Related Links: Viewpoint: OSHA Crane Rules Must Change Crane Experts Challenge OSHA Rules In One Week, Crane Operators Receive A License to Learn Testing crane operators by the capacity and type of machine to be used—which is required under today's federal crane rules—provides meaningful qualification of an operator's skill set. Without that, certification lacks the teeth to take a bite out of accidents. This level of testing reduces risks and can be done economically.Some would argue that capacity is not a useful indicator of an operator's skill. However, the capacity designations used in Crane Institute Certification (CIC) tests are not
Related Links: Transport P3s Lessons Learned Special Report: Which Way the Winds are Blowing on P3s Public-private partnerships (P3s) have burst onto the scene in the U.S. as a solution to help meet the overwhelming need for public infrastructure and the underwhelming public resources to pay for it.P3s, of course, are hardly new. Private funding sources have been used for decades to develop major infrastructure and social assets in Europe, Asia and Latin America. In the last decade, P3s have become common in Canada, and they were utilized in the U.S. in the 1970s to develop post offices.In many cases,
Related Links: Read a Reply to This Commentary by a Top Construction Attorney A long time ago, when I was a young project manager, I had the temerity to complain that accountants were trying to run my job. As a professional engineer, I believed my technical education and abilities counted for more than theirs should on the construction site.However, I was confident that I knew how best to manage my own project and, therefore, had the confidence to proceed accordingly.WELLSBut things change, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Now, with the American construction industry being run by lawyers, today's
Since 2010, more than 30 municipalities nationwide have filed for bankruptcy. Many states have experienced budget crises that have slowed payments or shelved projects, and the U.S. faced an operational shutdown that threatened the federal government's ability to pay its contractual commitments.Meanwhile, bankruptcies of major public companies remain near an all-time high. In the traditional paradigm for construction, the project owner worries about failure or default of its general contractor.In today's construction market, the reality is that the general contractor must pay close attention to the owner's ability to pay, regardless of how stable the owner appears to be.Tools From
Reporter-videographer Tom Sawyer traveled by boat to the Inner Harbor Navigation Channel surge barrier wall to see the work of Traylor Bros. Project Manager Wayne Jones.
Related Links: Birdsall Furloughs 300; Eyes Possible Sale Secret Recording Behind the Criminal Case A big break in the state of New Jersey's case against Birdsall Services Group, the Eatontown-based engineering consultant, came when the ex-wife of the company's former marketing director wore a wire during a discussion about money. According to state police, Philip Angarone told his ex that his compensation seemed larger than it was because part of it had to be used for campaign donations to state elected officials.Angarone and one other marketing-department employee have pleaded guilty to breaking state ethics and campaign-donation laws in exchange for
ASCE Improving from a GPA of D to D+ seems like little to brag about, but against the vast scale of the nation's infrastructure, it is significant. Related Links: ASCE 2013 Report Card ASCE Report Card Shows Slight Improvement in Nation's Infrastructure Health Engineers are known for meticulous, methodical problem-solving, and this approach is paying off for the American Society of Civil Engineers. Launching its first report card on U.S. infrastructure in 1998, the society continues to issue new ratings in 16 infrastructure categories every four years, and it has been making significant improvements in the process. The newest report
Related Links: Clarity Needed on Individual Surety Assets Did Officers Divert Funds at Surety First Sealord? (subscribers only) Even if you are in the surety business, you may not have heard of the Safety Signs case. If you have, you probably hope it will be resolved soon and go away. The case involves a subcontractor, Safety Signs LLC, that made a claim under a payment bond the surety refused to pay. Under the technical details of Minnesota state law, the surety's refusal to pay was entirely legal.The American Subcontractors Association filed an amicus curiae brief in January urging the Supreme
Related Links: Homepage for the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee Highlights of the 2013 EJCDC model contract changes Model contract documents are a starting point for what construction project team members consider fair treatment, so the five-year updates to the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee family of model contracts are important. The EJCDC model contracts, which go on sale this month, contain significant modifications in the change-order and dispute-review process.These changes have the potential to head off the kinds of poisonous conflicts that ruin so many projects and threaten to bring losses and possible ruin to the companies involved.EJCDC model
Related Links: ENR's Individual Surety Special Report Editorial: Why Bond Assets Need Scrutiny ENR's recent special report on individual surety suggests that an overhaul of individual-surety asset rules is needed now more than ever. The Security in Bonding Act, which passed the House last year but died in the Senate, has been resubmitted to the House by Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), and Congress soon will have another chance to make certain that surety guarantees pledged on federal projects are backed by legitimate, easy-to-verify assets.The U.S. has seen enough mystifying complexity in securities in recent years to learn that, in financial
RSS
