Tudor Hampton/ENR Tudor Hampton/ENR HUSS exhibited diesel filter retrofits at Bauma (above). International has been showing off a new hybrid diesel utility truck (below). When the Associated General Contractors of America held its annual conference in March in San Antonio, members who arrived early at the convention center may have noticed people cruising around the block in fuel-cell cars provided by the National Hydrogen Association, which also was meeting there. So far, hydrogen may be too expensive and cumbersome to fly, but the future of internal combustion is no less a hot-button issue as concerns over greenhouse gas, energy security
The demand for management talent among contractors is nearly universal. Turnover rates are rising as contractors rob people from one another. That is forcing contractors to pay higher salaries and also sell themselves to candidates as well as existing staff. Contractors anticipate giving average salary increases of 4.17% for staff in 2007, according to a survey by PAS Inc., a Saline, Mich.-based compensation consulting firm. “But operations and technical support staff, like superintendents, estimators and schedulers, can expect almost double the average,” says Jeffrey M. Robinson, president of PAS. This is causing salary compression, where senior operational staff salaries are
Guy Lawrence/ENR More workers are using hoists for speed and safety. The strength of overall construction activity and a shortage of skilled labor is playing in the favor of many unions when they step up to the bargaining table these days. Some unions are recording record increases in wage and fringe packages as they nail down agreements. The impact became clear last year when wages and fringes jumped significantly. According to the Construction Labor Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2006 labor agreements tallied average increases of 4.5% for the first year, up from 3.9% in 2005. That is the highest percentage
For construction management firms delivering construction management and program management services on a fee-only basis, it’s the best of times and it’s the worst of times. At a time when CM-for-fee as a discrete project delivery approach is struggling despite a torrid market, program management is on fire. ENR’s Top 100 CM/PM Firms generated $8.72 billion in fees in 2006, up a strong 18.1% from 2005’s number. But this hides the real story. CM-for-fee revenue in 2006 was $3.87 billion for the group, up only 1.3% from $3.83 billion in 2005. But PM fees for the Top 100 skyrocketed to
For firms delivering construction management on an at-risk basis, this seems to be the best of times. “In our markets, construction managers are turning down more work than they say yes to, and the specter of owners chasing contractors gives one pause,” says Bart Eberwein, vice president of marketing at Hoffman Construction Co. This opinion is borne out in the combined revenue figures for ENR’s Top 100 CM-at-risk firms. Total CM-at-risk revenue for the group rose in 2006 to $74.10 billion, up 17.4% from $63.10 billion in 2005. But even more surprisingly, although international CM-at-risk revenue actually fell 6.3% from
David Richter is key half of top management team along with his father Irvin E. Richter in boosting Hill into a project management/claims megafirm altering landscapes around the world.
The construction industry is always looking for a better mousetrap. For much of the past 20 years, that better mousetrap has come in the form of variations on project delivery. Concepts like construction management, program management and design-build have risen or been popularized as panaceas, or at least better than the traditional design-bid-build approach that dominated American project delivery for decades. But owners increasing demands on their project teams and the growing interest in integrated modeling and green building have elevated these alternatives to the point where they have begun to eclipse design-bid-build. Some say they should no longer be
Photo: Photo caption In the continuing search for the most efficient way to deliver a project, design-build continues to be the process of choice for many owners. This interest in an integrated approach to project delivery has only been enhanced by the blossoming of such collaborative tools as 3D and 4D modeling and building information modeling software. The big increase in the combined revenue of ENR’s Top 100 Design-Build Firms indicates the move away from design-bid-build to design-build. As a group, the Top 100 garnered $68.82 billion in revenue in 2006, up 21.7% from 2005’s mark of $56.54 billion. Domestically,
Aviation Capital Management New terminal is surrounded by apron, parking lot, tower and runways. Construction crews working in the crossroads of America have had to juggle a tricky steel-and-glass airport terminal sited in the middle of a two-mile-long, one-mile-wide airfield site that promises to dress up the city into a world-class aviation hub. The program, which is slated to open at the end of next year, also would bring air travelers closer to planes and save airline operators millions of dollars a year on fuel wasted as planes taxi to and from the airport’s existing, 50-year-old terminal. In addition to
At opposite ends of South Korea, two monumental bridges are emerging from the mainland. Both are technically daring, but the 12.3-kilometer-long Inchon Bridge is breaking new ground in Korea by using foreign leadership and excluding contractors from its investors. The Inchon Bridge linking the mainland to Yeongjong Island and Seoul's international airport, and the 8.2-km-long Busan-Geoje crossing, on the southeast coast, together cost some $2.5 billion. Both are long sea crossings incorporating major cable-stayed spans. Related Links: Primarily Precast: A Fixed Link Sinks Deep and Soars High Over Choppy Sea Slideshows: Busan Bridge Inchon Bridge Traversing one large body of
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