The role of people rather than process in boosting both project and corporate results in the construction industry is gathering momentum as an emerging area of study called “social network analysis.” Researchers are now studying projects and companies to determine how poor communication and too much focus on an “engineering approach” undermine more stellar performances. Some say development of the SNA concept could transform the industry. Photo: CH2M Hill / IHC Strong project-team collaboration brought high profile runway repave job in early. Photo: CH2M Hill / IHC Team had to build alternate runway and then rebuild the original. One researcher,
At a time when leadership is a more prized attribute in a construction industry under new global pressures, William W. Badger has pioneered research and innovative teaching approaches to enable employers and academics to identify and develop those who can make the grade.
Engineering professor Bernard Amadei could not have imagined when he founded Engineers Without Borders in 2001 the impact it would have on impoverished communities around the world, on young engineers and their peers in other fields, and on the construction industry’s expectations for a motivated and enlightened future workforce.
More charges flew on Jan. 5 and 6 against construction officials at the center of two of Manhattan’s highest-profile jobsite accidents in the last 18 months. On Jan. 5, a master rigger was indicted for his alleged actions involving a 200-ft-high tower crane that destabilized and collapsed at a Midtown high-rise site last March, killing six workers and a civilian. William Rapetti, 48, was indicted on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau also said Rapetti and his firm Rapetti Rigging Services Inc., Massapequa Park, N.Y., failed to file tax returns
The master rigger of a 200-ft-high tower crane that collapsed at a midtown Manhattan construction site last March, killing seven workers and civilians, was indicted Jan. 5 on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau also said that rigger William Rapetti, 48 and his firm Rapetti Rigging Services Inc., Massapequa, N.Y., failed to file tax returns. Photo: Debra K. Rubin/ENR District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announces indictment of tower crane rigger while Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn (left) noted stricter city crane safety rules. Following his arraignment, also on Jan. 5, Rapetti faces
Three New York City construction officials indicted and arraigned on Dec. 22 in connection with a fatal fire at a vacant Ground Zero high-rise being cleaned of asbestos and demolished posted bail and will reappear in court in Manhattan on Jan. 7. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged the officials, including the site safety manager for project contractor Bovis Lend Lease LLC, with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. The charges relate to their alleged roles in the August 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building that killed two city firefighters. Photo: AP/Wideworld Bovis manager Melofchik (center) charged with
John Hernan, a construction advertising sales executive whose West Coast-based career at Engineering News-Record and its parent firm McGraw-Hill Corp. spanned more than 44 years, died Dec. 19 in California of melanoma-induced cancer. He was 85. Hernan began his ENR career in 1960 and soon became one of its most prolific and successful ad sales executives. "He was an extraordinary professional," says Howard Mager, a retired McGraw-Hill senior vice president and ENR publisher. Hernan retired in 2004. John Bodrozic, president of Meridian Systems, a Folsom, Calif.-based project management software firm, recalls Hernan's guidance when the firm started operation in the
A New York City prosecutor charged the site safety manager for Bovis Lend Lease LLC with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with a fire that damaged a Deutsche Bank high-rise in lower Manhattan 16 months ago and killed two firefighters. The building had been undergoing asbestos abatement and demolition. Photo: AP/Wideworld Jeffrey Melofchik, Bovis site safety manager at Manhattan's Deutsche Bank demolition project, arrives for his arraignment Dec. 22 The indictments were announced Dec. 22 by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau against Jeffrey Milofchik, who had been Bovis site safety manager at the 40-story Deutsche Bank, which was
Trying hard to hang onto its valuable construction workforce, at least one contractor has launched a new jobsite-wide health and safety measure: deployment of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to revive sudden heart attack victims at all of its U.S. and Caribbean project sites. Photo: Moss & Associates Moss safety manager Gerard (center) demonstrates defibrillator device operation to other contractor employees. The firm has deployed the devices at U.S. and Caribbean jobsites. While AEDs have found their way into more workplaces and other public spaces, executives of Moss & Associates LLC and other heart-attack prevention professionals believe the Fort Lauderdale-based building
As workers struggle to remove remnants of Hanford’s old industrial mission, construction of a $12.3-billion state-of-the-art waste-treatment plant symbolizes its future. If construction officials master cost, schedule and technology challenges, the vitrification plant will restore production to the site and offer the region an economic boost. Bechtel Group Inc. Complex will turn waste into glass when operating by 2019. Bechtel Group Inc. Complex will turn waste into glass when operating by 2019. Related Links: Huge Cleanup at Bomb-Making Megasite Is The New Atomic Fallout The multibuilding, 65-acre vitrification complex will receive nuclear and chemical waste from aging underground tanks, remove