ROOF BID MAY HELP HOUSTON BALLPARK STAY ON SCHEDULE

          Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) "has offered a
     guarantee maximum price" to prospective facility contractor
     Brown & Root to build a retractable roof for a new baseball
     park in Houston, according to John Williams of the HOUSTON
     CHRONICLE.  The structure would be "similar" to the one
     which Mitsubishi is scheduled to build for Miller Park in
     Milwaukee.  The roof is the construction "variable causing
     the most concern" in Houston, due to the cost and the
     "uncertainty that one will work as well in 20 years as it
     does when new."  While Mitsubishi is keeping its Houston
     offer "private," it is considered "a major development" as
     Brown & Root aims to "ensure" that the ballpark costs no
     more than $250M (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/23).