Rocky Mountains Region Strikes Gold with $9.5 Billion in Projects Set to Begin in Second-Quarter 2015

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Second-quarter construction kickoffs in the U.S. Rocky Mountains region total $9.5 billion in investment value, according to Industrial Info's project database, driven in part by increasing demand for electricity generation, much of it tied to the region's vast mining sector. More than 85% of the amount attributed to three industries: Power, Metals & Minerals, and Oil & Gas Pipelines.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing active projects scheduled to kick off in the second quarter of 2015 in the Rocky Mountains region by industry.

The Rocky Mountains region includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

The Power Industry is way ahead of all other sectors, with $4.8 billion in projects set to kick off in the Rocky Mountains region during the second quarter. One of the largest projects is Tucson Electric Power Company's $850 million construction of a 500-kilovolt transmission line from a substation in Casa Grande, Arizona, to another in Red Rock, Arizona. Environmental Planning Group LLC (London, England) is serving as a consultant on the construction of the 40-mile line, single-circuit, overhead line, which is to be completed in second-quarter 2016.

The Metals & Minerals Industry, always a strong presence in the Rocky Mountains region, follows the Power Industry with $2.26 billion in projects set to kick off between the beginning of April and end of June. Among the highest-value projects is Allied Nevada Gold Corporation's (Reno, Nevada) $170 million circuit addition at the Hycroft Gold Mine & Mill in Winnemucca, Nevada. The new circuit will oxidize and process sulfide concentrate from a planned 120,000-ton-per-day flotation/cyanide mill to produce ore on site. M3 Engineering & Technology Corporation (Tucson, Arizona) is performing design-engineering services for the project, which is set to be completed in second-quarter 2017.

The Oil & Gas Pipelines Industry is a not-too-distant third with $1.06 billion in projects set to kick off in the second quarter, including Frontier Energy Services LLC's (Tulsa, Oklahoma) $215 million construction of a portion of the Alpha Crude Connector project. The 400-mile-plus pipeline and storage infrastructure system in the western Permian Basin (or Delaware Basin) will have about 100,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of crude takeaway capacity. Receipt and delivery points will be in Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico, as well as Reeves and Culberson Counties, Texas. About 370 miles of the constructed pipeline will be in New Mexico.

Among the other sectors, the largest project is attributed to the Oil & Gas Production Industry: Rimrock Midstream's (Plano, Texas) $200 million construction of a crude oil-gathering system west of Lucerne, Colorado. The project involves digging trenches and laying 150 miles pipeline to collect crude oil from producers in the Denver-Jules Basin and Wattenberg Gas Field, and connect it with the planned Grand Mesa Pipeline, eventually sending the product to Cushing, Oklahoma. Willbros Group Incorporated (NYSE:WG) (Houston) is performing design-engineering services.

About three-quarters of the region's total investment value (TIV)--about $7.1 billion--is related to 58 projects that are now in the planning stages, where plenty of factors could increase, decrease or eliminate the expected spending. The region also has 48 projects worth more than $2.18 billion in the engineering stages, while 113 projects worth $223 million already have kicked off the first stage of construction and will kick off the second in the fourth quarter.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.