Related Links: Engineering Firm CEOs Debate Merits of Size Through Acquisition Chief financial officers of design firms meeting in New York City on April 24 offered perspectives on managing company growth and profitability amid new risks ranging from oil-and-gas market uncertainties to currency fluctuations and fixed-price contracts.The event that drew more than 100 CFOs was sponsored by industry financial management consultant EFCG.CFOs remain optimistic on results for 2015, predicting median growth of 7% and 10.9% profit, based on EFCG's separate survey of 110 firms.But its president Paul Zofnass noted that similar CFO predictions made last year were not borne out
USAID A map of earthquake's epicenter and surrounding areas. Related Links: View Structural Engineer Kit Miyamoto's Latest Blog and Video from Nepal Quake Zone Kit Miyamoto's First Blog and Video from Quake Zone USAID Nepal Earthquake information page Hartford High School Engineers Help Nepal Students Power Up Since the devastating April 25 earthquake in Nepal that killed 7,500 people, the U.S. has provided more than $14.2 million in humanitarian aid. Federal disaster teams were reaching areas made inaccessible by landslides and debris triggered by the tremor that registered a magnitude-7.9. The federal military teams began aerial assessments of the stricken
Fredric S. "Fred" Berger, chairman emeritus and board director of global professional services firm Louis Berger, and a long involved engineering executive in his own company and within the industry, died on April 23 in Washington, D.C.
Rendering courtesy of Infrastructures Canada Replacement span across St. Lawrence River, valued at up to $4 billion, is set to open in December 2018. Related Links: Engineering News-Record Architectural Record Even as it copes with continuing fallout from alleged bribes by former executives that have led to federal fraud charges against the firm, SNC-Lavalin was buoyed by its selection, announced by federal infrastructure officials on April 15, as preferred bidder for a coveted public-private contract to rebuild a key bridge crossing in Montreal.Some observers speculated that the government award to the SNC-Lavalin-led team signals a vote of confidence by the
ButtonCharles "Charlie" Button, who, as chief engineer and deputy chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), managed significant infrastructure built as part of the court-ordered $3-billion cleanup of Boston Harbor in the 1990s, died on March 17 at age 70.He told ENR in 1997 that initial local uproar over the harbor cleanup's cost impact on sewer rates changed after the project delivered "a tangible result—a clean harbor—and seeing ... white wakes behind boats.''The cause of death was cancer, said an online obituary.Button, who also was chief engineer of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, managed a
Photo Courtesy of Oregon State University School's simulator will evaluate driver and worker actions as vehicles enter work zones. Related Links: Oregon State Y. Driving and Bicycling Simulator MDU Resources Oregon State University is boosting its research efforts in construction and transportation safety with a $1-million industry grant, announced on April 14, that will fund a state-of-the-art laboratory, featuring technology to create virtual jobsites. Making the contribution to the planned lab in the school's College of Engineering are construction-materials firm Knife River Corp. and its sister firm, MDU Construction Services Group. The lab will be named for their parent firm,
Infrastructures Canada rendering Champlain bridge, valued at between $2.5 billion and $4 billion, is set to open in 2018. Related Links: SNC-led group wins Crosslinx light-rail contract Even as it copes with Canadian federal fraud charges in an alleged bribe scheme by former executives, SNC-Lavalin was buoyed by apparent wins this month of two multi-billion-dollar government infrastructure projects—a bridge crossing in Montreal and a light rail line in Toronto.MahmoudThe likely awards to the company-led teams come as mystery surrounding the firm's announced departure of Hisham Mahmoud, its infrastructure group president, finally clears. On April 28, Calgary, Alberta-based global engineer Golder
While hanging out with friends in his California living room one day in 2006, HT Tran had an epiphany that changed his career path and the direction of his life. The wounded Army veteran whose family fled Vietnam went on to start a fast-growing construction firm that's building San Francisco and careers for fellow veterans.
What started as an effort by Bob Nilsson, a U.S. Marine vet with a broken leg to help other Vietnam War wounded heal at a Navy hospital in Queens, N.Y., has grown decades later into a nationwide crusade to transition veterans, injured and not, into entrepreneurs in the construction sector—and beyond.
The Obama administration made construction careers for veterans a high-profile initiative, announced last year by First Lady Michele Obama, that asks industry firms to hire 100,000 vets in the next five years.
