According to The United States Census Bureau, construction activity as of January 2023 totaled $1,825 billion dollars. Though this is a slight decline compared to December 2022, it shows how important the construction industry is to the economy.

The construction industry is divided into three main sectors, residential, commercial, and industrial. Residential construction includes building multi-family homes and single homes. Commercial construction deals with the setting up of offices and office blocks.

Industrial construction refers to any construction activity that deals with manufacturing goods or facilities used for industrial purposes. Industrial facilities include factories, power plants, warehouses, and other niche-based processing facilities.

Types of industrial construction

This type of Industrial construction deals with buildings designed to accommodate machinery and not foot traffic. For this reason, most industrial construction is done along strategic logistical routes, such as near airports, highways, and ports.

Some of the different types of industrial construction are the following.

• Manufacturing plants: These factories produce or assemble various types of goods. The plants can either be distribution centers or warehouses.
• Chemical plants: These are facilities that produce industrial products. The plant can be an oil refinery, fertilizer, or pharmaceutical plant.
• Waste management centers: These are created to help dispose of waste materials and include infrastructure such as recycling centers and incinerators.
• Mining plants: These facilities extract minerals and natural resources such as gas, oil, and coal.

Other types of industrial construction include setting up food processing plants, refineries, and infrastructure projects such as dams and power stations.

Industrial projects are complicated to plan and execute. An excellent example of this is tunnel construction. Tunnel construction is affected by various externalities such as time, quality, costs, and the need for experts.

Construction companies should consider using optioneering software to deal with these problems and make better bids.

An example of such a platform is ALICE Technologies. This platform reduces risk by modeling numerous construction approaches that can be used to complete an industrial project. It also speeds up construction time and significantly increases profit margins.

6 most unique industrial construction projects to note

Several factors make the mentioned industrial construction project unique. One is cutting-edge technology like renewable energy or robotics, but a project is also considered unique because of its location. Here are some of the most unique projects.

1. Tesla Gigafactory Nevada

The Tesla Gigafactory Nevada is one of the world’s biggest electric motors and powertrain manufacturing plants. The factory has over 4 million square feet of manufacturing space and boasts of producing some of the world’s most advanced battery systems. The factory took two years to build and is entirely powered by renewable energy, such as wind and solar.

To do this, contractors installed a large solar array on the factory’s roof. This way, the facility became self-reliant. It is also important to note that the factory produces more lithium-ion batteries than any other factory worldwide.

2. General Motors Arlington plant

The General Motors Arlington plant was built in the 1950s to assemble automobiles and aircraft. However, the plant has focused on producing various model cars such as the Chevrolet Bel Air, Pontiac chieftain, Cadillac, and Chevrolet.

Every day, 5,500 workers manufacture different car models that are exported to more than 32 countries across the globe. In 2020, the factory produced more than 70,000 vehicles, with more than 11,000 units of the Chevy Tahoe being exported.

3. Boeing Everett factory

The Everett factory is a Boeing airplane assembly facility that currently boasts of being one of the largest buildings in the world. The building sits on over 98 acres of land and has produced various airplane models, such as the 767, 777, and 787. The assembly line has been expanding since 1943 when it was first constructed.

The facility employs over 30,000 people and has a security team, daycare center, and fire department. Before 2020, the Everett factory used to allow tourists to visit the factory, and it would handle more than 150,000 visitors every year.

4. Intel’s Ohio factory

The Intel factory in Ohio is the world’s largest chip manufacturing plant. It was set up for 20 billion dollars and was created to make America chip reliant. The factory sits on 1000-acre land, and the project is expected to create 3,000 direct jobs and 7000 construction jobs.

It will also support thousands of local long-term jobs across a broad ecosystem comprising partners and suppliers. Intel has pledged over 100 million dollars in direct partnership with local education institutions.

5. The Trans-Alaska System

The Trans-Alaska system is regarded as an engineering marvel and a testament to American ingenuity. The system is an 800-mile-long pipeline that transports crude oil from Alaska through earthquake faults and hundreds of rivers across rugged terrain. The oil is delivered to a place known as Valdez.

The country gets at least 4% of its total oil supply through this industrial infrastructure. It is important to note that half of the pipeline runs above ground to protect it from permafrost. As a result, the Trans-Alaska system has become one of the world’s most photographed oil-transporting systems.

6. DC Water’s Blue Wastewater Treatment Plant

DC Water’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater treatment plant is the largest water treatment plant in the world. It treats an average of 300 million gallons of wastewater daily and can treat one billion gallons of wastewater if needed.

This treatment plant was opened in 1937 but has been expanded to accommodate the country’s needs. The wastewater treatment plant generates about 10 megawatts of electricity, and biosolids recycle nitrogen and phosphorus back into the soil.

In conclusion, the country has a lot of unique industrial construction projects worth mentioning. These projects are notable because of their complexity, such as the Trans-Alaska system and size. With the increase in infrastructure spending, bigger and more complex industrial projects are expected to be implemented.