Megaprojects are keeping construction crews hopping in California and Hawaii. Five projects on ENR California's 2013 Top Starts list are valued at more than $1 billion; in 2012 only one project exceeded the $1-billion level. Related Links: View a Ranking of the 35 Largest Starts in California & Hawaii ENR California's 2014 Owner of the Year: L.A. Metro The current ranking, which highlights the 30 largest projects to break ground in California during 2013, features a broad mix of project types, including health care, highway, transit, commercial and water/infrastructure. New this year, Hawaii's active construction market is represented in a
Recent legislative efforts to streamline the far-reaching California Environmental Quality Act should lessen the environmental-review burden on infill and transit-oriented projects, proponents say.
Image courtesy of National Basketball Association/Sacramento Kings In 2013, incremental CEQA reforms were merged with a bill allowing rapid development of a new basketball arena for the Sacramento Kings. Related Links: Sacramento Arena Gets Protection From Environmental Litigation, Signs PLA OPR's Preliminary Evaluation of Transporation Alternatives Metrics Recent legislative efforts to streamline the far-reaching California Environmental Quality Act should lessen the environmental-review burden on infill and transit-oriented projects, proponents say. Detractors contend the reforms won't reduce the lawsuits that, they claim, abuse CEQA's original intent. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed S.B. 743 into law in September 2013. The bill amalgamated
In order to match the challenge of creating high performance buildings, the construction industry needs to move toward high performance construction, says McGraw Hill Construction senior director Stephen Jones. During his remarks to open ENR’s Futuretech conference March 18-19 in San Francisco, Jones said the industry should foster “the industrialization of construction to reduce risk and uncertainty and get better designs out there.”Lean construction practices are paramount to a high performance construction strategy, but awareness and adoption of lean techniques is lagging. According to a McGraw Hill Construction study conducted in 2013, 30% of firms surveyed had not heard of
Photos courtesy of Yard Club A recent one-month rental of a Caterpiller D9 Dozer saved the renter $8,500 versus a traditional rental, according to Yard Club. Related Links: CONEXPO 2014: Trends to Watch Platinum Equity Pays $1.1 Billion for Volvo Rents A San Francisco start-up hopes to save U.S. contractors billions of dollars in equipment rental fees and lost revenue with the rollout of a new online equipment-rental market model.Incubated in Silicon Valley, YardClub.com aims to expand the service to Southern California, the East Coast and cities throughout the U.S. in the next six months."We are hiring like crazy," says
A San Francisco start-up hopes to save U.S. contractors billions of dollars in equipment rental fees and lost revenue with the rollout of a new online equipment-rental market model.
Related Links: View the 2013 Best of the Best Projects Winners ENR Excellence in Safety Award: St. Louis Library Industry professionals from all across the U.S. donated their time and expertise to help ENR identify and honor the most outstanding construction efforts completed in the U.S. and Puerto Rico between July 2012 and June 2013. Nearly 800 project teams submitted their best work to ENR's regional "Best Projects" competitions. For each of the ten regions, our editors assembled an independent panel of industry judges to home in on the winners in 20 categories. The winners of the regional contests moved
Photo by Jeff Goldberg/ESTO The concert hall features 842 vineyard-style seats. Related Links: 2013 Best of the Best Projects Winners Bing Concert Hall Team Gives Virtuoso Acoustic Performance Designed to be extremely intimate, Bing Concert Hall's 842 vineyard-style seats are organized in terraced platforms that surround the entire performance space. The optimal acoustical design called for lofty, 48-ft-high ceilings, resulting in 680,000 cu ft of volume—greater than halls with more than three times as many seats. Nine reflective acoustic panels—the largest 43 ft by 51 ft and weighing 8,000 lb—were hung around the curvaceous space. Each panel had a unique
