C.J. Schexnayder/ENR Panama City, Panama – Benjamin Colamarco took over as head of Panama’s Ministry of Public Works one year ago at the request of President Martín Torrijos who is now in his second term of office. The 49-year-old economist previously served in both the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Housing. The Ministry of Public Works is responsible for Panama’s more than 17,000 kilometers of roadway. Less than half of this is paved. The ministry also oversees public investment in infrastructure works. These have become critical topics in recent years with the dramatic increase in construction. The country’s recent
Standford Linac Center Standford Linac Center Researchers at the Stanford Linear Accelerator have won four Nobel Prizes. Science’s most brilliant breakthroughs today happen on a scale so small that researchers can study them only with light wavelengths short enough to catch individual atoms in their beam. The international race to build light sources capable of such illumination has begun, and the Linear Accelerator Center operated by Stanford University is in position to reach the finish first. The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Menlo Park, Calif., has operated on the frontier of high-energy physics research since 1962. The linear accelerator, or
Van Cleave ENR.com Senior Business Editor Richard Korman recently spoke to Robert Van Cleave, CEO of Balfour Beatty Construction plc, formerly Centex Construction and recently acquired by England�s Balfour Beatty. The conversation focused on the acquisition and its significance, the company culture and competitors. Why did so many people, including ENR, mistakenly believe Centex Construction was being shopped to several potential buyers? Homebuilding skyrocketed and we became a smaller and smaller part of the aggregate Centex Corp. That’s why we were sensitive to the perception that we were on the shopping block. If customers think it’s true it could be
Illustration: Nancy Soulliard/ENR Contractors these days often proclaim that times have never been better, saying, “If you aren’t making money now, you shouldn’t be in the business.” Enjoy it while you can. Some of the corporations making money today won’t be in business 10 years from now, at least not in the same way, if recent history is a guide. Just in the last decade, the corporate collapses include Guy F. Atkinson Co. of California (1997), Encompass Services Corp. (2002), J.A. Jones Inc. (2002), Stone & Webster Inc. (2001) and Morrison Knudsen Corp. (twice, first in 1996, and the second
As a sweeper playing defense on North Carolina State University’s soccer team, Lewis E. “Ed” Link Jr. had a knack for pattern recognition and teamwork. “I could anticipate. I could see the pattern, the big picture, and go to where the ball was going to be,” he says. The National Soccer Coaches Association of America thought he had a special talent, too: It named him an All-American in 1967, his senior year. His success on the field, Link says, came from playing with the strengths he had, rather than from trying to shape his style after an inappropriate model—like some
The New York Times Co. has made it as clear as the ultra- transparent glass on Renzo Piano’s 52-story office tower for the media giant’s midtown Manhattan headquarters: An educated “consumer” can be heaven for the design team and just the opposite for the construction manager. The Times and its local development partner, Forest City Ratner Cos., gave the designers the coveted luxury of three years’ time to pore over the details of the high-profile project’s unusual components, from the light gray, horizontal filigree sunscreen that masks the 650,000-sq-ft facade to the outdoor-steel exoskeleton. Between October 2000, when the owner
FLACK + KURTZ The Times says its overarching goal for its space from the lobby to the 28th floor of its 52-story headquarters nearing completion was to create a better work environment for its employees. Toward that end, it approached the design of the office space the way its reporters would go at trying to write a Pulitzer Prize contender—it took its time and did a lot of research. “In the New York Times space, there was a tremendous amount of detailed analysis using tools to verify that this building envelope with this system was going to maintain the highest
John O’Holleran was at his desk when he got the call. The vice president of the Chicago office of American Consulting Engineers was told that one of his firm’s field surveyors had been the victim of a gruesome hit-and-run robbery. O’Holleran instructed the victim’s work partner to sit inside his truck and try to calm down while the paramedics did their job. Then, O’Holleran jumped into his car and headed down to the crime scene. A few moments earlier that day, on Oct. 18, 2006, Jim Polous, 42, had just finished eating lunch. He and his 25-year-old survey partner, Brian
Six years ago, a former paratrooper for the British Army landed in New York City with the idea to help construction equipment owners prevent jobsite theft and recover stolen machinery. His idea is now one of the leading tools police use to identify stolen equipment. David Shillingford, president of National Equipment Register, got the idea of building a central database of stolen equipment after working at The Art Loss Register, a U.K.-based firm that records stolen pieces of fine art and helps police identify them. “It was through our dialogue with insurance companies that it became apparent that there were
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