The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees today (Friday) authorized UW to proceed with negotiations to hire G. E. Johnson Construction Co. of Jackson as the construction manager at risk (CMAR) for the planned Energy Resource Center (ERC).
The firm was selected following a review of qualifications of 15 companies, of which four were interviewed. Haselden Construction Co. of Casper was ranked second and FCI Construction of Cheyenne was ranked third.
The CMAR is responsible for bringing the project in at or under the project's budgeted construction cost of $16 million, says Douglas H. Vinzant, UW vice president for administration. The company will provide predesign services with the architectural/engineering design of the project, provide a guaranteed maximum price for trustee approval and perform construction services for the ERC.
The ERC will house offices, meeting space and laboratories for the UW School of Energy Resources, including research laboratories focused on rock and fluid physics, underground resource characterization, fossil fuels, computational modeling and carbon technologies.
Additionally, the center will support interdisciplinary research in an environment that is more commonly found in industrial organizations and the nation's top-tier national laboratories.
Funded by a combination of corporate donations matched by state appropriations, the SER will continue to strengthen UW's link to disciplines critical to Wyoming's energy portfolio by tapping the university's extensive expertise in areas such as geologic resource characterization, oil and gas production, computer and electrical engineering, carbon-based technologies, mathematical modeling, natural resource economics, mine land reclamation, carbon sequestration, power-grid engineering, wind turbine design and other areas.
The construction is anticipated to start following the completion of the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center late this fall or early spring 2011.
