(Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR) In South Central Los Angeles, an area long plagued by overcrowded schools, the offspring of a partnership between the district and a state-owned science museum is taking shape. The progeny of the collaboration will serve two needs, as a neighborhood elementary school with a math- and science-focused curriculum and as a resource center for educators and the local community. The goal is to "create a place where people could get very excited about science," says Dave Combs, California Science Center deputy director for education. The structure, now approaching completion near the museum in the
INSURANCE SQUEEZE Gilbert Rivera is paying more for less. These are unfamiliar times when it comes to buying insurance. Just ask Gilbert Rivera, the owner of AMG Waterproofing, a contractor who has been doing business in New York City for 23 years. He sends workers to the tops of the city’s ornate old buildings to seal and restore them. Two years ago, the tab for his insurance took off like a space probe and it shows no sign of returning to earth. He is paying much more for less coverage. Until 2001, Rivera paid about $300,000 in annual premiums for
Denver’s E-470 toll road is overcoming a tough beginning and now handles 75,000 vehicles a day. The first modern-era toll road, financed entirely by $20.6 million in bonds, opened in Maine in 1947. Revenue bonding allows the Turnpike Authority to pledge back the debt via toll revenue and through no other state assets. In the new century, states such as Texas are taking toll road trends to new levels. Variable priced lanes, increased private-sector involvement in both construction and operation and evolving high-speed, hands off toll collection systems will change the look and feel of future toll roads. Toll authorities
REACHING HIGH State Highway 130, well under way, is a critical test case for alternative delivery methods. True to its unofficial motto, "Don’t Mess With Texas," the Lone Star State willingly bucks convention. An ambitious highway plan, as maverick as the state itself, is proving this true. In a time when states struggle with budget deficits, the 65-mile, $3.6-billion Central Texas Turnpike Project could be a creative solution and a harbinger of future roads. The private-public design-build program, which consists of State Highways 130 and 45 North and Loop 1, represents a comprehensive development agreement enabled by state legislation approved
EFFICIENT Claretian homes exceed DOE energy ratings by 6%. The residential corridor between southeast Chicago and northwest Indiana once was a vibrant community whose inhabitants thrived under the success of the domestic steel industry and its plentiful job opportunities. Today, it is a patchwork of industrial wreckage, empty neighborhoods and forgotten spaces. But one local developer is attempting to transform the look of southeast Chicago and lure people back by replacing abandoned structures with new single- and two-family homes that environmental engineers are calling the most energy efficient and low cost in Illinois. The scenario is all too familiar in
QUICK PIX Any camera can track progress, but Kinder of HNTB (above) says digitals keep people in the loop inexpensively, and fast. A digital camera is a powerful construction tool. Being able to capture a meaningful image and e-mail it to colleagues is an ideal combination for project managers. It allows architects, engineers, contractors and owners to track operations together and respond to problems with expedience. It also makes them better communicators. In a business where time is so much a factor of profit, it is easy to understand why construction professionals, including military engineers, started to adopt digital photography
For design professionals, large salary increases came to a screeching halt in mid-2001, when the softening of the construction market became apparent. Design firms have kept their raises low, waiting for signs of a rebound. This year has been no exception. Firms are wary of big increases in healthcare costs and that means design firm managers have little expectation of big raises any time soon. A survey of design firm managers’ compensation published by ZweigWhite, a Natick, Mass.-based consulting and publishing firm focusing on the design industry, shows this trend. "Overall, there has been very little increase for most positions,"
No group in engineering and construction is probably more misunderstood, mistrusted and misused than executive recruiters. At best, they’re tolerated middlemen who deliver warm bodies for a fee. At worst, they’re unethical corporate raiders who can lay waste to an entire office or division. Neither stereotype is entirely true, but finding and keeping top executives has never been more critical than in this era of changing markets, tighter profits and stiffer competition. Business demands are changing human resources from company joke to valued part of the strategic team. And it’s pushing more corporate leaders to turn to search firms to
(Photo courtesy of Parsons Brinckerhoff) Economists are getting a jump on the 2004 New Year’s celebration. Most industry forecasts call for total construction volume next year to remain near record levels with a slightly different mix as the depressed industrial, office and commercial building markets begin to rebound just as moderately higher interest rates slow housing. Miraculously, these forecasts were followed by a long list of good statistics, not the least being announcements that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at an astounding annual rate of 7.2% in the third quarter. Manufacturing activity also hit a 20-year record and employment
A sharp increase in lumber prices at the end of the third quarter more than compensated for a collapse in the price of fabricated structural steel, boosting ENR’s indexes to their largest year-end increase since 1996. ENR’s Construction Cost Index ended the year with a 3.3% increase, just 0.2% shy of what was projected a year ago. The Building Cost Index increased 3.2% this year, 0.9% higher than ENR predicted. By December of next year, ENR forecasts a 3.4% increase in the CCI and a 3.0% increase in the BCI. This year, both indexes were powered by relatively large wage
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