Photo Courtesy of NOCoE The National Operations Center of Excellence was launched in January. Dennis Motiani, executive director, and the NOCoE board of directors commemorate the occasion at the 94th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. From left: Shailen Bhatt, Jeff Lindley, Laurie Matkowski, Dennis Motiani, Doug Wiersig, John Barton, Don Hunt, Greg Johnson, Harry Voccola and Abbas Mohaddes. Related Links: DOTS Slow to Change DOT Moves to Streamline TIFIA Loan Decisions A new era of transportation is right around the corner—one where driverless, autonomous vehicles cruise public roadways utilizing ever-advancing mobile and location-based electronics to

Photo Courtesy of Big-D Construction Related Links: LaFarge and Holcim Push Global Merger ARCADIS Ignites Design Firm Bidding War As the construction market rebounds from the recession, mergers and acquisitions are on the increase. Some firms are looking to grow, while others seek a buyout. Aging company owners prepare to retire and sell their businesses as part of an exit strategy, while others look for new ownership to rescue flailing businesses after a prolonged downturn."We're definitely seeing an uptick in mergers and acquisitions among contractors," says Landon Funsten, managing director in the Raleigh, N.C., office of consultant FMI Corp. "For

Photo Courtesy of WAR Construction Inc. The city of Northport's Fire Station No. 3 was built by WAR Construction in 2009. The team used several ConsensusDocs contracts on the project. Related Links: Improved Digital Practice Documents Beware of Hidden Risks Buried in Contract Language Since its introduction in September 2007, the ConsensusDocs movement has struggled to become a serious contender in the arena of standardized design and construction forms. Developed by a coalition of more than 40 industry groups, ConsensusDocs—a catalog of 100-plus standardized contract documents—set out to become the industry standard, but early software challenges and other criticisms thwarted

Photo Courtesy of CDOT Plenary Roads places one of several replacement bridges in a P3 project along the U.S. 36 corridor between Boulder and Denver. Photo Courtesy of RTD Crews install a section of pipeline along 48th Avenue as part of the Eagle P3 commuter rail project in Denver. Related Links: Better Water Asset Management Practices Fulfilling the Promise of Building Energy Performance Across the country, the gap between public infrastructure needs and the ability to pay for them is growing larger. Public-private partnerships help fill the gap, enabling public entities to utilize private funding for big infrastructure projects.But P3s

The story of Haselden Construction LLC is one of a family business that maintained its core values during the recession while adopting new strategies and carefully managing risks. Related Links: NREL Research Support Facility Earns Perfect Green Marks Wyoming Medical Center Tops Out "From the onset of the recession, we were thinking about the recovery and what we could do to make ourselves stronger at the other side," says Byron Haselden, president. He leads the Centennial, Colo.-based company, along with his two older brothers, Ed and Mike, chief executive officer and chief operating officer, respectively. Their father, Jim Haselden, started

Related Links: Industry Seeks Creative Solutions to Growing Workforce Shortages Industry Needs to Coordinate Its Workforce Solutions Gone are the days when hosting a booth at the local job fair was all it took to convince high school students to seek a career in construction. After decades of relying on status-quo recruitment methods, the industry is looking to more creative, hands-on approaches to win over the next generation and improve its image as a place to build a career.Over the past two decades, the pipeline of young workers entering the industry has slowed to a trickle. The main problem is

Related Links: VA Threatens to Terminate Brasfield & Gorrie From Hospital Project Brasfield & Gorrie: Southeast Contractor of the Year The past year was rewarding for general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie. After seeing revenue decline 20% in recent years, the Birmingham, Ala.-based firm has rebounded to exceed pre-recession levels, with $2.3 billion in revenue for 2013. The company also is marking its 50th anniversary this year while it works toward a sustained recovery.The recession hit B&G hard. In 2007, revenues surpassed $2 billion for the first time and then dropped to $1.7 billion in 2011 from $2.14 billion in 2008,

Related Links: Construction Industry Needs to Coordinate Its Work Force Solutions You Actually Found Some Skilled LaborNow What? Faced with what could be an unprecedented labor shortage as the economy picks up, construction professionals are uniting to rebuild the pipeline of young workers that once flowed into the industry from vocational and technical programs across the U.S."Somewhere in recent decades, our country made a collective decision that everyone should attend college. The robust workforce and technical education programs that once existed in our high schools disappeared in favor of college-track programs," says Brian Turmail, executive director of public affairs for

Faced with what could be an unprecedented labor shortage as the economy picks up, construction professionals are uniting in a mission to rebuild the pipeline of young workers that once flowed into the industry from vocational and technical education programs across the country. Image courtesy of AGC AGC of America economist Ken Simonson (right) and Phil Washington, general manager of Denver's Regional Transportation District, helped to launch AGC's new workforce initiative program in Denver in April. “Somewhere in recent decades, our country made a collective decision that everyone should attend college. The robust work force and technical education programs that

Image courtesy of Trimble A Trimble SketchUp Pro model of a house under construction with projected shadowing, laid atop a Google Earth landscape. Related Links: Big Data, Point Clouds and GIS Delivering on Promises Building information modeling and geographic information systems should be natural partners. But they use different technology, standards and syntax, so users often find it difficult to exchange information between the two environments.BIM combines performance, scheduling, acoustics and other parameters with physical geometry. GIS analyzes spatial relationships within the natural and built environments. It can also perform complex modeling for a wide range of simulations. Together, the