Front-end loaders on U.S. side reinforced stressed levees. (Photo courtesy of Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times) The summer's disastrous flooding in West Texas raised serious questions about whether traditional flood control systems are still viable. El Paso's rapid recent growth in private and public construction has been spurred in large part by expansions at the U.S. Army's nearby base at Ft. Bliss. This in turn put added strain on the city’s infrastructure and sparked debates about issues such as whether the city can handle the additional stress on its water, roads and other infrastructure and whether development on the city’s arroyos
The "Spanish Imposition" Hits San Diego The immigration issue in the construction industry in San Diego is something that is on the minds of everyone that is in the construction industry. This is also true in Los Angeles as well and many other parts of the country. . THOMAS Union Ironworkers have about 35% to 40% Hispanics working in our trade today. Union Ironworkers have a pretty decent market share of union construction in San Diego. However, we do not control the housing, tilt-up, and metal building markets in the San Diego area. The union ironworkers are doing around 95%
You ask about jobsite quality of life and comforts for workers, and whether those words mean much to an ironworker and ironworker superintendent like me. After all my years in the field, I want to say that pride and safety matter as much or more than comfort. Patchin Part of the comfort of the job is having clean toilets and wash stations and access to good drinking water. Something other than the hose at the gas station you drove past to get to the job. Part of comfort is knowing that the excavation you are going to go into is
Patchin Here’s something that doesn’t happen very often to an old ironworker (or any ironworker for that matter). I live and work in the San Francisco area and recently I was at Laguna Honda Hospital and the contractor, Turner, was letting Timberland , the shoe and clothing company, do a photo shoot for their new line of boots. One of the assistant superintendents for Turner, a guy named Cory, asked me if he could borrow some tools and a couple of dirty and worn-looking vests for their models to look authentic. So I gave them my tools and some stinky old
McLaren The water quality in major U.S. harbors has improved drastically over the last 15 years thanks primarily to the strict standards established by the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. An unfortunate by-product of that effort, however, is the resurgence of micro-organisms that feed upon submerged wood, commonly called marine borers. These creatures have caused the collapse of dozens of piers in New York Harbor, as well as marine structures on other waterfronts. Two types of marine borers are responsible for most damage. Limnoria are shrimp-like crustaceans that swarm around piles of wood and eat it from the outside,
BRUCKNER Gary Tulacz’s article, “Worrying about Labor Shortages,” in ENR’s Top Owners Sourcebook 2005, reflects the deep misgivings of leading owners regarding the current and future labor shortages in construction. Quite accurately Tulacz stated that “if there is a universal concern among large corporate owners, it is whether there will be enough people available to do the work on future projects.” And the same concern is voiced by major contractors and builders in the U.S. I recently spoke with many heads of construction management departments at U.S. schools. They all had the same plea: “Help us attract new talent to
Art Fox The world’s best-known mining engineer must be spinning in his grave as the keeper of a gold medal in his honor–the Hoover Medal Board of Award–goes year after year tangled in procedural underwear (and maybe inter-association conflict), failing to give the medal. The board has been unable to award one of the engineering profession’s highest honors in three of the past seven years. And now it has put aside yet another time a deserving candidate for the medal, deciding to make no award in 2006. I find this particularly offensive. I am the nominator of the candidate who
Who is the top engineer of all of New York City? The answer is no one. What single, high-level licensed design professional consistently has Mayor Michael Bloomberg�s ear on schools, roads and water supply. Again, that person doesn�t exist. RICHARD KORMAN Salvatore Galletta wants New York City to hire someone to do that job from an office in City Hall. Galletta is a short, amiable man with a mustache and he is also an engineer in the engineering audit office of New York City�s Department of Transportation. He is an active member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and
WIBLE Effective building codes and their efficient enforcement are vital to the safety of our citizens and the economic vitality of our communities. This has been amply illustrated by the U.S. Geological Survey report “Managing Risk in Earthquake Country,” marking the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, and by the April 27 follow-up session from the March 1-2, 2006 Blue Cascades III seismic disaster exercise in Bellevue, Wash. There is growing documentation of the urgent need to identify and eliminate administrative inefficiencies in the regulation of the design and construction of buildings. Lessons learned from hurricanes Katrina
(Photo courtesy of FEMA) More than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated communities all along the Florida to Louisiana Gulf Coast and overwhelmed the hurricane protection system and levees of New Orleans, many residents of that city are still wary of rebuilding their homes, business and lives. They want to know what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing to restore and improve the hurricane protection system. Many also want to know why they should again put their faith in the Corps to protect them from future storms. Speaking for the Corps, I can say we will do absolutely
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