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CH2M HILL Engineered, Procured, Constructed American Gypsum Plant Successfully Producing Sustainable Wallboard

The completed plant has begun successfully producing finished wallboard and employs 100 people in the Georgetown area. Annually this new plant will produce 750 million square feet of wallboard by using waste products from nearby power plants. Local coal-fired power plants generate a synthetic gypsum by-product as the result of using scrubbing technology to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. By using the synthetic gypsum in its gypsum wallboard production, American Gypsum converts what otherwise would be waste into a valuable and environmentally friendly building product. Additionally, the gypsum paper that American Gypsum uses is made from 100 percent recycled paper fiber—creating a finished product from essentially 100 percent recycled materials.

"CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene provided excellent engineering design and project management services on this project," said Kerry Gannaway, a Senior Vice President with American Gypsum Company. "They worked very closely with American Gypsum and made sure this project was going to be a complete success."

During the 21 months of construction, CH2M HILL had up to 50 professionals working on the project and overseeing more than 300 onsite construction subcontractors.

This is the first East Coast facility for Dallas-based American Gypsum, a subsidiary of Eagle Materials, Inc. With operations in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado, the company is expanding east to meet the growing market demand for its product. The new plant will also allow American Gypsum to serve its customers on a national level with an improved nationwide distribution network.

American Gypsum is presently the nation's fifth largest producer of gypsum wallboard. American Gypsum operates four gypsum plants with five production lines, and annually sells nearly three billion square feet of wallboard.