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Award: data center
Value: Billion dollar investment
Location: Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Customer: Goal
Minneapolis-based Mortenson will soon develop a site in Beaver Dam, Wis., to house a 700,000-square-foot Meta data center.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, announced a Billion dollar investment in construction campus, which marks the company’s 30th data center worldwide and 26th in the United States, according to a Nov. 12 news release. Mortenson will serve as the general contractor, Steve Knighton, Mortenson’s vice president and general manager of data center operations, told Construction Dive.
Construction of the Beaver Dam campus will rely heavily on advanced construction technology, Knighton said. Mortenson plans to use BIM coordination tools, live digital maps of underground utilities, drone data capture, robotic automated construction design and Meta Quest for project reviews with stakeholders, he said.
In its statement, Meta highlighted the campus’ dry cooling systems, which will eliminate the demand for water for cooling once operation begins. The company also plans to restore 100% of the water consumed by the data center to local watersheds.
Emphasis comes as the use of water increasingly controlled throughout the countrywith recent debates in Arizona and California focusing on whether AI-heavy data center projects can be aligned with environmental needs. Beaver Dam residents have voiced their concerns Water use of the target facility in the local media.
In addition to the data center, Meta will underwrite nearly $200 million in energy infrastructure investments to cover costs associated with campus construction, including grid upgrades and utility substations, according to the statement. Major contractors, including AECOM, have emphasized the ancillary demand that data center construction creates for construction of energy and power plants. Meta said it will also restore 570 acres of wetlands and grasslands surrounding the data center site.
The construction comes at a time when Data center construction continues to outperform most other non-residential construction sectors. About one in seven contractors have data center contracts, according to a survey by Associated Builders and Contractors. These companies also report significantly higher lag than builders without similar jobs, according to ABC.
The tech giant expects the facility to be completed by 2027, a Meta spokesperson told Construction Dive.
