The year ahead is shrouded in an economic fog that fills many in the industry with dread. Markets are tumbling, and no one knows where the bottom of the abyss lies. The usual reaction of many firms to the periodic downturns that plague construction is to cut training programs and shed employees—the craft, professional and support people that make construction possible. This has proven shortsighted in the past. It has been only a few months since many companies were complaining about labor shortages and doing almost anything to attract, train and retain the best talent. Those that succumb to the
The collapsing commodity prices across the globe after an explosive increase to record levels shows how closely linked all national economies are to events that happen outside the home countries. It also highlights the increasing economic pressure on individual countries and companies to join cartels to manipulate through antitrust behavior the prices of commodities and services in which they have a production advantage. The best known of these cartels is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves, 40% of global oil production and 70% of all oil traded internationally. OPEC
The vast piles of dollars proposed, pending and spent to stimulate the U.S. economy must be used as an investment in the future of America and not just to bail out companies that have failed to live up to their promises to investors and customers. One of the major flaws in all the discussions of how to do this is the lack of detail regarding the benefits infrastructure investments receive from economic multiplier effects. These benefits include not just the jobs created immediately and directly by the construction but also the indirect and induced benefits in other parts of the
Voters are fed up with highly volatile and sometimes confiscatory fuel prices for their vehicles and tired of being treated like cattle at airports. They finally are waking up to the benefits of mass transit, especially high-speed rail. That growing support was underscored in November when voters approved a number of multibillion-dollar state and local transportation bond issues. But that patchwork quilt raises the question again, Why is there is no coordinated national rail program? The time is now, say many experts, and the flood of economic stimulus packages can provide the pacemaker to revive serious rail in America. Related
The current economic crisis and the attempts to bail out an ever-widening circle of companies has many turning to review the perhaps forgotten lessons of the Great Depression. Some of the parallels are clear and some things are different. Today, there are a greater number of tools available to regulators and a greater willingness to use them, but the question becomes when enough is enough and how the U.S. should deploy its assets. At the time of the stock-market crash in October 1929, brokerage firms would lend investors $9 for every $1 invested. The market was on a winning streak
In the mad (probably insane) federal government scramble to bail out all sorts of companies that have run into financial trouble because of their self-inflicted management failures, few people in the lame-duck Bush administration and Congress are talking about doing away with one of the most unfair and egregious taxes: The federal estate tax, also known as the death tax, affects construction intensely because it often causes the liquidation of family-owned businesses or, at the very least, diversion of company resources from support of a sound business plan to asset preservation when the owner dies. Guy Lawrence for ENR Congress
Construction cranes are dangerous machines, but the people supervising, operating, erecting, dismantling and signaling them can be just as treacherous. The accident record proves it. Just about every week in the U.S., somebody dies from a crane accident. Nearly half of those fatalities are construction workers, and civilians are just as much at risk. Poor communication is at the heart of the problem. One of the reasons for vocal hangups among crane personnel is the lack of standards addressing communication around these machines. Until recently, industry standards offered little or no guidance on how spotters should give directions to crane
Christopher Columbus and many of the early explorers of the New World had it all wrong: The world actually is flat, and it is becoming flatter as new information technology, project delivery systems and global business practices increasingly even out the playing field for hungry competitors in the engineering and construction marketplace. Some large U.S. companies with a long history of dominance in the global E&C market will be hard-pressed to stave off a flood of new competitors from China and the developing world. The Chinese firms, in particular, are hungry and coming on fast, using every toehold and connection
Long before McDonald's launched into the fast food industry, another burger chain was serving up some home-grown innovation. As loyal White Castle fans know, it patented the five-hole "Slyder," which channels steam up through a ground-beef patty to heat the burger and bun with- out flipping. The design created a unique flavor that had economic benefits—faster cooking times meant more sales per hour. Today, the construction industry is cooking up its own innovative products by tapping into an ever-growing supply of dazzling new building materials and systems. Designers, who now are more sensitive to environmental causes, want to create buildings
A condominium developer in California brags about a 30-in.-thick concrete core with double-helix-style stairwells that "enhance" safety. At about the same time, structural engineers testify at an International Code Council hearing that a proposed commercial building code to harden stairwells should be thrown out because, among other reasons, it is not based on any demonstrated "significant" risk to a building. Simply put, where's the projectile? The proposal is vetoed. At the same hearings, a proposal to add disproportionate-collapse resistance to commercial building codes is rejected. Engineers, vehemently opposed to the change, rejoice. But then they promise to come back with
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