The extrusion tower at the rear of the under-construction, 250,000-square-foot facility has crept beyond the 400-foot plateau on the way to its final 430-foot height. The tower slip-forming process, conducted by Kansas-based specialist Borton LC, had been in continuous, 24-hours-a day operation since July 18 until a too-close-for-comfort summer thunderstorm triggered a shutdown Aug. 4.

Steve Terrell, job superintendent for Yeargin Potter Shackelford Construction, the firm overseeing all aspects of the ABB project, said heavy rain Friday and Saturday slowed construction, and then a Saturday afternoon lightning strike near the site pulled the plug for several days.

Terrell said lightning scrambled the brains of the computer-controlled, 520-foot crane used to supply and support the high-altitude efforts involved in constructing the tower. A new computer was installed early this week and cement began flowing into the structure again late Tuesday afternoon.

The original, ambitious schedule for forming the tower – from underground foundation to nosebleed peak – was 21 days. Until the weather intervened, everything had gone according to plan.

“I think we would have made it, even with all the heavy rain,” Terrell said. “But when the lightning showed up, there’s only so much you can do.”

Elsewhere on site, a team of construction firms including Walker Whiteside, Pratt, Blythe, Jennings-Dill, Carolina Steel & Stone, Steel Fab and ECS are combining efforts to create the $90 million-plus ABB facility scheduled to begin production of high-voltage transmission cables by late 2012.