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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.
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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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
Click on image to view more information.PPIs for new construction rise more slowly in January; ABI, housing starts level offEditor’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 producer price index (PPI) for final demand in January increased 0.3% from December, not seasonally adjusted (0.1%, seasonally adjusted) but fell 0.2% year-over-year (y/y) from January 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Wednesday. AGC posted tables and an explanation focusing on construction prices and costs. Final demand includes goods, services and five types of nonresidential buildings that BLS says make up 34% of total construction. The PPI for final demand construction, not seasonally adjusted, decreased 0.3% for the month and increased 1.2% y/y, down from a 1.8% rise in 2015. The overall PPI for new nonresidential building construction—a measure of the price that contractors say they would charge to build a fixed set of five categories of buildings—rose 1.1% y/y.
February 22, 2016
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) announced that more than 200 of the top construction apprentices and trainees in the country will compete in this year’s National Craft Championships, March 2-3 at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.This year’s event will feature competitors from 35 states and the largest number of participants in the event’s 29-year history. Competitors will contend for gold, silver and bronze medals and a safety award in 15 competitions representing 13 crafts. The two-day competition, which includes a written exam and a hands-on, practical test where competitors will demonstrate their high-level skills and safety best practices, is part of ABC’s effort to raise the profile of careers in construction and highlight the $1.1 billion ABC member companies spend annually on workforce development.
February 19, 2016
"The best or nothing” is the global tagline for Mercedes cars, and it also applies to the new stadium being built for the Atlanta Falcons. Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta is innovative and one of a new era of sports designs around the world.According to recent reporting in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the 71,000 seat stadium for the Falcons and the 32,000 configuration for the Atlanta soccer team is now scheduled to open in June of 2017 after delays for additional structural design for the “oculus” roof and the panoramic video screens.This drone video shows steel workers erecting the complex framework for the roof of the HOK designed structure. The stadium is being built by 1,400 construction craft professionals directed by Hunt Construction Group.
February 18, 2016
Click on image to view more information.Construction employment rises, but unevenly, in January; metro job gains are spottyEditor’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 nonresidential construction starts, not seasonally adjusted, increased 13% from January 2015 to January 2016, CMD reported on February 11, based on data it collected. Building starts climbed 8.5%, with institutional starts up 2.6%, commercial up 13% and the small industrial segment up 10%. Heavy engineering starts jumped 20%, with the largest segment, road/highway, jumping 39%.The Federal Highway Administration's National Highway Construction Cost Index, a measure of prices paid by state transportation departments for all roadway construction contracts, decreased 2.4% in September 2015 from June and 1.7% from September 2014.
February 17, 2016
The battle to rein in the scourge of worker misclassification in the construction industry continues to play out at the national level and in state legislatures. As Construction Citizen readers are well aware, worker misclassification happens when employers intentionally pretend they have people working for them as subcontractors when, by law, those very people should be classified as employees and compensated as such.It’s important to note that there are many legitimate uses of contract labor. The IRS has guidelines in place for who can and cannot be a subcontractor.Unscrupulous business owners who misclassify workers do it as an easy way to avoid hourly wages and benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. Business owners who follow the rules – and that means the letter of the law – are at a disadvantage because those who cheat the system can underbid ethical companies by as much as roughly 30 percent when competing for work.
February 16, 2016
The following article originally appeared in the February newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, LLC. Reprinted with permission.The increasing realization that talented people are truly the strategic separator for successful construction companies is significantly changing how HR initiatives are developed and executed. The leadership of this activity has moved to the executive suite (the C-Suite in magazine jargon), because a growing amount of resources are being strategically deployed to ensure the company is a winner in the escalating “war for talent.”It has been interesting to watch the change in this function over the years, and the respect it has steadily gained. It has moved from being the ancillary responsibility of the payroll clerk, who worried about paperwork, through the Personnel Manager phase, where the concerns were about process, to the Human Resource Director phase where policies became the concern.
February 15, 2016
