The second ever Lift & Move USA event which was held last month in Houston connected over 650 high school and college students with industry representatives from the crane, rigging and specialized transport industries, inspiring them to pursue careers in those challenging and rewarding fields.TNT Crane & Rigging hosted the one-day event from their Houston facility where they had several large cranes of varied types on display outside with skilled operators on hand to talk with the attendees about the equipment. Appropriately, the indoor program began with an introduction from Mike Appling, President and CEO of TNT Crane & Rigging. In his opening remarks, he noted that the average annual salary for crane operators in Houston is currently $118K.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
Construction is a vast and complex industry that allows men and women to use their talents and professions in many ways. ABC/CMEF is offering scholarships to qualifying undergraduate students pursuing a degree for a career in construction at a university or community college.The scholarship committee will be awarding upwards of $20,000 in scholarship money. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Friday, March 18th. You can view the scholarship requirements and application here. The committee will take into consideration each applicant's interest in construction, grades, extracurricular activities, employment experience, and financial needs.
March 09, 2016
Construction Career Collaborative (C3) was the beneficiary of two big announcements last week by high profile, influential owners, which illustrate C3’s growing presence and impact in the Greater Houston region. The first came through the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston from His Eminence, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, who declared that its projects would require C3 participation from this point forward. This is a huge win for C3 because the Archdiocese is one of the most active builders in the Houston region with as many as 10 new projects (all C3!) expected to begin in the near future.The second significant announcement came from the Greater Houston Partnership, which issued a press release stating that the construction of its new offices would require C3 participation. Bob Harvey, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership stated, “Programs like C3 exemplify the approaches championed by UpSkill Houston.
March 09, 2016
Construction employment in February, spending in January climb to seven-year highsEditor’s note: Construction Citizen is proud to partner with AGC America to bring you AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's Data DIGest. Check back each week to get Ken's expert analysis of what's happening in our industry.Nonfarm payroll employment in February increased by 242,000, seasonally adjusted, from January and by 2,672,000 (1.9%) over 12 months, and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported last week. Construction employment rose by 19,000 for the month (to 6,631,000) and by 253,000 (4.0%) year-over-year (y/y). Industry employment reached the highest level since December 2008. Residential construction employment (residential building and specialty trade contractors) increased by 15,000 for the month and 155,100 (6.4%) y/y.  
March 08, 2016
On March 3, 2016, The Port Authority of New York opened the new transportation hub at the World Trade Center to the public and to the 100,000 riders who use the center daily.
March 07, 2016
HOUSTON - The Greater Houston Partnership announced Thursday additional details about the organization’s office space in the new Partnership Tower. The build-out will be completed by Partnership member companies who demonstrate a commitment to developing and maintaining a quality and skilled construction workforce. The Partnership is joining with the Construction Career Collaborative, or C3, that has developed a set of principles for commercial construction companies to follow in their business practices that includes financial security, health and well-being of craft professionals, and appropriate safety and craft training for their workforce.The Partnership, through its UpSkill Houston initiative, focuses on developing a sustainable talent pipeline for seven key industry sectors that drive Houston’s regional economy.
March 04, 2016
The following article originally appeared in the March newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, LLC for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission.The tone is turning decidedly more negative when discussing the outlook for Houston. Local economists are anxiously awaiting this Friday’s revisions to the 2015 employment numbers, to determine whether Houston did indeed gain jobs last year. Either way, the leading indicators are not good. The rig count has continued to decline, now nearly 75% lower than it was in September 2014, both nationwide and in Texas, according to Baker Hughes. And at $30 oil, no one, not even the stripper wells, are making money, according to Jesse Thompson, Economist at the Houston Branch Federal Reserve Bank. The reason, he notes, for the increased production is that drillers are now focusing solely on their most productive areas.
March 03, 2016
Attorneys expect an appeal in the case of a construction worker who died in an accident on the Kyle Field jobsite in College Station at the Texas A&M campus.That's after a Harris County jury in Houston awarded $54 million to the family of Angel Garcia, who was using a loader bucket to catch concrete debris during demolition at the stadium. The loader had a 2,700-pound carrying capacity but was bearing a 3,340-pound concrete section as another worker was using a circular saw to cut the piece from a support column, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
March 02, 2016
When we talk with some of the folks in the construction industry, they laugh when we suggest that the convergence of the major labor shortages and the emergence of on-site robotics will come into play faster than they can imagine.They tell us that in some of the skilled trades, robots will never be able to replace humans. Well, they might be having second thoughts, especially if they have looked at some of the work being done by Boston Dynamics and their new droid robots – Atlas.Fast Company has just shown one of the Atlas robots standing after being knocked down. Makes me wonder whether that would be an OSHA reportable accident or whether that might be the end of the reportable accidents?Boston Dynamics was bought by Google several years ago making Google one of the major competitors in the development of robots that could be used in construction. We know that DARPA has companies working feverishly on bots that the military can use, so the conversion to the construction jobsite is not that large a leap. (Pun intended.)
March 01, 2016
Starts show mixed pattern in January, Dodge says; office campuses return, CoStar findsEditor’s note: Construction Citizen is proud to partner with AGC America to bring you AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's Data DIGest. Check back each week to get Ken's expert analysis of what's happening in our industry.The value of new construction starts in January increased 2% from December's level at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, Dodge Data & Analytics reported on February 19, based on data it collected. "The gain for total construction relative to December reflected moderate growth [5%] for housing. At the same time, nonresidential building retreated slightly [–1%] in January, as increases for commercial building and manufacturing plant construction were offset by diminished activity for institutional building. The nonbuilding construction sector also retreated slightly [-2%] in January, as modest improvement for public works was offset by a downturn for the electric utilities/gas plant category. On an unadjusted basis, total construction starts in January were...down 14% from the same month a year ago, which featured the start of two massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal projects in Texas.
February 29, 2016