changes were made that brought the project into line. For instance, they saved $600,000 up front by changing from a limestone exterior to an EFIS facade - that's Exterior Finishing and Insulating System, a popular new finish that looks like plaster, he says.

Another $40,000 was shaved by moving the rooftop condensing units closer to the mechanical room, creating savings on pipes and valves. In all, they wrote change orders that saved enough money that $80,000 worth of skylights may be put back to the plans, East says.

By adding the 120,000 SF to the existing 80,000-SF building, Little Rock should be able to compete for conventions and events of virtually any size. The exhibit hall expansion meets the existing exhibit hall. The mezzanine is at street level, and the top floor is a new ballroom, which subdivides into six rooms, each with a service corridor.

While the addition only increases the exhibit space from its current 62,120 SF to 83,000 SF, having separate ballroom space will help by not taking that space away from the exhibition area.

Flexibility is the key for convention centers, East says.

Including the Alltel Arena, the entire downtown project is funded by a one-year 1-cent sales tax in Pulaski County, a tax that East says raised $60 million$70 million. East says that because county residents taxed themselves for one year instead of floating a long-term bond, the whole project was feasible and without the county and local municipalities incurring debt.

East estimates the entire project will have involved 45 trade contractors and 1,000 people over the course of two years and will have generated roughly $10 million in wages and fees.

"It's been fun to do something for the hometown," he says.