Published: May 09, 2008 11:44 am            

FedEx breaks ground — sort of

Relentless rain forced the groundbreaking ceremony of the FedEx Freight service center to be moved to the Firefly Grill Thursday morning.

“Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate,” said Norma Lansing, president of the Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Five of the six scheduled shovelers donned hard hats and “broke ground” on the wood floor of the Firefly, miles away from the actual FedEx site to be located along an extension of Outer Belt West south of the Petro Shopping Center.

Frank Hurst, vice president of division operations at FedEx Freight, declined to say how many jobs the 43-acre, 162-door facility will bring to Effingham.

“We’ll be able to announce that as we get closer (to the opening date). It’s a significant investment for us,” Hurst said.

Nonetheless, Effingham officials hailed the arrival of construction on the FedEx Freight site.

“The finished project will bring an increased amount of exposure to Effingham. We appreciate the investment FedEx has made,” Lansing said.

“I thank FedEx and welcome you into the Effingham community and wish you luck and success,” said Mayor John Lange.

Meanwhile, the rain was responsible not only for changing the site of the groundbreaking ceremony, but for delaying construction as well.

“We were right on schedule until the rain hit,” said Barry Pence, a general contractor for Russell Construction, which is building the FedEx Freight facilities.

“The maintenance building is up. The dock is a third of the way up, and a lot of the storm sewers and sanitary sewers are up,” Pence said.

He also said next up at the FedEx site will include finishing up the dock and getting the utilities done in preparation for the office portion of the building.

Construction on the buildings is projected to be completed by the end of the year.

“Construction wise, we should turn it over to them right around the first week of December, right after Thanksgiving. Then FedEx would mobilize for a few months,” Pence said.

Hurst anticipates a spring opening for the freight center, but didn’t know an exact date.

“We’re saying spring ‘09, but a lot of it depends on the weather because we have a lot of prework to do,” he said.

Hurst said FedEx will spend the months following construction at the Effingham site doing prep work, such as setting up computer systems, running telecommunication wires and placing equipment.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@

effinghamdailynews.com.