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Some time ago, a colleague called to get my opinion on the use of TV cameras for underground inspection of drilled shafts.  His query related specifically to relatively tight working areas and “in the dry” conditions. After pressing him to elaborate further on the context of his question, I discovered that he was weighing the benefits of TV inspection versus human entry into the drilled shaft excavation site.  Photo: Raito Inc Going the distance with In-hole inspections This conversation is indicative of a larger movement that has been afoot for the past few years that seeks to discourage - or

In the mad (probably insane) federal government scramble to bail out all sorts of companies that have run into financial trouble because of their self-inflicted management failures, few people in the lame-duck Bush administration and Congress are talking about doing away with one of the most unfair and egregious taxes: The federal estate tax, also known as the death tax, affects construction intensely because it often causes the liquidation of family-owned businesses or, at the very least, diversion of company resources from support of a sound business plan to asset preservation when the owner dies. Guy Lawrence for ENR Congress

Some economists have argued a second round of economic stimulus spending should focus on public works projects.�However, others have suggested that it would take too long for the projects to actually begin for them to provide the quick increase in hiring and spending that is required for a speedy recovery. The naysayers have a point if we’re talking about conventional projects, but I believe that’s not the case if we begin to apply a variety of Web 2.0 technologies that have become pervasive in other industries but have not been widely adopted in the public works field. It’s time for

Justin Sweet Recently I saw a blurb for a text that promises to pilot readers through the muddy shoals of mechanics’ lien laws. This exercise in puffery brought me back to my hostility to mechanics’ liens, those useless appendages to an already overcomplicated construction law. I vented my aggression on these worthless, even dangerous, legislatively created creatures in a column I wrote for the Construction Lawyer, an American Bar Association journal. I thought that my attack on this sacred cow would bring a torrent of abuse. I expected bruising phone calls and e-mails or shrill calls for my removal from

Truss Design at Issue I am writing to respond to the article about the Nevada Dept. of Transportation award of the contract to finish the Galena Creek Bridge, part of the Interstate 580 freeway extension between Reno and Carson City, Nevada. Edward Kraemer and Sons Inc. was the contractor on the original contract to build the bridge. In early 2005, Kraemer notified NDOT of what we believed to be significant problems with wind loadings used to design the steel pilot truss. EKS believed the truss, as designed by NDOT, was likely to fail during erection under certain predictable wind conditions

One day recently someone asked me, "Do you agree that the quality of engineering design has fallen over the past years?" My answer was yes, the quality of some engineering design has in fact declined as the profession of engineering has given way to the business of engineering. Plotnick To find out what to do about it, we have to look at why it happened. I talked to some friends about the causes. The key event that has led to this decline was the unfortunate acquiescence of the National Society of Professional Engineers to the antitrust claim by the U.S.

Following the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers established the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force to determine why the hurricane protection system in New Orleans failed. The task force consisted of over 300 experts from 25 universities, 23 firms and eight government agencies. Unparalleled in scope and depth of analysis, its findings tell only a part of the story. Tom Sawyer/ENR Katrina generated the largest storm surge to hit North America. Coupled with long-period waves, it overtopped and overwhelmed many hurricane protection structures. Much of what has been written since Katrina has focused on

Katrina was the latest in a series of wake up calls. For more than two centuries our nation has approached protection against nature's most ardent forces with paradoxical combination of long term apathy and short term reactionary zeal. We are thrust into action after the disaster that, in fact, we knew would eventually come, but could not quite accept as a reality in light of priorities more immediate and more likely. The question now is will we as a nation remain awake for just a short time or for the long term? And, can we deal with these issues in

CM at-Risk Is Underrated As in many of your past headlines, ENR's Project Delivery Issue from this past summer once again leads a story with a spin that implies the dominance of design-build as a delivery method. No one questions the fact that design-build continues to increase in popularity. However, as demonstrated by your own data, the total revenue of work performed with CM at-risk actually surpassed design-build, starting in 2003. In responding to the 2005 CMAA/ FMI Survey of Owners, in particular to the question, "Which delivery method do you believe offers the best value, whether or not you