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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.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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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
The ABC National Craft Championships event is the largest of its kind. Craft Competitors from all over the country meet in one place in a two-day rigorous competition to find out who has the best skills and what chapter has the best training programs. Pictured here are five of the eight competitors represented by CMEF, the training affiliate of ABC Greater Houston.CMEF is bringing back a gold medalist from last year’s Structural Welding Competition, who will be competing in the Pipe Welding Competition this year. Brandon Moore, employed by Jacobs, is expected to do great things. Also pictured, are two high school students, cosponsored by Performance Contractors. These two 17-year-old seniors are taking welding courses at local Junior Colleges and training during the day in their high school training program sponsored by CMEF.
February 27, 2016
Houston, we have a Super Bowl!It has been more than a decade since the Super Bowl was hosted in Houston, Texas. Every year the Super Bowl, the unofficial American holiday, is the NFL’s crowning achievement, heaping massive amounts of attention on whichever city is tasked with hosting the ubiquitous event. More than 70,000 fans attended Super Bowl XLIX. With the guaranteed influx of football fans planning their trip to the Bayou City, many Houstonians may fear the inevitably crowded restaurants, congested roads and overflowing venues during the weeks leading up the event. However, there is a silver lining for all the locals to look forward to when the Super Bowl touches down in 2017.
February 26, 2016
Read about a program through which more than 150 veterans have been trained in pipefitting and welding since it started in 2014, and watch a video of a welding instructor talk about the program.
February 25, 2016
“Knowing the kind of person you are, along with your abilities, will guide you to the starting point of your career path.” - Mason Sloan, Pipefitter Foreman at Jacobs
February 24, 2016
This is truly the Age of Disruption and the 4th industrial revolution, and it holds the promise of a reduction of lanes of concrete highways and high-rise parking garages that provide 4 or 5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space.
February 23, 2016
