AI Data Center Progress Report: Executive Oversees His Last Foundation Progress
Image Credit: My Id and Ego.
What trips me out is I primarily used red and green for this. The concrete is closer to grey, though I still missed the movement of cooler in the background to warmer in the foreground. Plant color is closer to the real thing. Grass in the background still a challenge. Grass is green. Kryptonite is green. Correlation and causation blah blah blah. What am I going for with these? Realism? I'm still at the don't stumble over the brush as I figure things out. I covered a couple of workspace lights with white hankies before taking these shots. Seemed to help reduce glare, adds a more uniform light. Stuff to get used to.
Small Town, Louisiana. May 24, 2026 (ABF Newswire) Construction of the massive data center east of the central highway has passed another milestone with the foundation completed this week. And despite the untimely passing of the AI company's VP of Infrastructure during a tour of the progress, work on the main and supporting structures will commence next week.
The executive, on a tour of the company's multiple data center builds across the country, was present during the final pour of the foundation phase. While crossing near the wet foundation of the security gate, he fell in. Despite calls from crew to hold still, the man's writhing quickened the pull of the sludge. His remains were not recovered.
Gary Dolittle, the on-site supervisor with the subcontracting concrete company, Solid Foundations, shared some details of the incident.
Image Credit: My Id & Ego.
Concrete color is a challenge. Went too warm. I forgot to manage my pool of color better. I did have a bigger pool this time. Go me. Mix a warm or cool grey, then alter it as I go. Too fussy with the plant. Too deliberate? Oh, and the color's wrong. Inexperience. I wasn't sure how I wanted to express the leaves and stems so I kept adding to it. Overworked it. I know my light logic is way off but I dig grungy darks I added. I like heavy contrast, don't I?"We're on a tight budget with slim margins. So we crunched the numbers to see what's more cost effective: fish out the body and re-pour; or leave the body in and add more rebar." He shrugged. "We went with the latter. Even if the body decomposes and leaves a cavity, the structure should hold. I trust our engineers."
Residents of the parish view the data center as a blight. The project was approved by the parish council in closed-door meetings with the AI company, and council members all signed non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from discussing the details of the agreement. What is known is the parish agreed to a ten-billion-dollar tax abatement package over thirty years. For context, the parish's combined annual budget for fire and police services is just under eight hundred million. And the promises of jobs, so far, haven't been realized as the construction companies have mainly imported their labor from out of state. And rental prices are up.
"It's one thing to back-room deal with the town's council to get this monstrosity approved without resident input," bemoaned long-time resident Sheryl Serrano. "The billions in tax breaks is salt in the wound. Our town could use that money."
Parish resident and local HVAC technician, Jerome Coffey, isn't happy either. "It's all lies and damned lies. You know how many HVAC guys they need out there when this thing's built? I don't know either because nobody can tell us shit. Judging by the out-of-state construction crews, I'm not holding my breath on a boon to my business."
A resident of Iowa with a calendar filled with data center work, Gary was dispassionate about the parish build.
"There's a quote about walking over a grave, though, I think, it applies to the living," he quipped. "And it wouldn't matter. After this facility comes online, the only traffic will be internet traffic of AI generated cat videos."