Interested in keeping track of where funding from the federal Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law (BIL) is going? Get the data straight from the
General Services Administration’s BIL Maps Dashboard within its “Data to
Decisions” system. The latest data update reflects awarded funds as of
September 6, 2022. In addition to the summary map above (continental
U.S. only displayed here), at the bottom of the map is a downloadable
spreadsheet containing more than 9,000 entries describing each award,
from airport grants and highway projects to water, river basin and
fishery projects.
Below is a list of the location-specific single awards thus far that top
$1 billion. Standing out from the pack of mostly surface transportation
awards in such high-GDP states as California, Texas, New York and
Florida is the award of more than $1.3 billion to an advanced nuclear
reactor demonstration project in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Located on the site
of the retiring coal-fired Naughton Power Plant selected last November
by TerraPower, the molten-salt-cooled project will employ up to 2,000
construction workers and 250 permanent employees once it’s up and
running. “The demonstration project team evaluated a variety of factors
when selecting the site of the Naughton Power Plant, where the remaining
two coal units are scheduled to retire in 2025,” TerraPower said last
November. “Factors included community support, the physical
characteristics of the site, the ability of the site to obtain a license
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), access to existing
infrastructure, and the needs of the grid.”
The DOE’s other advanced reactor project, based on gas-cooled technology
from X-Energy, will be sited at Energy Northwest’s Columbia nuclear
plant in Washington state. — Adam Bruns
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Single Awards
Over $1 Billion
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was searching for a new
headquarters location five years ago until one day it
suddenly wasn’t anymore. As of last week, the search has kicked into gear
again, with two sites in Maryland’s Prince George’s
County and one in Virginia still standing as finalists for a
decision expected this fall. “GSA’s site selection approach
is based on best practices in public real estate
acquisitions and its long-standing expertise in developing
federal facilities,” the agency said. “The process also
incorporates federal agency goals and directives from law,
regulations, and executive orders.” GSA is making available
a summary fact sheet of the evaluation process and a copy of
the site selection plan in GSA’s FOIA Reading Room. “GSA
anticipates making a selection in the coming months. In
parallel, efforts are underway to identify critical space
for an FBI downtown DC facility, complementing the new
suburban campus, in accordance with the FY 2023 President’s
Budget. This site will allow for continued FBI accessibility
to the Department of Justice and other key partners.”
Site Selection originally reported on the prospective HQ
move in 2014 and then again in 2015.
PROJECT WATCH
North Carolina
On the heels of a big investment in Marcy, New York, silicon carbide
semiconductor maker Wolfspeed announced this month its plans to
construct a $5 billion manufacturing plant at the Chatham-Siler City
Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) Megasite in Siler City, North Carolina.
Expected to obtain federal funding from the CHIPS and Science Act, the
company intends to create roughly 1,800 jobs at the site over the next
eight years. “Demand for our products continues to grow at a rapid pace,
and the industry continues to be supply constrained. Expanding our
materials production will further our market leadership and allow us to
better serve the growing needs of our customers,” said Gregg Lowe,
president and CEO of Wolfspeed. “We are particularly excited and proud
to not only expand Wolfspeed’s footprint in our home state of North
Carolina, but also further our relationship with North Carolina
Agricultural and Technical State University to nurture our best-in-class
talent pool.”
Nestlé Purina and the Government of Santa Catarina late last year
dedicated the cornerstone of a new industrial park in the south of the
country, in Vargeão, in the west of the state. The new unit will be
built to “meet the growing demand of domestic and foreign markets for
wet food for dogs and cats, accelerate the company’s growth and help
consolidate Brazil as an important export platform to other Latin
American countries, the United States and Europe,” said a company press
release from Nestlé Brazil. It’s the biggest manufacturing investment by
the company in Brazil since the opening of a plant in Montes Claros in
2017 and follows the company’s marking of 100 years in Brazil in 2021.
The company said the location in the west of Santa Catarina is strategic
to accelerate growth. “The road and port infrastructure was decisive in
the choice of the State to host the new Purina plant,” Nestlé said. “The
region has adequate and efficient modalities for the company’s business
model, which will use the new unit for production intended mainly for
export and supply to the domestic market in southern Brazil.” In 2021,
Purina Brasil started to export to the United States, Germany, Italy and
France. With the opening of new markets, Purina tripled the volume
destined for sales to the foreign market, making Brazil consolidate
itself as an export hub for the brand, said the company.
The moon rose in January above the wind turbines at the 305-acre
Flatirons Campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in
Arvada, Colorado. NREL’s two campuses (including its main campus in
Golden) supported $599.4 million in business volume in FY2021, the
largest chunks of which were in technology partnership agreements and
projects, solar, bioenergy, facilities and infrastructure, vehicles and
wind. The lab has 1,002 active partnerships with industry, universities,
foundations and governments, and has had 645 patents issued to date.
