SK Battery America, Inc.

This project represents one of the largest single investments in a job creating initiative in Georgia’s history and the largest in more than a decade.
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Clayco led site mobilization and Phase I construction efforts for the new SK Innovation battery manufacturing plant in Commerce, Georgia. Located on 283 acres along I-85 about 65 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta inside the Commerce industrial complex, the 2.4 million-square-foot $1.67 billion facility is SK Innovation’s first EV battery factory in the U.S.

Work began in spring 2019 with Phase 1 project completion scheduled for spring 2020. Initial project scope included sitework, concrete, steel, IMP and roofing for electrode, assembly, formation, module and other ancillary support structures throughout the site. Facilities include multiple roof elevations and mezzanine decks. The greenfield project also required 886,000 yards of rock hammering and excavation. Concrete Strategies completed all of the foundation and flatwork work on site. Later phases included finishes, MEP and clean/dry rooms.

This plant represents one of the largest single investments in a job-creating initiative in Georgia’s history and the largest in more than a decade. By 2025, the site will employ nearly 2,000 with a production capacity reaching 9.8GWh by 2022.

Phase 2 began construction in Q4 of 2020. Phase 2 consisted of a 1.2 million square-foot facility located along Phase 1 of the project and included site and utility work, construction of medium voltage banks and cross country piping racks. Some of the project challenges included the close proximity of the jobsite to the active facility as well as an accelerated timeline with substantial completion scheduled for December 2021.

Also included in Phase 2 were eight additional buildings totaling 90,000 square feet. These buildings include kitchens, cell discharge, an administrative office expansion, and an bridge linking the two main buildings.

SK, which makes lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and fully-electric automobiles, builds batteries for multiple vehicle manufactures, including Volkswagen in Chattanooga.