In its continuing quest to raise the profile and professionalism of construction management, the Construction Management Association of America has issued a well-crafted guide to this not-always-understood industry niche. It details how current and prospective practitioners can better serve owners as well as advance their own careers.Author John J. McKeon, a CMAA staff vice president, has laid out a detailed overview of the profession, from education and job requirements to global challenges and trends. He has canvassed the group's membership to include their explanations and anecdotes, punctuating and personalizing the narrative. Some are better than others, and voices of private-sector
According to authors Chuck Thomsen and Sid Sanders, "organizations with continuous building programs produce most of America's buildings," and "the construction industry has quietly and without fanfare changed from a project industry to a program industry." Thomsen and Sanders believe similarities within this process "offer extraordinary opportunities for continuous improvement that will shorten schedules, save money and improve quality."By analyzing projects in a program to identify similarities and choosing similarities that offer the greatest possibilities for standardization, the authors say program managers can stimulate improvements. They discuss project teams, collaboration and improved contract terms to align the interests of key
The membership of Allied Building Metal Industries Inc. were dismayed at the contents of your recent editorial "Making a City Safe for Cranes," in which you suggest that users should de-rate a crane's load chart so every lift in New York City defaults to a critical lift.Crawler cranes already have a standard 75% reduced chart; truck cranes are at 85%. A further reduction to 75% would limit the crawler capacity to 56%. There is already a built-in factor of safety in the manufacturer's approved charts. Cranes are typically load-tested to at least 130% of rated capacity. A further reduction to
All 50 states in the U.S. require registration of all professionals practicing engineering. The basic reason is to protect the public by enforcing standards that restrict practice to qualified individuals.
Related Links: Recycling Asphalt Rescues Roads The rate of evolution in highway products is very slow compared to electronic, medical or communication products. If you think back to the 1960s, roads today still have the same asphalt, concrete and signs.In fact, we are still designing pavements based on the American Association of State Highwa and Transportation Officials' road tests of the early 1960s. On the other hand, if you compare cars, computers, household products and medical facilities to those of the 1960s, you see a much greater change.I have always felt amazement at nature's brilliant selection process that advances the
Related Links: High Schoolers Are Engineering Early Birds ROSENBAUMIf you spent any time this year volunteering at a low-performing high school—thank you! As a math and engineering teacher in such a school, I know how disorienting the experience can be. Teenagers can be all gas pedal and no brake. That's especially true for my students, many of whom are from families in which neither parent finished high school. As disoriented as you may feel in a classroom in which most students score below or far below basic levels on state standardized tests—and too many still count on their fingers—you might consider
Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record The story "OSHA Points to Process Errors in Cincinnati Casino Collapse" contained errors. The photograph depicted another Horseshoe Casino, which collapsed last December in Cleveland. Also, Messer Construction Co. received its last OSHA violation in January 2006, not May 2006 as the article stated. The violation was to be deleted as part of an informal settlement but remains visible in OSHA's online database.
Related Links: Judge Acquits NYC Crane Owner Lawyers Trade Contradictory Facts as N.Y. Crane Collapse Criminal Trial Restarts The acquittal of crane owner James F. Lomma on criminal charges related to a 2008 crane collapse in New York City leaves the public's opinion of crane safety in the cramped, complicated city very much in doubt. Some owners and contractors have not shown they are capable of operating cranes safely without serious accident for a sustained period of time. The extreme density of Manhattan requires extra precautions.So far, neither criminal prosecutions nor financial liability by the crane owners and operators has
The long and sorry saga of litigation between Tampa Bay Water and HDR Engineering over needed repairs to the six-year-old C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir has taken yet another turn for the worse as TBW’s board apparently will insist on pursuing an appeal from the federal court that hosted the jury trial TBW lost earlier this month.
RSS
