The Boeing Co. is building a new Dreamlifter Opeations Center on its campus in North Charleston according to GSABusiness. Choate Construction Co. is managing the project, according to the filing, and construction began Jan. 28.
“Boeing South Carolina is constructing a new Dreamlifter Operations Center at the North Charleston site,” said company spokesman Rob Gross in an email. “Boeing is committed to South Carolina, and this actively demonstrates that we plan to be here for a very long time. As we’ve said before, we’re not just creating jobs in South Carolina; we’re creating careers for generations to come.”
Gross said the North Charleston operations center is one of several developments at the site, including the expansion of aft-body fabrication and assembly and component paint facilities.
“We are expanding the footprint of our aft-body fabrication and assembly building and our component paint facility,” said Candy Eslinger, a Boeing spokeswoman, when the company announced the expansion in September. “It helps us more efficiently achieve production rates that we’ve committed to.”
The aft-body facility is now 467,000 square feet and Boeing will add 276,000 square feet to the building. There, workers build the last passenger section of the airplane, section 47, and build the section that integrates the horizontal and vertical stabilizers and the aft-pressure bulkhead, section 48.
The paint facility is in a separate building that is 66,000 square feet, and construction crews will expand it by 37,000 square feet. The aerospace giant and its contractor, Walbridge Southeast, estimate the construction of the new paint facility to cost more than $12 million, according to a building permit filed in early January.
The facility paints the primer and white coat for the aft- and mid-bodies that are seen on the flight line before the 787s fly to Texas to be painted for the delivery customer. Eslinger said the paint facility expansion has been part of site plans since Boeing broke ground in North Charleston in 2009. Read More.
