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The American Subcontractors Association (ASA) held their Spring Business Forum and Convention in Las Vegas this past weekend. At the event, the ASA announced nine companies as...
Reshaping the Construction Industry
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According to the UK digital magazine Dezeen, Chinese contractors tried to cut costs in Shenzen, and that cost shaving has put 15 or so buildings, including the tallest building in...
March 22, 2013
Each year, architecture and design journal eVolo challenges designers to come up with creative ideas for building vertical living space. The entries are scored on their innovative use of current and future technologies which would provide living space which is both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable. The results often look like something dreamed up for a science fiction or fantasy movie.The results of the 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition have just been announced, with three named winners and 24 listed honorable mentions out of the 625 projects which were submitted from 83 countries across the world.The top three design winners as reported in their press release this week:“The first place was awarded to Derek Pirozzi from the United States, for his project "Polar Umbrella".
March 21, 2013
With the Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard requiring U.S. operators to be certified by November 2014, the Crane and Rigging Conference (CRC) and Industrial Crane and Hoist Conference (ICHC) will focus on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) crane operator certification requirements. The jointly held crane safety and management conferences will take place May 29-30 at the Indianapolis Marriott North in Indianapolis, IN.Sponsors include the Steel Erectors Association of America (SEAA), Construction Users Roundtable (CURT), Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA), Liebherr Group, Morrow Equipment Co, LLC, and event partner North American Crane Bureau Group (NACB).A recent press release from Maximum Capacity Media, the conference organizer, quoted Tom Underhill, Executive Director of the SEAA who stated:“Ongoing education is always important, but with OSHA’s November 10, 2014 deadline looming
March 20, 2013
After the recent American Subcontractors Association (ASA) panel on the origins and current status of the Construction Career Collaborative (C3) movement in the Houston region, Construction Citizen caught up with two of the panelists to get their reactions and any additional comments they might want to add to the conversation.Peter Dawson, Senior Vice President of Facilities Services at Texas Children’s Hospital, and John Roberts, Executive Vice President of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Project and Development Services Group, are newly elected to the C3 Board of Directors and have been strong advocates of C3 concepts such as paying construction workers by the hour as employees, paying appropriate taxes on the workforce and providing the construction workforce with the best safety training available.
March 19, 2013
Construction companies that get any government contracts in Texas may soon face penalties if they don't do a certain amount of safety training. Senator Bob Deuell, a Republican physician from Greenville, said his bill, SB 167, makes business sense as well as offers protections for workers."Other states and other places where they do that kind of training - they just cut down on their injuries. I don't think it's too cumbersome on businesses. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," he said. "The business community, I think, supports it. It costs them a lot more to deal with injuries than it costs to pay for training. There will be some people who don't like it but the data is there. If I were running a business I would just be doing it anyway."20 years ago, Senator Deuell helped shape a worker safety training plan for the Rubbermaid plant in Greenville, Texas. He said it was good for the workers and the company's bottom line. "Their workers' compensation claims just went down really, really low," he said.
March 18, 2013
PPI jumps in February; contractors are optimistic on hiring and activity, two surveys sayEditor’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.Click here to view February PPI table.The producer price index (PPI) for finished goods rose 0.8%, not seasonally adjusted (0.7%, seasonally adjusted), in February and 1.7% over 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday. The PPI for inputs to construction—a weighted average of the cost of all materials used in construction plus items consumed by contractors such as diesel fuel—increased 1.3% for the month and 2.0% year-over-year, outpacing the PPIs for most new nonresidential building construction and subcontractors’ work. The PPI for new offices was flat in February and rose just 1.0% over 12 months; new industrial buildings, 0% and 1.3%, respectively; schools, 0.3% and 1.2%; and warehouses, -0.3% and 2.6%. The new PPI for health care buildings, which dates only to June 2012, was unchanged in February. The PPI for new, repair and maintenance work on nonresidential buildings by electrical contractors fell 0.3 % in February and 0.4% over 12 months; the index for plumbing contractors fell 0.1% for the month but increased 1.6% from a year ago; the index for roofing contractors rose 0.1% and 2.2%, respectively; and concrete contractors, 0.5% and 1.2%
March 15, 2013
Earlier this year, I sat down with Gregg Reyes, President and CEO of Reytec Construction Resources, Inc., to learn about his company and how it grew from a two-person contracting company operating out of a private home to the go-to company for specialty concrete work which it has become today. Reytec is a provider of many types of concrete excavation and structural services, specializing in underground utility work, above ground paving and structures, and site preparation for both public and private projects.Reytec was started in 1997. At that time, Reytec was a general contracting company consisting of only Reyes and his wife, operating out of their home, and hiring subcontractors to help complete projects. While working on a restaurant project, Reyes met an older man who was running a concrete crew for one of the subcontractors Reyes had hired, and the two of them truly hit it off.
March 14, 2013
During September of 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger killed two bills aimed at penalizing employers who commit wage theft in California. However, he failed to win reelection, and after Governor Jerry Brown took over the post the following January, Brown went on to sign Assembly Bill 469, known as the Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011.California’s Wage Theft Protection Act (WTPA) has been in effect since January 2012. It added Section 2810.5 to the labor code which requires employers to provide new employees with specific information in writing at the time they are hired, including the legal name and address of the company who is hiring the new employee, the name and address of the company for whom the employee will perform work, the employee’s rate of pay, and the basis of wage payment
March 14, 2013
There's still plenty of work to do, but supporters of a crackdown on payroll fraud in Texas got a big boost yesterday when the Texas Association of Business (TAB) said it would not oppose the effort. Cathy DeWitt with TAB said in a House hearing that the powerful business group agrees with the concept, but they have some problems with the bill filed by Representative Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont.Among other things, DeWitt said the amount of fines for payroll fraud shouldn't be written into a new law, but instead the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) should use its rulemaking process and take complaints on a case-by-case basis. I spoke with Representative Deshotel after the hearing and he said he has a lot of work to do when it comes to coordinating with the TWC on this issue. "I will keep visiting with them. We have to deal with what we have. I've been working with TAB and you know the other people who testified, and I think it's an enforcement issue
March 13, 2013
