Casper's industrial base runs on a handful of heavy assets and a long tail of small shops that serve them. The Sinclair refinery on East Highway 20-26 has 30,000 barrels per day of capacity and runs primarily Wyoming and Rocky Mountain sweet crude. A coal-fired generating station stands at Glenrock. Oilfield-services yards, fabrication shops and machine shops fill the lots between. When we say we build for manufacturers, we mean owners who make, fix, process or fabricate something in this basin and need a building that keeps up with the equipment inside it.
Those owners share a problem: demand moves with the energy cycle, but the building has to last through several cycles. A fab shop sized for a boom can sit half empty in a bust, and a processing plant built tight may have no room to add a line when a contract arrives. We build with that tension in mind, adding crane capacity, power service and slab strength that make a building useful to the next user as well as the first.
This page lays out how we work with manufacturers and industrial owners: the market, the closely managed trades that keep a schedule in your hands, the safety discipline a live plant demands, the codes and permits that apply and what a realistic timeline looks like. Distribution and freight users face related decisions, which we describe under logistics and distribution.
The refinery is the center of heavy industry east of town, and the work done there sets a pattern for other owners. Sinclair completed a two-year, roughly $200 million modernization reported in October 2016, with a new crude unit replacing units built in 1928, 1948 and 1955, plus new tanks and a gas-fired heating plant. At that time, it employed 145 people plus contractors. The scale of outside labor around a project like that is why lodging, fabrication and equipment yards cluster near the east side. Our page on the East Casper refinery area covers the surrounding ground.
North of town the Salt Creek field has produced oil since the Dutch No. 1 gusher in 1908 and now uses CO2 enhanced oil recovery, which keeps pipe, compression and tank work going. At Glenrock, I-25 runs concurrent with US 87, and a large coal-fired generating station sits beside the town. Our Glenrock page describes what that means for contractors working on utility and plant support buildings.
Industrial work depends on foundations, slabs and steel, and those are the trades that hold up a schedule. We schedule and supervise the concrete, sitework and rough carpentry trade partners as one sequence, which means the first weeks of a project are planned by us rather than set by a single subcontractor's queue. Heavy equipment pads, pits, trenches and sumps all need attention to formwork, rebar and cure time, particularly when a pour happens in cold weather.
Steel comes next. For frames, mezzanines and support structures, our structural steel erection work covers coordination with fabricators and the erection crew that sets the pieces. When equipment loads call for deep foundations, our deep drilled pier foundations service handles geotechnical coordination and drilling. Specialty trades such as process piping, controls and heavy electrical come from firms we have vetted for plant work.
A plant that is running does not stop for a construction crew. Before any work, we agree on hot work permits, lockout and tagout coordination, traffic separation and emergency procedures. Orientation is mandatory, and we keep crews within defined zones. In or near process areas, we follow the owner's rules for gas monitoring, ignition sources and confined spaces, which are stricter than a typical job site.
Environmental conditions matter, too. The Mystery Bridge and U.S. Highway 20 Superfund site in Evansville involves groundwater contamination believed to come from former industrial operations, and Platte River Commons is still recovering from refinery contamination. Anyone excavating near sites like these needs soil and groundwater plans, proper handling of spoils and a clear stop-work procedure if something unexpected turns up.
The City of Casper lists the 2024 International Codes, with amendments in Title 15, and commercial permits often require a life-safety plan, engineered building and site drawings and Planning and Zoning approval. Industrial occupancies add fire protection, hazardous material controls and separation distances that can set the layout. Plan review covers structural calculations, engineering reports and specifications, and an issued permit is good for 180 days.
Wyoming does not have a single statewide building code, so cities and counties adopt and enforce their own. A plant on county land outside Casper may follow a different edition than a plant inside the city, and process equipment may bring separate state or federal review. We identify those reviews at the start. Our manufacturing facility construction service includes a permit matrix, so you see which agency approves what and in what order.
Manufacturers in a cyclical region should build for flexibility. We suggest extra clear height, a crane runway that can be added later, a power service sized for expansion and a slab thick enough for heavier equipment than today's. Those items cost more up front but are far cheaper than a retrofit. They also make the building easier to lease or sell if your business changes. Our manufacturing plant page describes the options.
For food and beverage processors, floor drains, washdown-rated finishes and temperature control add cost and complexity, as explained under food and beverage processing. The NCIA Business Park next to the airport houses more than 35 businesses ranging from manufacturing to aviation, and Foreign Trade Zone 157 has a 492 acre magnet site at the airport, with a boundary covering nearly all of Natrona County. Owners who import components or export products should ask us about how that affects site selection.
Industrial schedules are driven by shutdown windows. A refinery turnaround, a plant maintenance outage or a seasonal lull sets the only days when certain tie-ins can occur. We plan backward from those windows, staging materials, prefabricating where possible and holding rehearsals for tight sequences. A missed window may mean waiting a year, so we are conservative about what we promise.
Winter adds a second constraint. The city lists a three foot frost line and a 3,000 air freezing index, so footing excavation, concrete pours and exterior steel work need protection, heaters and sometimes enclosures. We schedule foundations and slabs before the hard cold when we can, and we price winter protection when we cannot. Turnaround crews also need beds and meals, which is why lodging owners in the hospitality groups segment watch the same shutdown calendar.
Send the equipment list, the loads and your shutdown windows. We will price the building around the machinery and tell you where the schedule is tight.
Yes, with a plan. We separate the work zone physically, agree on traffic routes, coordinate hot work and lockout with your safety staff and schedule disruptive tie-ins for planned shutdowns. The details are set out before construction and updated weekly. If an activity cannot be done safely during operation, we tell you and schedule it for a shutdown.
Usually a modest percentage of the structure, compared with a later retrofit. Extra column strength, a thicker slab and larger electrical service are cheap during construction and expensive afterward. We price options as alternates so you can decide with numbers. A conversation with your equipment vendors helps set the loads.
We read the environmental reports before pricing. Casper has examples, including the Mystery Bridge and U.S. Highway 20 Superfund site in Evansville, where groundwater contamination is attributed to former industrial operations. We price soil handling, groundwater controls and monitoring as separate items and plan excavation to avoid disturbing flagged areas.
The building permit follows the same City of Casper process as other commercial work, with life-safety plans, engineered drawings and Planning and Zoning approval. Industrial occupancies may add hazardous material, fire protection and environmental permits. We prepare a permit matrix early so none of these is a surprise.
During busy periods, labor and equipment tighten and prices rise. During slow periods, they ease, but fewer firms are available for specialty work. We keep relationships with local trades through both phases and give owners honest guidance on timing. If a project is optional, building in a slow period can save money.