Related Links: McGraw-Hill Research and Analytics: 2013 Dodge Construction Outlook ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index survey (2Q 2012) The construction industry next year will continue its slow climb out of a long and deep recession, but the recovery is unsteady and remains vulnerable to factors such as the cloudy federal fiscal picture, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2013 forecast, which was released at its annual Outlook conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24.Total construction starts will rise 6% next year to $483.7 billion, as a continuing rebound in housing and private nonresidential building outweighs weakness in institutional building and public works
North Carolina Division of Coastal Management Bulkheads, similar to this soundly constructed one shown by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, proved to be a costly problem to Intercoastal Contracting. Related Links: NCDOT Announces Suspension of Bridge Work News Story on Intercoastal's Bankruptcy Filing Bankruptcy and the Completing Surety A North Carolina contractor lost a big lawsuit, ran into financial trouble and then stonewalled surety Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. for a short while before filing for protection from its creditors in U.S. bankruptcy court.That is the picture that emerges of Intercoastal Contracting Inc., a Castle Hayne, N.C.-based heavy construction
Related Links: Trainor Glass Default Raises Questions About Subs' Vulnerability The fallout continues from the failure of Trainor Glass, which filed for protection from its creditors in March and has affected operations of several firms. The newest development concerns a hospital in Peridot, Ariz.Recently, General Contractor McCarthy Building Cos. and Trainor’s surety, Westchester Fire Insurance Co., filed a joint motion requesting a federal bankruptcy court judge in Chicago to lift an automatic stay on the bankruptcy filing. The court granted the order on July 20, allowing the surety to complete Trainor’s glass and glazing contract on the 184,000 square foot
Courtesy of McDonough Associates High road? Engineer was owed for work on this Illinois project. Related Links: Chicago Tribune Op-Ed on IDOT Suspension of McDonough Associates The Illinois Dept. of Transportation is at war with one of Chicago’s most important engineering consulting practices over billings and payments.A federal judge in late June ordered IDOT to pay Chicago-based designer McDonough Associates almost $2 million that the DOT had withheld from the company for work on three projects. IDOT had stopped paying and suspended the engineering firm for three years because of what IDOT claims were years of overbilling.IDOT started turning over
Related Links: The Menomonee Falls Patch dedicated coverage page for the dispute The Menomonee Falls Radisson on Facebook Barry Bloom, owner of Assured Power in Milwaukee, Wis., knew something was wrong last year in the late stages of a renovation project to create a new Radisson hotel in nearby Menomonee Falls.Four months after the soft opening, the general contractor filed a $2.8-million lien on behalf of the subcontractors. The hotel’s owners insisted that funds were still available to pay all of the subcontractors, but Bloom says he never received the last of his draws after work was done.Bloom decided to
Photo courtesy of Construction Financial Management Association Economist Anirban Basu told the Construction Financial Management Association that Europe's financial turmoil will likely hamper the U.S. economy into 2013. Related Links: Deal Reached on Long-Term Transportation Bill Survived the Recession? Beware Recovery Risks Economic headwinds resulting from the ongoing financial crisis in Europe will remain one of the major factors buffeting the U.S. construction economy through the rest of the year and into 2013, economist Anirban Basu told an annual gathering of the Construction Financial Management Association in Orlando in late June.The industry economist admitted that his projection that Europe's economy
Rendering courtesy of SSE Alleged defects in turbine foundations as well as the impacts of the cost and schedule of repair work are the focus of competing claims by the owner and contractor Fluor Corp. on the Greater Gabbard wind project. EC Harris, which produced the disputes report, has no connection to the project. Related Links: EC Harris homepage Global Construction Disputes Report Ill Winds Blow Through Huge U.K. Wind Farm Project A new study suggests that the global construction industry is seeing longer disputes that involve smaller monetary stakes than in 2010, and that an improving business climate in
If you’re blaming all the contractor and subcontractor defaults lately on the recession and how thin times lead to management mistakes, such as chasing unprofitable work, here’s yet another concern. Business in some sectors is picking up enough or may pick up soon and could create perils from recovery risk.Contractors face recovery risk on the back end of a recession when they take on too much work after they’ve depleted their staff and cash resources during hard times and don’t have enough resources to finish projects. It’s a little bit like a starving man suddenly finding too much food and
Courtesy of the University of California at Santa Barbara Ocean Sciences building is running late, says the University of California at Santa Barbara. Related Links: Melchiori Terminated from University of California, Santa Barbara, Project as General Contractor The University of California at Santa Barbara last month terminated Melchiori Construction Co., a firm that says it was the area's biggest general contractor and construction manager, from a $6.5-million building project.Because the project, started in March 2010, remains unfinished and "the contractor is many months behind schedule," the university state that it has also "made demand" of Western Surety Co., a Woodland
istockphoto Can combined general contractor-subcontractor default insurance fill a need? Related Links: XL Website XL Announces CapAssure XL Insurance is seeking its first customer for a new product, introduced in March, that combines contractor and subcontractor default insurance for private construction projects.Called CapAssure, the subcontractor default insurance part will work the same way as Subguard, the product launched 16 years ago by insurer Zurich North America that currently has virtually all of the subcontractor default insurance market.Subguard is used to cover about $35 billion worth of subcontracting work each year, according to Nils Sorenson, Zurich's Subguard product manager.CapAssure, in contrast,