With estimates of at least 110,000 buildings damaged or destroyed and 20,000 fatalities in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, rebuilding Japan will be a long and expensive undertaking, dwarfing the financial impact of the 1995 Kobe quake disaster. The World Bank estimates dam- age at up to $235 billion, 4% of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP), compared with $100 billion for Kobe, or 2% of GDP. Private insurers could pay up to $33 billion to cover the destruction, compared with $783 million for Kobe, according to the bank. Photo: Kit Miyamoto/Miyamoto International U.S. engineer Miyamoto surveys coastal damage. Related
BACHTA Joseph A. Bachta, owner and president of International Bridge & Iron Co., Newington, Conn., who fabricated structural steel for many landmark bridges and buildings in the Northeast, died on Nov. 29, 2010, of cardiac arrest in Hartford, Conn. He was 84. Bachta founded the steel fabricator in 1992 and also served as general manager and assistant to the president of Standard Structural Steel Co., also based there, from 1960 to 1990. Projects on which he worked as fabricator include Boston�s Central Artery/Tunnel; the Trident submarine base in Groton, Conn.; the Thames River bridge in Montville, Conn.; skyscrapers in Manhattan,
With construction volume down and the cost of defending claims up, major insurers providing professional liability coverage to architects and engineers all plan to raise rates in 2011, according to a new market survey by Ames & Gough, an insurance broker and risk consultant. The trend, based on responses from insurers representing 70% of the U.S. market for this coverage, is the first across-the-board increase in several years, says Dan Knise, chief executive of the McLean, Va.-based company. He says about a third of providers had lowered their rates in 2010. Knise points to new project management approaches—such as integrated
Global design and construction firms were again caught up in increasingly violent protests in the Middle East, this time in Libya, as companies scrambled to shut down projects and evacuate expatriates amid much uncertainty as to when or whether they would return to restart work—and under what government. Photo: AP Worldwide Turkish construction workers evacuating from Libya as projects shut down amid mounting turmoil. Industry firms from Turkey were particularly hard-hit, since Libya ranks, after Russia, as the second most important market for Turkish contractors, industry sources say. The estimated value of firms’ ongoing projects there is between $15 billion
AECOM has recorded a charge related to the shut down of its work as program manager of Libya’s estimated $50-billion upgrade of housing and other infrastructure. The company announced March 1 an expected 8-cent-per-share charge in its second quarter. AECOM has evacuated expatriate managers and staff. Michael S. Burke, the company’s chief financial officer and senior vice president, said the charge was related to “demobilization, shutdown and operating impacts.” But he said that the company year-end projection of $2.25 to $2.35 earnings-per-share is unchanged, “due to continued strength in the remainder of our business.” Based in Los Angeles, AECOM has
The recession has taken a toll on members of the Associated Builders and Contractors and on the “merit shop” group itself, but officials hope recent local victories against union-only construction mandates will push Congress to enact similar changes. Photo: Garvin Smith, Courtesy Of ABC ABC’s new CEO Bellaman addresses group’s more business-focused convention. ABC members were updated on markets and initiatives at “BizCon,” a new-format conference for “strategic leaders,” held on Feb. 24 in Orlando, Fla., that attracted about 350 attendees. ABC Chairman Michael Uremovich, president of Great Lakes Energy Consultants LLC, Manhattan, Ill., admitted the format’s “big risk” but
A new global engineering and design-build giant is set to emerge at month�s end as CDM, the Cambridge, Mass.-based design firm-constructor specializing in environmental infrastructure acquires Wilbur Smith Associates, the Columbia, S.C., transportation engineer. The transaction, under way since early 2010, will create a $1.2-billion company that meshes in culture, specialties, employee ownership and international presence, its executives say. The acquisition, which is set to wrap on Feb. 25, creates a company with about 5,700 employees, about 25% of whom are based abroad, says Richard D. Fox, CDM chairman and CEO. SMITH FOX M. Stevenson Smith, Wilbur Smith’s chairman and
A new global engineering and design-build giant is set to emerge at month’s end as CDM, the Cambridge, Mass.-based design firm-constructor specializing in environmental infrastructure acquires Wilbur Smith Associates, the Columbia, S.C., transportation engineer. The transaction, under way since early 2010, will create a $1.2-billion company that meshes in culture, specialties, employee ownership and international presence, its executives say. The acquisition, which is set to wrap on Feb. 25, creates a company with about 5,700 employees, about 25% of whom are based abroad, says Richard D. Fox, CDM chairman and CEO. SMITH FOX M. Stevenson Smith, Wilbur Smith’s chairman and
GAUL Jonathan Gaul, an industrial painter and union member since age 18, considered leaving the union after earning a B.S. degree in computer science in 2004. But Frank MacKinnon, his 66-year-old predecessor, changed Gaul’s course by appointing him training manager; last year, MacKinnon handpicked him over more senior candidates to run the 1,000-member local, which spans four maritime provinces. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonatan Schumacher “I wanted someone who would do a better
Investigators will require months to determine the causes of accidents in two cities that killed three union ironworkers on Feb. 8. The family of the ironworker who died in suburban Chicago has filed a wrongful death suit, alleging contractor negligence in the collapse of a steel structure that struck him at a hospital project site. In the other accident, in New York City, it is not clear whether two workers who fell 65 feet were wearing protective equipment. The family of the Chicago ironworker, Kenneth Puplava, 43, has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, naming contractors at the Glenbrook