Ford BlueOval City Battery Plant Featured in ENR Southeast

Ghafari’s Matt Kraft (Senior Vice President), Mike Ryan (Senior Vice President), and Todd Rogus (Senior Project Manager) sat down with ENR Southeast to discuss one of the most unique, challenging, and complex Ford projects in our firm’s 41-year history: the BlueOval City Lithium-Ion Battery Plant in Stanton, Tennessee.

As one of the largest battery assembly plants in our growing portfolio, this fast-track program challenged our project team in numerous ways – requiring immense coordination, unique workflows, and the highest level of trust. Our longstanding relationships with both Ford and Walbridge ensured the effective application of Ford’s standards and pre-existing team roles and responsibilities to help the team move through design quickly.

Equally important to the schedule was the work of our Operations and Systems Engineering team, who coordinated the process systems integration and interfaced with the equipment designers while the building designers worked in a parallel effort. Throughout the project, technology changed quickly with process layout revisions that affected the design, engineering, construction, and installation.

Ford’s focus on sustainability is heavily present on the campus. While further plans are still in development, Ford has already made a commitment to a carbon-neutral campus that does not burn natural gas and includes geothermal heating systems. Fresh water will not be used for assembly processes, and the goal is to avoid sending material to the landfill.

As substantial completion draws closer and construction activities begin to slow, our project team can reflect on the work they’ve accomplished – and they feel extremely fortunate to have been part of the BlueOval City program.

Learn more about this massive project here and read the full ENR profile here.