The stately red-brick Emerson School, originally built in 1885 in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, was recently upgraded to incorporate state-of-the-art green building features and remodeled as the new home for eight nonprofits, including several organizations dedicated to historic preservation. Photo courtesy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation National Trust for Historic Preservation President Stephanie Meeks, center, holds the ceremonial ribbon-cutting scissors, to celebrate the grand opening with other nonprofit leaders whose organizations will be part of the new preservation and conservation hub at the former Emerson School in Denver. Built in 1885, the school was designed by Colorado’s first
he Colorado Dept. of Transportation has several projects completed, others already under way in southwest Colorado, and others getting started throughout the summer. A few of the projects are being continued from last season, and others include a final phase next season. “Altogether, we will have more than 110 miles of highway, bridges and intersections under construction, totaling nearly $80 million in project contracts—some spanning two seasons,” CDOT Region 5 Director Kerrie Neet said. “We have several projects that will improve or replace poor bridges and a few long-anticipated projects that will resurface vital stretches of highway.” Here is a list
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation, partnering with the Federal Highway Administration, says it will rework the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that outlines future improvements to the Interstate 70 East Corridor from Brighton Boulevard to Tower Road in Denver. Courtesy of CDOT An alternate plan for rebuilding I-70 East corridor in north Denver involves dropping the highway 30 ft below grade and putting a deck over a 200-ft section of it near Swansea Elementary School. After failing to gain support for an earlier proposed solution to build a larger viaduct in the same area, CDOT presented a new alternative to
If you don’t understand the definition of an “experience rating modification factor,” or e-mod, you are not alone. The e-mod is a critical part of many employers’ workers compensation insurance costs. While this article attempts to explain in simple terms how e-mods are determined, it does not include all the details that could affect your company’s individual e-mod. Many insurance carriers use basic business and industry classification codes developed by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). Under the system, each employee is assigned a class code based on job description and risk of injury. Many employers have multiple class
Construction employment fell in May by 28,000, the largest decline in two years, and is now at the lowest level since last August, according to an analysis of new federal data recently released by the Associated General Contractors of America. The drop in construction employment comes as new figures show a 1.4% decrease in public construction spending restrained overall construction activity growth to 0.3%. “With construction employment shrinking for the fourth month in a row, the industry is clearly having a difficult start to the year,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “In particular, cuts to public-sector investments in
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined slightly in April, fell further in May. The Index now stands at 64.9 (1985=100), down from 68.7 in April. The Expectations Index declined to 77.6 from 80.4, while the Present Situation Index decreased to 45.9 from 51.2 last month. Consumers’ appraisal of present-day conditions deteriorated in May. Those claiming business conditions are “bad” increased to 34.3% from 33.2%, while those saying business conditions are “good” decreased to 13.6% from 15.5%. Consumers’ appraisal of the job market was also less favorable. Those claiming jobs are “hard to get” increased to 41.0% from
A second school in the Green Schoolhouse Series of volunteer-built schools for low-income communities broke ground this morning in Phoenix. The new 6,000-sq-ft structure is being added to the existing Orangewood School campus near 19th and Glendale avenues, and will be built solely by volunteers with materials donated by a variety of industry companies. Related Links: Read about the first green schoolhouse here Designed to achieve LEED-Platinum certification upon completion, the new school for the Washington Elementary School District will be devoted to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, but will also be a teaching tool in itself to
New construction starts in April advanced 11% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $531.3 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos. The increase for April followed a 23% gain in March, as contracting soared well above its lackluster pace at the outset of 2012. Much of the lift in March came from work at a nuclear power facility in Georgia, and a similar lift was provided in April by work at a nuclear power facility in South Carolina.Aside from the strength shown by electric utilities, April drew support from an improved amount of public works
Construction employment remained on a seesaw in April as only 19 states added jobs, 28 states and the District of Columbia had declines and three states maintained March employment levels, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of Labor Department data. The year-over-year figures showed a similar but slightly better pattern, association officials added, as 22 states and D.C. posted construction employment increases between April 2011 and 2012 while 27 lost jobs and employment was unchanged in Rhode Island.“The close balance between job gainers and losers among states reflects the sluggish growth in construction nationally,” said
The excuses. I have heard them all by now: “You’ve got to have good people to have a good team” or “You can’t have a high performance team on a public, low-bid project” or “There has to be sufficient resources and funding.” Consider that great or world-class project teamwork has little to do with your project’s circumstances. Rather, it is about how your team deals with those circumstances—as a team.On Caltrans and Kiewit-Pacific’s $700-million Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the geotechnical conditions found were at variance with the geo-tech report. This led to an enormous change order that delayed the project for well