Honda site taking shape

Adam Huening

October 10, 2006 08:40 am

— The employees may have been whistling while they worked but probably can’t hear it over the loud hum of heavy machinery at the Honda site.
Things are going well, according to Bill Bryant of Global Performance, as initial work is underway. If anyone would know, he would. Global is currently putting the finishing touches on Honda facilities in Georgia, Alabama and Ohio and the company built the second Honda plant in Lincoln, Ala.
Locally, some 60-plus pieces of construction equipment are being used to move dirt and change the topography of the land northwest of Greensburg. Crews, working in two, 10-hour shifts, are building temporary roads and laying piping as a multitude of trailers are being carted to the area in preparation for major foundation work scheduled to begin sometime in early 2007.
“We’re off to a good start,” Bryant said. “We’ve had some pretty good weather last week that allowed us to get a lot done. Some rain this week slowed things a bit. Earthwork is heavily dependent on the weather. We can only do so much when it’s muddy. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
Much of the land is being reworked and the project was expected to be big, but according to a Poindexter employee, the company responsible for the machines, it is probably the biggest Greensburg has ever seen.
Bryant noted that may be true but it isn’t that grandiose in the world of the automotive industry.
“For an automotive plant, though, it’s nothing out of the ordinary,” he said from experience.
The massive fleet of machines, he noted, are all in keeping with the grand scope and timing of the project.
“With this size of a site, it takes a lot to get things done, and we’re working against the clock before winter gets here,” he said.
Global has committed itself to an aggressive work schedule but the site is also being kept secure for safety. Visitors to the site must get a security badge from Global, located in the Ironhorse Roadhouse building, before being admitted.
“It’s a safety measure,” Bryant said. “There is a lot of big machinery out there to keep track of. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
A security guard on the site said the entire property is off-limits. The restriction is to ensure the safety of the workers as well as teenagers and others who may get injured on the site, especially around some of the abandoned homes still left on the property. Security makes rounds and keeps their eye on the site 24 hours, seven days a week.
“Like they tell us, there is no fence here, so we have to be the fence,” the security guard said.
As time moves forward, and fall turns to winter, the mounds of dirt will grow. Sometime next spring, a new bud will sprout in the form of the Honda plant, and southeastern Indiana will be able to reap the fruits of economic growth it may bring.
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