by Jan Buchholz
Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal

There’s plenty of construction taking place in Austin, but none currently quite as big and impressive as the 1.2-million-square-foot JW Marriott Austin at Congress Avenue and Second Street.

Developer White Lodging Service Corp. released some interesting tidbits today about the big dig:

• Since groundbreaking in October 2012, the construction team — a joint venture between Hunt Construction Group and Hardin Construction — dug down the equivalent of five stories and reached bottom on Feb. 2.
• Some 110,000 cubic yards of dirt were removed, enough to cover 51 football field with a foot of dirt.
• Construction currently rises three stories, headed to 34 stories.
• During the course of construction, the following amounts of materials will be used: 650,000 pounds of cable, 54,000 cubic yards of concrete, 5,400 doors, 3,500 tons of rebar and 2,300 tons of steel.
• Thus far, the hotel has contracts for 140,000 rooms when it opens in early 2015.

Upon completion, it will be the largest JW Marriott hotel in the U.S.

Click here for the original article on biz journals.com.