From the Pittsburgh Business Times
Work continues to ramp up at Shell’s petrochemical plant being built in Beaver County, with about 50 cranes on the site, including some of the world’s largest.
There are so many cranes that they all can’t be seen in one view on the site, said Michael Marr, Shell’s business integration lead who provided an update on the construction Friday at a meeting of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce at a hotel in Green Tree. And more will likely be used as construction continues.
The cranes — and thousands of workers and other equipment — are working to build the polyethylene production facility in Potter Township, a $6 billion project that has accelerated out of the ground since November 2017 and is beginning to take shape.
Two of the cranes — which are among the biggest in the world — had to be shipped to Monaca. They’re going to be used to put up the 210-foot-tall quench tower, which was shipped via the Ohio River and will, when operational, cool the plant’s ethylene stream. A drive by the Shell site on Thursday showed the quench tower had yet to be raised; it’s scheduled to happen sometime this year.
Marr said there were about 2,400 employees on the site now building the plant, about 3,000 when you count management and other workers. At the height of the construction, which will begin next year, there will be 6,000 or so workers.
Shell has been working to find parking spaces for all the workers and has recently contracted with two spaces in Findlay near Pittsburgh International Airport. There is also a parking garage on site and another lot on Route 18, said spokesman Joe Minnitte. Shell will almost certainly need even more with the construction work force almost doubling again next year.
