HED: Dallas-based Freight Company Offering Express Cargo Travel to Iraq Deck: Aviation Service Group Inc., an air-freight management company, has a new product dubbed an "air bridge," which is designed to offer timely, cost-effective delivery of oversized cargo to Iraq.

Dallas-based Aviation Services Group Inc. Opens "Air Bridge" to Baghdad

Aviation Service Group Inc. of Dallas is selling chartered air-freight management from several United States cities, including Houston and Dallas, to Iraqi via what the company is calling an "air bridge." The "bridge" consists of truck transport from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston, followed by a commercial freighter flight to Europe or the Middle East. The cargo is then flown into Baghdad International Airport aboard dedicated charter aircraft.

With the completion in December of 76 flights to deliver power generation substations to a contractor working to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, Aviation Services demonstrated the effectiveness of the company's new product. The service is designed to assemble and manage a combination of air and surface transport in order to move cargo quickly and cost-effectively versus ocean freighter or conventional air freight. The oversize cargo of the Iraq lifts required chartering the world's largest civilian air freighters and coping with a variety of obstacles and dangers. For more information log on to aviationservices.com.

Perkins & Will's Second Major Texas Acquisition

Chicago-based Perkins & Will, the nation's largest designer of healthcare facilities, recently announced that it is expanding its Texas-based operations by acquiring Houston-based B2HK Architecture, specialists in the design of complex research facilities.

Perkins & Will opened its first Texas office in Dallas in 2001. The following year the firm acquired Dallas-based Collins/Reisenbichler Architects, boosting its Texas-based staff to 85. In December 2002 Perkins & Will opened a Houston office headed by noted healthcare designer, John Cooper. The acquisition of B2HK makes Perkins & Will one of Texas' largest architecture firms with more than 120 employees.

"We see Texas as a major growth market for us," said Tom Reisenbichler, managing principal of Perkins & Will's Texas practice. "B2HK is one of a handful of firms in the world with proven experience in designing highly complex science and technology centers containing Biological Safety Level 4 laboratories. Joining forces with them is a not only a win for both of our firms, but a tremendous bonus for our clients," Reisenbichler added.

"We have worked with B2HK on a number of projects," said Cooper. "One of our most exciting collaborations is on the recently announced Galveston National Laboratory, one of only two such labs in the country."

Perkins & Will is currently working on $250 million worth of projects in the greater Houston area.

ACI Wins Airline Construction Contracts in Houston

ACI/Amec, a joint venture of Aviation Constructors Inc., one of the nation's largest airport construction firms, and Amec, an international engineering services company, was awarded two construction management contracts totaling $19 million by Continental Airlines for projects at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. A new 120,000 sq. ft. air-cargo facility, designed by PGAL of Houston, is currently under construction and scheduled for completion in October. Pre-construction services have begun on a contract secured by the ACI/Amec team for a 100,000 sq. ft. Federal Inspection Service central ticketing area build-out, designed by Corgan Associates Inc. of Dallas, to support the newly completed $200 million Continental International/Domestic Terminal E project, also managed by ACI/Amec. Construction on the central ticketing area will begin in July, with completion scheduled in December.

Valero Awards CB&I Clean Fuels Project

San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. recently awarded CB&I a $60 million contract for a clean-fuels project at the company's newest refinery in Louisiana. Based in The Woodlands, CB&I is an engineering, procurement and construction company. CB&I Matrix will design and build a new 60,000-barrel-per-day gasoline desulfurization unit at Valero's 185,000-barrel-per-day refinery in St. Charles, La. The project includes the design, fabrication and installation of the complete process unit, which will reduce the sulfur content of naphtha feedstock. Valero says the low-sulfur gasoline produced by the new unit will allow the company to better comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 2 gasoline specifications. Mechanical completion is expected in summer 2005.

In Memoriam
The brutal attacks on four American contractors in Fallujah on March 31 is a grim reminder of the dangers facing all civilian contractors working in Iraq to rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Texas Construction extends our thoughts and prayers to the victims' families. The four individuals were working for N.C.-based Blackwater Security Consulting.

The company issued this statement shortly after the attacks: "We grieve today for the loss of our colleagues and we pray for their families. The graphic images of the unprovoked attack and subsequent heinous mistreatment of our friends exhibits the extraordinary conditions under which we voluntarily work to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people."

A memorial fund has been established to support the victim's families of the March 31, 2004 Fallujah attack. Contributions to the memorial fund may be sent to: Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 159, Moyock, N.C., 27958. Checks should be payable to Memorial Fund.