ARB, Inc. commences constrtuction on Elk Hills power plant and pipeline

ARB, Inc announced the start of its participation in the construction of the Elk Hills Power Plant and pipeline. The project is part of the on-going multi-year effort to increase the total generating capacity available in California and the western states. Fortunately, with the relatively mild weather and the recent completion of power plant projects such as the ARB constructed Sunrise Power Plant, California has avoided rolling power outages. However over the long-term, it is vital to California's economy to significantly increase power capacity in the western states.

ARB began work on the Elk Hills Power project in late July and anticipates completion of phase one in March of 2002. When fully operational in the spring of 2003, the 570 MW combined cycle facility will provide power for the equivalent of a half-million homes. Elk Hills Power, LLC, a joint venture between Sempra Energy Resources and Occidental Energy Ventures Corp., is the project owner; the engineering, procurement, and construction management is being provided by Merchant Power Engineers and Constructors.

Elk Hills is located near Taft in western Kern County and ARB is utilizing the project team from the nearby Sunrise project for construction of this project. Initially ARB will construct the first phase of the project on a fast-track basis utilizing an alternative contracting methods where value is developed through productivity, schedule, and safety incentives.

"ARB's construction team for this project did an outstanding job on the Sunrise project, beating an already fast-tracked schedule without incurring additional costs," said Tim Healy, vice president of ARB. "The Elk Hills project is an equally ambitious schedule with portions of phase one and phase two being constructed concurrently."

ARB will place 20,000 cubic yards of structural concrete, will fabricate and erect all the permanent and temporary piping and structural steel for firing the plant at the completion of phase one, and will install the owner supplied General Electric 7FA combustion turbines, D-11 steam turbine, and 7FH2 generators.

An added dimension to California's insufficient power generating capabilities is the limited capacity of the underground utility infrastructure, particularly the natural gas transmission and distribution system. In its current condition the system cannot sufficiently supply all the power plants coming on line in the near future. In addition to the scope of work at the site, ARB will install over 80,000 linear feet of pipelines to serve the plant, including the natural gas tie-in to feed fuel to the plant and the cooling water feed and discharge lines.

Scott Summers, senior vice president of ARB reinforced Mr. Healy's comment saying, "One of the things which makes ARB so unique is our ability to self-perform substantially all the construction, both onsite and offsite, for projects like Elk Hills Power."

Reducing the number of parties on site lowers expenses and expedites project completion. As is the case in many other industries where buyers are looking at the entire cost of their supplier relationships, they are looking toward full service preferred contractor relationships.

About ARB
ARB is a diversified construction company providing a wide range of construction, fabrication, maintenance and replacement services to major petrochemical companies, energy companies, public utilities, and other customers. ARB has diversified its operations both geographically, as well as across market segments. Its three operating groups are underground (oil and gas pipeline, gas distribution and trenchless technologies for sewer and water), industrial (including the construction and maintenance of power plants and other energy/industrial facilities), and civil (primarily high volume specialty concrete structures as well as building construction in support of ARB's industrial group). ARB's principle focus is on the western United States with a growing presence in Latin America. Its headquarters is located in Lake Forest, California. ARB has additional offices in California, Texas, and Nevada, and in Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Columbia.