OMAHA — According to the Omaha World-Herald, workers are halfway finished with foundation work for Union Pacific Corp.’s new $260 million downtown headquarters. To mark their progress, the Omaha railroad will host a belated “shovel turning” for the new headquarters today.
Union Pacific Chairman and Chief Executive Dick Davidson, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, Gov. Mike Johanns and Speaker of the Legislature Doug Kristensen will be at the new headquarters’ site, at 14th, 15th, Dodge and Douglas Streets, today.
They will celebrate progress on the 19-story building and to drive a 3-foot golden spike into the excavated floor of the new headquarters, to be known as Union Pacific Center.
The event commemorates the ceremony on May 10, 1869, when a golden spike was hammered at Promontory Summit, Utah – the point where Union Pacific tracks joined the Central Pacific tracks to link by rail the eastern and western United States.
Bob Turner, Union Pacific’s senior vice president of corporate relations, said that construction is on schedule. In June, steel and other building materials will begin rising out of the 20-foot deep hole created during site preparation for the building. About 50 workers currently are on site, he said.
The new 1.2 million-square-foot building is scheduled to be complete in 2004.
Under an agreement reached in November 2000 with Omaha city officials and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the headquarters site was prepared by the City of Omaha, then turned over to Union Pacific on March 11.
Union Pacific Center is being built across the street from the company’s current 12-story headquarters. The City of Omaha will receive title to that building once the company vacates it.