(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
SHORT The construction bidding process is in deep trouble. Just open your local newspaper or read ENR. Projects are coming in far over budget and owners can’t attract enough bidders to assure competitive prices. Worse, owners are incurring major cost overruns after starting projects. The root cause of these problems is that owners, architects and engineers are not using reliable means to obtain the correct project numbers in the first place. It appears that management edicts or wishful thinking are driving budgets instead of estimating professionals. Owners, such as the California Dept. of Transportation, that hope for multiple bids or
I was in Iraq for seven months from approximately May of 2004 until December 2004. While there I was the Director of Program Management for the reconstruction effort. I coordinated the efforts of six engineering firms and about 12 design-build contractors who were planning, designing and building about 2,500 projects. They were spread across many areas, including: electricity, oil, water, wastewater, hospitals, schools, roads and courthouses. While performing this task, I had the opportunity to work with many wonderful people from US and coalition military officers, U.S. ambassadors, Iraqi ministries, government officials, and engineers, and the Iraqi people. Keller, right,
LENNON Construction and demolition recycling is expanding rapidly as more architects and owners support sustainable building practices. Recycling is almost always a key element and more contractors are offering their own "green building" services while processors are recycling everything from wallboard to roofing and haulers are adding recycling as a new service. Haulers are a critical link. Contractors typically expect them to swap containers in and out on schedule and also advise on what wastes can be recycled and track where wastes go. Haulers are the source of documentation critical for reporting under the Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy
Florida’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed in 1980, killing 35 motorists. An Amtrak bridge in Alabama failed in 1993, resulting in 47 deaths. The Queen Isabelle Causeway in Texas collapsed in 2001, killing eight people. And the Interstate-40 Bridge in Oklahoma collapsed in 2002, resulting in 14 deaths. In all these seemingly unrelated disasters, ships or barges deviated from shipping channels, striking the bridge and causing the collapse. In the last 25 years, straying vessels caused five high-profile U.S. bridge collapses, causing 105 deaths. So what can engineers do? A recent study of collapsed bridges found that engineers designed piers adjacent
Thomas Ryan Tired of hearing about “paradigm shifts” from business gurus? So am I. So I’ll just call my idea for construction employers a suggestion. Instead of reducing costs by cutting employee benefits, how about looking to improve your management systems to increase profits? Here’s what I mean. The end of a year is the time when many companies look at health and fringe benefits. With the out-of-this-world cost of health insurance, many company owners and senior managers look at alternative providers of health insurance. Although it is good stewardship—a word that is incorporated into the name of our company—to
SCHULTE The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Oct. 26 released the final report on its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center. Having studied and written extensively on the collapse, I agree with Rep. Sherwood Boehlert�s (R-N.Y.) statements at the time that the NIST investigation goes �far beyond� the collapse of the towers as a result of terrorist attacks and that �the protection of life is the highest responsibility of public officials.� It is for these reasons that I am opposed to implementation of most of NIST�s 30 recommendations for improving the way high-rise buildings are
Delony Recent data suggest that half, if not more, of our nation’s historic spans have been lost in the last 22 years–two decades in which transportation and preservation awareness reached unprecedented levels. This is an alarming and sobering statistic. Bridge building paced the evolution of building technology but had a much more enduring impact on engineering, manufacturing and the settlement of the U.S. Surviving bridges are tangible evidence of this legacy but we are fast approaching the point of no return in saving some prime examples. On Aug. 10, 2005, President Bush signed the $286.4-billion transportation bill funding roads, bridges
FOX This is a "what if" story. What if engineers working in design or construction at home or abroad had whistles in their pockets and a hotline to call when they saw instances of corruption? What if members of a hundred engineering societies and construction organizations around the world were empowered by new codes of ethics to be whistleblowers? What if all those scores of engineering and construction-related organizations espoused zero tolerance for bribery, fraud and corruption in design and construction? And what if all their ethics codes required reporting violations? Might Transparency International then rate construction as the most
BRODERICK Moving toward year’s end, there is no better time to reflect on how physically demanding our business can be. The routine rigors on most jobsites can be daunting even for the youngest and fittest workers. But more of the bodies beneath those hardhats are getting older. And our industry’s overall approach to health and safety needs to get smarter. Despite efforts to draw younger recruits into the industry, the construction work force continues to age. There already were nearly 1 million construction workers aged 55 or older in 2001. Older workers mean greater national health problems because construction employs
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