It was a tough decision but when the dust settled and the hammering stopped, the Army Corps of Engineers was selected 2010 Owner of the Year by editors and contributors of California Construction Magazine. Folsom Dam’s auxiliary spillway project is the recipient of nearly $1 billion in federal funds Equipment at the Folsom Lake project site div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" “Winning this award is great and not because the corps is a winner, but because the taxpayer is the winner.” says Dr. Christine Altendorf, director of programs for South Pacific Division of Army Corps of Engineers. USACE/South Pacific

Workers are closing in on completing five major school projects across Los Angeles. The work is part of Los Angeles Unified School District’s $20-billion school construction and modernization bond program, a herculean effort in which district officials seek to remedy three decades of under-construction by building 131 new schools and completing 20,000 modernization projects by 2012. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" “During those 30 years, the population of L.A. grew – some areas faster than others,” says Neil Gamble, director of facilities construction for LAUSD. “To handle school overcrowding, we implemented forced busing, sending students from overburdened schools to

The biggest beneficiary of the largest federal stimulus project by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior is a fish. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Two fish, actually – green sturgeon and Chinook salmon, the migratory habits of which are at the center of a $230-million Fish Passage Improvement Project at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Red Bluff, south of Redding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruled last year that the dam’s gates threaten the long-term survival of the fish, and so the government is shelling out more than a quarter-billion dollars to lend the creatures’ spawning rituals

As the recession slogs along, attorneys specializing in construction law continue to see problems in the building industry that go with lean times: payment disputes dissolving into stop orders and mechanic�s liens, squabbles over competitive bids and desperate contractors chasing jobs into unfamiliar territory. It�s all provided no end of work for construction lawyers, who first strive to keep their clients from wading unaware into potential legal quagmires and then fight to pull them out of the muck when they do. VAN DUZER �A lot of these issues are still playing themselves out in the market, but we�re seeing more

Teichert, the Sacramento-based construction, materials, equipment and development company, has been named California Construction�s 2010 Contractor of the Year for its commitment to safety and giving back while working to improve California�s vital infrastructure. Teichert worked on the Yocha Dehe Golf Club project at Cache Creek Resort in Brooks. Teichert has been contracted by Caltrans on a number of I-80 projects. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" �I am honored,� says Jud Riggs, Teichert president, chairman and CEO. Robert Carlsen, managing editor of California Construction, says: �McGraw-Hill Construction�s Regional Publications� Contractor of the Year recognition is our way of honoring

It�s Thursday afternoon. The coffee needs warming; documents, drawings and text books are piled around the office; sticky notes surround the computer; and Gary R. Searer is at his desk studying five unique projects. Gary Searer inspects a building as part of his job as a structural engineer for Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates. Searer sorts through yet another assignment at his desk in Burbank. �This is a typical day for me,� says Searer, a structural engineer at the Burbank branch of Wiss, Janey, Elstner Associates, Inc. �I don�t just have one big project that I am working on. I am

Jim LaMantia, who describes himself as a former �hothead,� now works to keep the peace on construction sites throughout St. Louis as the executive director of PRIDE of St. Louis Inc., a group representing owners, contractors and the building trades. When LaMantia started in the construction industry in 1968 as an ironworker he says there was a lot of hostility between the unions and management and also between the diff erent unions. �There were jurisdictional fi ghts everywhere,� LaMantia says.PRIDE, founded in 1972 as what is thought to be the first labor-management group in the country, stands for Productivity and

Numerous big highway projects around the state are helping to keep things moving as the construction industry continues to dig out of the recession. And while most of these projects are being funded by traditional tax and bond measures, many are being infused with funds from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. �The impact of the stimulus has been huge,� says Earl Seaverg, Caltrans program manager for the recovery act. �It�s been able to help us fund and move stalled projects to construction that would have otherwise remained on the shelf due to the downturn in the economy.� Caltrans

John Wayne Airport�s massive improvement project � a $543-million effort representing one of the largest public works programs in Orange County history -- is scheduled for completion by December 2011. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. is overseeing all three elements of the project, including construction of a 282,000-sq-ft, three-level terminal (Terminal C); construction of a 725,000-sq-ft replacement parking structure (Parking Structure C); and a 14,600-sq-ft central utility plant. The first significant improvement project at the airport in 20 years will help the airport handle a scheduled passenger increase from its present 9 million annually to 10.8

For Southern California drivers wondering what’s up with the worse-than-usual congestion on the San Bernardino (Interstate 10) Freeway, here’s a bit of good news: It could be a lot worse. Work on the I-10 , one of the several high-profile freeway projects under way in Southern California, began early last year and will be complete in spring 2011. The project includes the complete resurfacing of the I-10, in both directions, between the I-5 and I-605. Yes, the California Department of Transportation’s $165 million I-10/San Bernardino Freeway Restoration project involves dozens of lane and ramp closures on the stretch of road