Building for Impact: Delta Energy Park
Communities
Throughout the decades, and in communities across the U.S., the many buildings Barton Malow has helped build have also been a source of enormous pride for team members. And the connection between each project and the community it’s in is an important reason team members consider Barton Malow such a special place to work.
With a culture based on people, projects, and communities, pride goes well beyond glass and steel to the true impact each project has on the community.
Powering and Empowering Communities
“They are advanced in their ways of thinking. They’re not waiting until the government mandates that they do certain things. They have a strong desire to be progressive in that environment.”
That’s Barton Malow Senior Construction Manager JD McNulty speaking about the Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL), which serves communities in and around Lansing, Michigan, and operate the Delta Energy Park, Michigan’s largest facility to generate coal-free power and reduce carbon emissions by 80%.
Going operational in 2022, the plant is a combined cycle facility, using combustion turbines and a steam turbine generator to generate about 250 megawatts of power, provide cleaner energy, and replace LBWL’s coal-fired plants by 2025. Lansing Power Constructors, a joint venture between Barton Malow and Lansing’s Clark Construction, took on the enormous project that required 1.4 million labor hours, 30,000 cubic yards of concrete, 10 miles of mechanical piping, and 20,000 miles of electrical cable.
Beyond the environmental impact, the community impact is enormous as well. For one, Lansing residents and businesses will see the benefit in the rates they pay versus other utilities.
“It impacts the bottom line for these people,” says JD. “There are lots of ways to give back, but it’s pretty cool when you can be a part of helping to keep things like electricity at a more affordable rate.”
Barton Malow also found ways to contribute beyond construction. Team members worked with both the local food bank and the children’s museum through Community Week activities, donating time and providing other assistance to the community.
Barton Malow’s involvement in Delta Energy Park continues as BWL evaluates new technologies in its quest toward greener, cleaner energy.
“We’ve explored things like hydrogen, solar, and even the battery components that we will likely see come up on this property as well,” says JD. “Delta Energy Park may be a bigger, longer-term vision than what everybody understood.
“It is an energy park, right? It’s a vast assortment of different types of energy and some of the latest and greatest technologies available to the market at this point.”
Helping build a cleaner, more sustainable energy resource for the community generates more than just electricity; for Barton Malow team members it also generates an immense sense of pride.
