Meta taps Mortenson for $1B Wisconsin data center

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Minneapolis-based Mortenson will quickly develop a web site in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, to deal with a 700,000-square-foot Meta knowledge heart.

Meta, father or mother firm of Fb, introduced a $1 billion investment into the construction of the campus, which marks the corporate’s thirtieth knowledge heart worldwide and twenty sixth in america, in keeping with a Nov. 12 information launch. Mortenson will function the final contractor, Steve Knighton, vp and common supervisor for Mortenson’s knowledge heart operations, instructed Building Dive.

Building of the Beaver Dam campus will rely closely on superior development know-how, stated Knighton. Mortenson plans to make use of BIM coordination instruments, stay digital underground utility mapping, drone knowledge seize, robotic automated development structure and Meta Quest for VR opinions of the mission with stakeholders, he stated.

In its launch, Meta highlighted the campus’ dry-cooling methods, which is able to get rid of water demand for cooling as soon as operation begins. The corporate additionally plans to revive 100% of the water consumed by the info heart to native watersheds.

The emphasis comes as water use has increasingly drawn scrutiny nationwide, with current debates in Arizona and California centered on whether or not AI-heavy knowledge heart tasks can align with environmental wants. Beaver Dam residents have raised issues in regards to the Meta facility’s water use to native media shops.

Along with the info heart, Meta will underwrite almost $200 million in power infrastructure investments to cowl prices related to constructing the campus, together with community upgrades and utility substations, in keeping with the discharge. Massive contractors, together with AECOM, have emphasised the ancillary demand knowledge heart builds are creating for energy and power station construction. Meta stated it would additionally restore 570 acres of wetlands and prairie surrounding the info heart web site.

The buildout arrives at a second when data center construction continues to outpace most different nonresidential constructing sectors. Roughly one in seven contractors maintain knowledge heart contracts, in keeping with an Related Builders and Contractors survey. These corporations additionally report significantly higher backlog than builders with out related work, in keeping with ABC.

The tech large expects the power to finish in 2027, a Meta spokesperson instructed Building Dive.