Denver Hospital Complaint Exhibit Handwritten note cited by Kiewit-Turner as Exhibit A. Courtesy of Kiewit-Turner Multi-building complex may come in at a cost close to $1 billion, says the construction joint venture. To measure how far apart the Kiewit-Turner joint venture is from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the final cost of completing a new veterans hospital in Aurora, Colo., you can start with their differing views of “the note.”The note is a handwritten agreement completed in November 2011. In it, both the contracting venture and the department pledge to devote resources to keep the project cost to
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
Photo courtesy of David Seibold Injury to onlooker may trigger new efforts to discourage live viewing at demo site. Related Links: A History of Explosive Demolition Man's Leg Amputated After Plant Implosion I n 1997, a 13-year-old girl and her family stopped to watch an explosive demolition of an abandoned hospital in Australia. She was killed by flying debris. "Almost overnight, implosions worldwide ceased being actively promoted as spectator events," wrote Brent L. Blanchard, operations manager for consultant Protec Documentation Services, Rancocas Woods, N.J., in his history of the demolition technique.Now there is a sad new chapter. California officials are
In 1997, a 13-year-old girl and her family stopped to watch an explosive demolition of an abandoned hospital in Australia. She was killed by flying debris. "Almost overnight, implosions worldwide ceased being actively promoted as spectator events," wrote Brent L. Blanchard, operations manager for consultant Protec Documentation Services, Rancocas Woods, N.J., in his history of the demolition technique. Photo courtesy of David Seibold Injury to onlooker may trigger new efforts to discourage live viewing at demo site. Related Links: A History of Explosive Demolition Bakersfield Power Plant Implosion Gone Wrong Results in Serious Injuries Now there is a sad new
An informal, multi-state network of companies and brokers appears to be involved in fraudulently produced Chubb surety bonds discovered earlier this year and other controversial surety practices, according to interviews with small contractors that have lost premiums paid for the bonds.
Image Courtesy of Gibbs Giden Locher Turner Senet & Wittbrodt LLP A co-generation plant in California was shut down in 2006 and liquidated after costs tripled. Related Links: Timeline of the Victorville Power Plant Project and Dispute Jacobs Back in Court Over Failed Power Project Jacobs Engineering Settles Long-Running Power Project Battle It’s been almost a decade since the groundbreaking at the Foxborough Industrial Park in Victorville, Calif., 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, where the city’s leaders once made plans based on the fact that Victorville was, at the time, the second-fastest-growing city in the U.S.Little remains of the
In case contractors needed confirmation that the words in a contract delay clause have the power to darken or brighten their thoughts and moods, here it is.Chicago researchers have found a link between contract terms and human emotions, and say that perceptions of words may also help practitioners decide whether to work with a new owner or look for other clients.Cindy L. Menches, an assistant civil engineering professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and graduate student Lawrence Dorn, gave surveys to 27 students and industry pros in a construction management class at the school to determine what
Norr Engineering Testimony at a commission of inquiry shows mall owner's unusual approach to repairing the mall's leaky roof. Related Links: Elliot Lake Commission Inquiry Testimony Engineer Cited in Fatal Ontario Mall Rooftop-Garage Collapse Set to Plead Not Guilty Where once it looked like the entire blame for a fatal mall roof section collapse in northern Ontario last June would rest on the shoulders of a single engineer and his employer, testimony given in Toronto at a special provincial inquiry about the accident now shows a series of missteps and sloppy practices that may have contributed to the disaster.Testimony presented
Ontario Commission of Inquiry Robert Wood, former president of M.R. Wright & Associates, testifies at commission of inquiry hearing into the fatal 2012 mall roof collapse. Related Links: Testimony Shows Complex Roots of Deadly Mall Collapse (subscribers only) A communication breakdown at an Ontario engineering firm contributed to flaws in an inspection that failed to detect weaknesses in a mall roof before it collapsed.The engineer who wrote a report based on a visual inspection, stating that the mall roof was sound in May only weeks before the roof slab collapsed last June 23, killing two women inside, also had a