With over $1 trillion of construction put in place in the U.S. last year and over $4 trillion worldwide, one would think that project delivery techniques would keep pace with technology, education and construction methods. Sadly, that usually is not the case and improper, inadequate or almost nonexistent project delivery methods waste many billions of dollars a year. Unless something goes radically wrong on a project, the amount of money wasted may never be known. An owner may know when it has the lowest bid, but that is only lowest among firms that choose to participate. Is there another firm
One of the long-standing goals of electronic communications is finally putting an end to the paper trail in almost all transactions. Once considered unimaginably distant, the goal now is within sight. It is achievable, practical and even supported by federal law—the Government Paperwork Elimination Act of 1998. It requires federal agencies to maintain records digitally and give people and companies the option of exchanging forms and submitting information electronically, when practicable, “as a substitution for paper.” For once, Congress was ahead of the learning curve. It specifically decreed that electronic records and signatures are to be given legal effect, and
As we learned from last year's Washington Group-Raytheon fiasco, accounting is an interpretive art, professional ethics are pliable and things aren't always as they seem. Bankruptcies are messy affairs where behind-the-scenes haggling and hardball practices produce plenty of winners and losers. The Enron scandal is a much bigger mess than either of Washington Group's bankruptcies or the IT Group's recent request for protection from its creditors. The Enron bankruptcy undermines confidence in our institutions at a time of war and economic peril, liquidates the retirement nest eggs of many former employees and knocks a hole in power development plans. Enron
There is nothing sexy about building codes. But codes are critical to the safety of structures and those who occupy them. So when the International Code Council announced the availability of its new performance code for buildings earlier this month, it was news of critical importance to the industry (ENR 1/21 p. 13). No less important will be the voting by the National Fire Protection Association, with its different but well-respected "consensus" process that encourages greater input from building product manufacturers, on a competing version in May. Unfortunately, frustrated bystanders such as the Building Owners and Managers Association International regard
Like alcoholics who have announced that they are going on the wagon, the World Bank couldn't resist sneaking one last nip of top-down dambuilding, while promising not to do it again. As a result, the upper Nile River will never be the same again, thanks to the 200-Mw Bujagali Dam in Uganda. In spring 1997, the World Bank and its frequent enemy, World Conservation Network, joined hands in an attempt to find a way through the conflict that has halted dam construction in many developed countries and has made it a hated symbol of technological imperialism in developing lands. They
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