Aligned Data Centers announced the groundbreaking of Project Caprock on April 9, 2026. The campus is located on 313 acres outside Abernathy in Hale County, Texas, and is designed to deliver 540 megawatts of capacity across 1.65 million square feet of space in six facilities, per Aligned’s official press release (Source: GlobeNewswire, April 9, 2026). Ryan Companies is serving as general contractor on the project. The first building, LBB-01, is targeted for service in Q1 2027. At full buildout, the project is expected to infuse approximately $5 billion into the regional economy.
Project Caprock is the largest data center groundbreaking announced in West Texas in recent memory, and it adds to a construction pipeline that now spans from the Panhandle south through Abilene and into the Austin corridor. The broader Texas data center market has over 340 operational facilities statewide, according to ConstructConnect data cited by Texas Contractor magazine, with vacancy rates at virtually zero across the state. The Caprock campus represents the first hyperscale development in Hale County.
“Project Caprock is a new 540 MW, 313-acre data center campus, located in Hale County just outside of Abernathy, Texas. The site is comprised of 1.65 million square feet of capacity across six facilities and is expected to infuse $5 billion into the regional economy.” Source: Aligned Data Centers press release · GlobeNewswire · April 9, 2026 · globenewswire.com
A site of this scale requires substantial ground preparation before vertical construction begins. Internal access roads, laydown areas, utility corridors, drainage structures, and engineered sub-base for the building pads all require aggregate. On a 313-acre campus with six planned facilities, that material need spans multiple phases and years of active construction. The first building targets Q1 2027, meaning site prep and civil work are active now and will continue through 2026 and beyond.
The West Texas market is different from DFW or Central Texas in one important way for aggregate logistics. Pit networks and trucking capacity are less dense in the South Plains and Panhandle regions. Projects of this scale in those markets depend more heavily on coordinated sourcing and logistics planning than in markets where material sources and trucks are abundant. Lead time on confirmed deliveries matters more in Hale County than it does in Tarrant County.
Contractors active in the West Texas corridor, whether directly on the Caprock campus or on adjacent work generated by the project’s economic footprint, should be confirming aggregate sourcing before their job schedules are locked. The construction footprint in this region is expanding faster than the logistics infrastructure that serves it.
A 313-acre data center campus requires aggregate before anything else goes vertical. In a market where trucking networks are thinner than Central Texas, getting material sourced and delivery confirmed before the schedule is set is not optional.