Andersen Flaps Inc. For fleet managers, coping with today’s diesel-fuel crisis often requires creative thinking—right down to the lowly mud flap. The drive for fuel efficiency drove Barry Andersen of Chattanooga, Tenn., a 25-year veteran truck driver, to bring his idea of a perforated flap to market. Heavy-duty trucking fleets are using Andersen’s aerodynamically designed EcoFlaps as they look for any extra edge to conserve fuel consumption. The flaps allow 75% of air to pass right through it, reducing wind drag. This can save about 3% per year in fuel. That is not bad for an accessory that will cost
Tudor Van Hampton / ENR Slammed by unprecedented price hikes, contractors and metals suppliers are calling the confluence of events spurring record-breaking reinforced bar and scrap metal price hikes this year a “perfect storm.” The combination of surging global demand for scrap metal, diminishing domestic supply and a weakening U.S. dollar has caused prices for rebar and scrap metal to soar by more than 50% since January, say contractors. Estimators on public and private projects across the nation are struggling to keep projects moving amid an average increase in rebar prices of $297 per ton since Jan. 1, according to
Both crude oil and steel prices surged to new record highs during the second quarter, giving inflation a major boost. However, the full impact on construction’s cost indexes, as well as the economy’s general inflation rate, are still to be felt. + click to enlarge “In the last three months we tracked a 22% increase in the cost of fabricated structural steel for buildings in the Mid-Atlantic region and about 13% in the rest of the country,” says Steven Plotner, a senior engineer with R.S. Means, Kingston, Mass. “But those increases won’t hit our index until the third quarter.” Plotner
Despite ongoing demand for talent in many construction sectors, the weak residential market and softening economy are contributing to some pullback in salary increases. For the first time since 2003, contractor management and staff salary hikes took a dip, dropping from 4.44% in 2006 to 4.33% in 2007, according to a survey by PAS, a Saline, Mich.-based construction compensation consulting firm. Contractors anticipate increases will drop to 4.08% this year, reports the survey. Jeffrey Robinson, president of PAS, sees a mixed outlook as some sectors remain hot, yet employers are being conservative. “Many firms are starting to pull back a
Venetians have waited for centuries for a solution to tidal flooding of their famous lagoon. Although visible elements of a $6.7-abillion barrier system are largely now in place, funding shortfalls may further test the patience of the island’s citizens as engineering officials warn of delay. + click to enlarge Venice Water Authority/Consorzio Venezia Nuova Venice Water Authority/Consorzio Venezia Nuova Venice Water Authority/Consorzio Venezia Nuova Work at Venice lagoon’s inlets includes marina to double as casting yard at Lido (middle) and Malamocco breakwater (above). The vast consortium with the turnkey responsibility for safeguarding Venice is now preparing to build caissons across
Guy Lawrence / ENR Construction and program management has never been so big as it is now. As projects get bigger, more complex, more demanding and the talent pool among owners dwindles, the need for professional construction-management skills has become intense. For ENR’s Top 100 Construction Management/Program Management Firms, 2007 was a watershed year. The Top 100 generated $12.07 billion in revenue from fee-based construction and program-management work, up an amazing 38.4% from 2006’s totals. The 2008 Top 100: Overview Design-Build Firms | Rankings CM-for-Fee Firms | Rankings CM-at-Risk Firms | Rankings Top 40 Program Managers Complete Report “It’s a
Guy Lawrence / ENR The market for firms providing construction management on an at-risk basis has been booming for several years. Owners increasingly are attracted to the idea that employing a construction-management firm does not mean they have to assume the burden of all the risk. For the ENR Top 100 Construction-Management-at-Risk Firms, 2007 was another big year. The Top 100 generated a total of $89.78 billion in revenue, up 21.2% from 2006. On the domestic side, the Top 100 had a combined revenue of $79.23 billion, up 17.0% over 2006, while revenue from projects outside the U.S. rose a
M.A. Mortenson Co Mort Mortenson and his 1987 Volvo are both icons at the Minneapolis firm M.A. “Mort” Mortenson Jr. says his favorite project in 48 years at the family construction firm was dismantling 300-plus Minuteman missile sites in South Dakota. But it’s probably a good thing the firm could not win more demolition jobs: Building things up has worked out much better for the 72-year-old entrepreneur and his Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Co., which he has led for almost four decades as chairman. One of construction’s most technically savvy and prolific design-builders, Mortenson faces the future—even an economically uncertain one—with
Guy Lawrence / ENR The U.S. construction industry has some of the best managers in the world. They must manage the creative process, owner demands, tight budgets, tough schedules, changing materials prices and site conditions, myriad subcontractors and suppliers, and even the weather, often on razor thin margins. Unlike much of American industry, every construction project is unique and the faces, personalities, and management styles of partners in the process change from job to job. The 2008 Top 100: Overview Design-Build Firms | Rankings CM-for-Fee Firms | Rankings CM-at-Risk Firms | Rankings Top 40 Program Managers Complete Report This wealth
. High-altitude roadbuilding requires number of adjustments for prep and paving. The Nevada Colque Cruz in the Peruvian Andes is breathtaking. The views of the glacier-clad summit are sublime, but more than 16,000 feet above the sea the scant oxygen in the frigid air means even small movements leave a person gasping. It is a brutal place to build a road. The work zone crosses about 35 miles of one of the highest reaches of the $1.3-billion InterOceanic Highway project now being built across Brazil and southern Peru. When completed in 2010, the highway will create a 3,100-mile paved connection
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