Related Links: Immigration Bill Focus Shifts to House After Senate Vote Target vs. Walmart -- Which One Is a Better Place to Work? With worker pay and benefits under pressure—according to one analysis, the average earnings of a construction worker relative to other occupations has slipped significantly since 1990—it's understandable that the building trades unions would drive a hard bargain before giving their blessing to an immigration reform bill. The process is far from over, but Senate Democrats almost certainly consulted this important constituency while drafting the version of the immigration reform bill the Senate adopted. The House of Representatives
Related Links: Birdsall Furloughs 300; Eyes Possible Sale Secret Recording Behind the Criminal Case A big break in the state of New Jersey's case against Birdsall Services Group, the Eatontown-based engineering consultant, came when the ex-wife of the company's former marketing director wore a wire during a discussion about money. According to state police, Philip Angarone told his ex that his compensation seemed larger than it was because part of it had to be used for campaign donations to state elected officials.Angarone and one other marketing-department employee have pleaded guilty to breaking state ethics and campaign-donation laws in exchange for
ASCE Improving from a GPA of D to D+ seems like little to brag about, but against the vast scale of the nation's infrastructure, it is significant. Related Links: ASCE 2013 Report Card ASCE Report Card Shows Slight Improvement in Nation's Infrastructure Health Engineers are known for meticulous, methodical problem-solving, and this approach is paying off for the American Society of Civil Engineers. Launching its first report card on U.S. infrastructure in 1998, the society continues to issue new ratings in 16 infrastructure categories every four years, and it has been making significant improvements in the process. The newest report
Related Links: Clarity Needed on Individual Surety Assets Did Officers Divert Funds at Surety First Sealord? (subscribers only) Even if you are in the surety business, you may not have heard of the Safety Signs case. If you have, you probably hope it will be resolved soon and go away. The case involves a subcontractor, Safety Signs LLC, that made a claim under a payment bond the surety refused to pay. Under the technical details of Minnesota state law, the surety's refusal to pay was entirely legal.The American Subcontractors Association filed an amicus curiae brief in January urging the Supreme
Related Links: Homepage for the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee Highlights of the 2013 EJCDC model contract changes Model contract documents are a starting point for what construction project team members consider fair treatment, so the five-year updates to the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee family of model contracts are important. The EJCDC model contracts, which go on sale this month, contain significant modifications in the change-order and dispute-review process.These changes have the potential to head off the kinds of poisonous conflicts that ruin so many projects and threaten to bring losses and possible ruin to the companies involved.EJCDC model
Related Links: ENR's Individual Surety Special Report Editorial: Why Bond Assets Need Scrutiny ENR's recent special report on individual surety suggests that an overhaul of individual-surety asset rules is needed now more than ever. The Security in Bonding Act, which passed the House last year but died in the Senate, has been resubmitted to the House by Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), and Congress soon will have another chance to make certain that surety guarantees pledged on federal projects are backed by legitimate, easy-to-verify assets.The U.S. has seen enough mystifying complexity in securities in recent years to learn that, in financial
Photo By AP Wideworld Weak, underdesigned wood power-line poles are a common point of failure in extreme-weather events, such as Superstorm Sandy. The national election and the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy provide a double measure of poignancy to this week's issue—the fifth in ENR's critical-infrastructure series of special reports. This installment, planned months ago, focuses on the electrical grid. Although infrastructure had not been part of the political conversation prior to this storm of storms, we hope the disaster in the Northeast U.S. refocuses public concern.With its twin assault of wind and storm surge, a tempest of this size and
Related Links: Federal Government Bonding Basics: Individual Sureties Do federal contracting officers have the time and wherewithal to check the validity and worth of assets pledged by an individual surety to back a contractor? The National Association of Surety Bond Producers doesn't think so, and it has in the last year succeeded in winning passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of a bill that tightens up requirements so that individual sureties must back their guarantees witha Treasury bill or some other easily liquidated asset. Winning passage in the Senate will require more hard work and could make it harder
Related Links: A Critique of Romney's Transportation Record From Former Mass. Gov. Dukakis FactCheck: Romneys Clean-Energy Whoppers During the 90 minutes of the first 2012 presidential election debate, neither President Obama nor Gov. Romney managed even a brief mention of the "I-word": Infrastructure—roads and bridges and water systems—never came up. In their exchanges, the candidates almost completely sidestepped public works, treating the subject like a distant dream in our national consciousness. A more substantivedebate would have discussed infrastructure, prioritizing types of public works and proposing ideas on how to pay for them.To be fair, Obama has, in the past, put
Related Links: FIDIC Report Focuses on Obstacles to Sustainability FIDIC 2012 Video: Why Are You an Engineer? Corruption flourishes in the world of construction and international development, but there also are prolific efforts to stamp it out. This past year, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, or FIDIC, updated its anti-corruption measures for companies. In light of the problems involving overseas agents at engineer SNC-Lavalin, these measures are worth reviewing. Double-checking a firm's anti-corruption practices is a good idea any time, especially when it comes to agents who represent your company overseas.The corruption solution that FIDIC has championed since the
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