Many customers and industry colleagues already know me as vice president of McGraw-Hill Construction media sales and, previously, associate publisher of ENR during the past eight years. Now, as I take the helm at the publisher’s desk for ENR, it is a special honor, a responsibility and an opportunity all in one. Photo By Tom Sawyer For ENR Bonington pledges to carry on ENR’s tradition of excellence and leadership. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" It’s a special honor because many may not know that ENR is the founding brand of the McGraw-Hill Companies. With more than 135 years of
Almost every article or discussion dealing with the legal aspects of integrated-project-delivery contracts raises the notion that IPD contracts have not been tested in court and that this untested status elevates the legal risk to the IPD participants. While it is true that, as of this date, there is little, if any, case authority dealing with the legal merits of IPD contracts, that does not tell the whole story. HILGER The first challenge to this idea is determining whether IPD contracts really are new. Those of us who were around in the early 1980s will remember the “partnering” agreements that,
When delays are alleged in a construction dispute, those charged with resolving the dispute must look for the most credible way to identify and quantify the delays. As an industry, little has been done to formally define appropriate schedule analysis methodology. However, that is changing. MANGINELLI In 2007, the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineers International (AACEI) attempted to change the landscape with the publication of its Recommended Practice No. 29R-03, Forensic Schedule Analysis (FSA). While the FSA’s intent may have been noble, it has caused quite a stir among schedule analysts and the attorneys and clients who hire
In September, the Ohio Dept. of Transportation will award an estimated $450-million design-build contract to construct the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge in Cleveland. Three design-build teams will be waiting anxiously for the results to come in. For one team, it will be a major coup. The two other teams can console themselves with a sizable stipend for all their work drafting plans. Or maybe not. The Innerbelt Bridge is one of the first major design-build projects undertaken by ODOT. The three short-listed teams are composed of high-profile firms. The Federal Highway Administration estimated the total design costs for the project would
It is no secret that the design and construction industry is one of the most inefficient on the planet. A number of books have identified and documented the declining productivity of every hour and dollar invested in the building process. Architects, engineers, contractors and developers have been struggling for years in an environment so fragmented, no single player can have significant influence or initiate meaningful change. Architects are marginalized and commoditized, and contractors struggle with the same labor and process risk they have carried for centuries. Critical design information is withheld until the submittal process. No viable and practical risk
Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but I often am asked what I want to see come out of Washington, D.C. I have a simple answer to that question: Please do not make life any harder for me and my company. This is not whining. This is not a tone-deaf CEO asking for his life back. SIEGEL I love my job and my company and gladly put in every hour I work. However, whether well meaning or not, Washington impacts our lives and my company daily. This impact can be neutral, or it can make it harder or easier
In my mind, the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico—like other technological disasters, such as those involving the Three Mile Island nuclear powerplant and the space shuttle Challenger—represents a management failure, more so than an engineering failure. Anything implying that the engineering profession as a whole somehow bears the blame for these regrettable events puzzles me, including ENR’s editorial on the subject in its June 7, 2010, issue. To understand why, it is worth noting what some others have said about the nature of engineering practice and its place in our culture. Related Links: EDITORIAL: The Gulf Oil-Spill
The little-noticed passage by Congress of relief for multi-employer pension plans as well as President Obama’s signature on the bill on June 25 provide much-needed breathing room for these types of union pension funds. The bill, paired with measures related to Medicare benefits, allows the plans to amortize losses sustained in the stock-market downturn of 2008 over 30 years rather than the previous limit of 15 years. By allowing the longer period of amortization, Congress and the President temporarily remove the possibility that multi-employer plan assets will slip further behind their future liabilities and require even more drastic relief measures.
Electric cars and trucks are the signature of the green movement, but they may also become a symbol of economic recovery for the construction industry. Even if the recently reported disappointments with electric cars are true, such as maximum distances between recharges of only 100 miles and top driving speeds of only 60 to 70 mph, imagine theneed for the infrastructure to support our electric cars and the stimulating effects of creating it. SHORT Imagine just one part of our interstate highway system: Interstate 80, from New York to San Francisco (via Omaha, my hometown), is about 2,900 miles. A
The article “With Retainage Mandate Gone, A-Es Look Forward to Payday” seems to suggest that retainage on federal contracts is no longer an issue. While the new rule is a step in the right direction by making retainage “optional,” the fact is that federal contracting officers still may resort to this practice at whim. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" The rule states, “The contracting officer can withhold up to 10% of the payment due in any billing period, when the contracting officer determines that such a withholding is necessary to protect the Government’s interest.” We would like to see
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