New 30 mW Solar Facility Announced

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has entered into an agreement with Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc. to develop a 30 mW, 500,000-panel solar photovoltaic power plant in northeastern New Mexico. The Cimarron I Solar Project is the largest photovoltaic project by an electric cooperative and among the largest facility of its kind in the world.

A workforce of up to 140 construction personnel will be required during construction of the facility, which is scheduled to commence by April 2010, with the first portion of the system producing energy by August. The facility is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2010.

The project will be located on a 250-acre parcel of land in Colfax County, located between the towns of Cimarron and Springer. The facility will provide enough energy to serve the equivalent needs of approximately 9,000 homes and help Tri-State to displace emissions of carbon dioxide. The solar field will consist of approximately 500,000, 2- by 4-ft photovoltaic modules constructed with First Solar's patented thin film semiconductor technology. First Solar will act as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and will monitor and maintain the facility.

Site Selected for Uranium Processing Facility

International Isotopes Inc. has selected a site in Lea County 15 miles west of Hobbs for the construction of its depleted uranium de-conversion and fluorine extraction processing facility.

The new facility will consist of both depleted uranium de-conversion and fluorine gas extraction processes. INIS expects to hire about 150 construction workers for the project and begin building the facility in 2011, after Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing is complete. The plant is expected to have an initial de-conversion capacity equivalent to processing approximately 575 deleted UF6 tails cylinders per year. Those cylinders are expected to come from one or more enrichment companies in the U.S. The end products of the de-conversion process will be high purity, anhydrous hydrofluoric acid and silicon tetrafluoride gas, both of which are in demand for a wide range of industrial manufacturing applications.

Construction Nears for Long Wavelength Array Sites

Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons and the University of New Mexico signed an agreement to commence construction of the first two sites of the Long Wavelength Array on state trust lands in Catron and Socorro counties.

Research and development conducted over several years is now complete and the LWA project is ready to break ground for the next-generation radio telescope with imaging power two to three orders of magnitude better than current capabilities.

Centered on the plains of San Agustin, The LWA will provide high-precision, synoptic views of the ionosphere and solar weather events, and of a variety of astrophysical phenomena.

When completed, the LWA will be an array of 53 stations, each a 100-meter diameter field of approximately 250 antennas that act as an individual telescope. Linked by data fibers, the stations will be combined to synthesize an instrument about 400 kilometers across. Before reaching that capability, a 16-station array is scheduled that will enable a better understanding of complex imaging through the ionosphere and will provide opportunities for major scientific discovery. This initial effort is expected to take six years, with an investment of $33 million.

Several NMDOT Projects Begin

The New Mexico Dept. of Transportation will begin reconstruction of a nearly 6-mi stretch of Interstate 40, from N.M. 6 to just east of Tohajiilee, near the Cibola/Bernalillo County Line.

The $17.9 million project, which is part of Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP), will begin this week and is scheduled to last approximately 250 working days.

The contract was awarded to Fisher Sand and Gravel in December 2008 and includes reconstruction of both east and westbound I-40 lanes.

NMDOT also started on a 30-mi roadway rehabilitation project on U.S. 285 from Lamy to Clines Corners, consisting of new pavement, guardrail in warranted areas and new signing and striping. It is scheduled for completion by October 2009.

This project is also funded through GRIP and is currently estimated at $10.9 million.

Pavement rehabilitation work will also begin on U.S. 70 west of Portales. The $3.6 million project will start at mile marker 412 and end at mile marker 417.

This 5-mi-long project consists of mill and fill, pavement overlay, traffic control, pavement markings and miscellaneous construction. James Hamilton Construction of Silver City is the apparent low bidder.

Rio Grande High School to Benefit from Flood Control Project

Albuquerque Public Schools is collaborating with Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, Bernalillo County Public Works Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Southwest Valley Flood Damage Reduction Project to the benefit of Rio Grande High School.

The project's main features involve widening existing drains, constructing connecting channels between the main drains and constructing an outlet channel from the valley to the Rio Grande River to control release of the collected storm waters. The project was authorized for construction by Congress in 2007.

To accommodate the school district's new construction and campus improvement plans at the high school, the stakeholders took the initiative to work together to effectively drain the school property, providing APS engineers the opportunity to tie the school to the Flood Damage Reduction Project. AMAFCA expects to begin the Rio Grande High School portion of the project in June.

The school will benefit through the construction of a large storm water detention ponding area to temporarily store waters that exceed the capacity of the drains until the storm has passed and the excess can be safely released to the river outlet, which will also be used for a new athletic complex to include a high school regulation-size soccer field and softball diamond.

In addition, six new tennis courts were completed near the athletic field in October and two more will be added. Also, with AMAFCA's purchase of land on two sides of the high school to construct drainage infrastructure, APS was able to exchange land with AMAFCA and move the parking lot closer to and contiguous with the school to better serve the student population. The new parking lot is expected to be completed this month.

APS will also build a new enlarged structure to support the existing Intensive Support Program, a school-based health clinic operated by the state for the purpose of serving students as well as the community. Currently in the design phase, the ISP building will be LEED silver certified and include a designated drop-off and parking lot. Construction on the ISP building is expected to begin in August 2009.

Other site development plans include major utility relocation, a fire lane on the east side of campus, and multiple classroom additions to replace the current 40 year-old structures. "APS is thinking comprehensively in making the most of this opportunity to realize future campus-wide improvements," says Rupal Engineer, a partner with Design Plus in charge of overseeing the project design.

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