Paul Eng-Wong has been named a principal of Watertown, Mass.-based engineer Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. following the firm's Sept. 6 acquisition of Eng-Wong, Taub & Associates, a New York City transportation planner of which he is president and co-founder. Martin Taub, the acquired firm's other co-founder and executive vice president, also joins VHB as a principal. Eng-Wong, Taub & Associates has 40 employees.Johnson, Miraman & Thompson Inc., a Sparks, Md., engineer-architect, has named Sharon J. Bland as vice president. She was president, CEO and founder of Clear Solution Management Group, a Washington, D.C., management consultant, and formerly vice president of
Thousands of Imad Naffa's digital devotees are mourning the Sept. 6 loss of the industry social-networking pioneer whose Twitter posts seemed omnipresent. Naffa, a civil engineer, building-code software developer and entrepreneur, had a fatal heart attack in Fresno, Calif., at age 49, according to a post by Loretta Naffa, his wife and the office manager of his firm, Naffa International.Dubbed the “Twitter King” by BusinessNewsDaily.com, an online publication for startups, Naffa claimed more than 56,000 followers. He was second among construction tweeters, says Wefollow.com, a website that ranks registered Twitter users based on the number of followers and “influence.” Matt
In a management shake-up, Leighton Holdings Ltd., the St. Leonard's, Australia-based contractor, has named Harnish Tyrwhitt to be CEO. A 26-year company veteran, he replaces David Stewart, who resigned on Aug. 25 after eight months in the position. He had succeeded Wal King, who served 23 years as CEO. Since 2007, Tyrwhitt had been managing director of Leighton Asia Ltd., based in Hong Kong, and a director of Leighton Contractors (Asia) Ltd. The company claims Leighton Asia “is now considered one of the top-tier contractors” in Hong Kong. Earlier this year, Tyrwhitt also took over management of Leighton's offshore and
Joint-venture contractors on the 12.3-mile Hiawatha light-rail line in Minneapolis-St. Paul have agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle federal charges that they fraudulently reported use of disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) on the $715-million project, completed in 2004. Parsons Transportation Group, part of the project's design JV, says it was mistakenly named as a pact participant in the Justice Dept.'s Aug. 24 announcement. The firm and other designers were not targets of the government subcontracting probe nor did they “review or approve” DBE activities, a spokeswoman says. Justice did not return calls for comment.Project JV contractor Minnesota Transit Constructors Inc.
Photo courtesy of TEDx Engineer Imad Naffa, at industry conference in May, was a strong advocate of social networking. Related Links: TEDx Dead Sea Imad Naffa Video Imad Naffa, a civil engineer and building code software developer who propelled his "passion for people" to become a global social media networking phenomenon, died suddenly on Sept. 6 in Fresno, Calif. He was 49 and suffered a fatal heart attack, according to a Twitter post by Loretta Naffa, his wife and office manager.The death of Naffa, a self-proclaimed "Twitterologist," generated a buzz among his followers, who numbered more than 56,000, making him
Photo by Debra K. Rubin Flood-damaged Home Depot megastore could stay closed until Sept. 3 Related Links: For a Downgraded Storm, Irene Leaves Her Mark on East Coast Infrastructure While many contractors and homeowners have flocked to big-box home improvement stores for critical supplies in Hurricane Irene-hit states, extensive flooding at one of Atlanta-based Home Depot's largest U.S. stores, in Union, N.J., will keep it closed until at least Sept. 3.The store has been shuttered since Aug. 28, when Irene swept across New Jersey.A Home Depot spokesman declined to discuss the extent of damage to the roughly 217,000 sq-ft "superstore"
While many contractors and homeowners have flocked to big-box home improvement stores for critical supplies in Hurricane Irene-hit states, extensive flooding at one of Atlanta-based Home Depot's largest U.S. stores, in Union, N.J., will keep it closed until at least Sept. 3.The store has been shuttered since Aug. 28, when Irene swept across New Jersey.A Home Depot spokesman declined to discuss the extent of damage to the roughly 217,000 sq-ft "superstore" or say when it would reopen. A security guard at the store site said the store could reopen on Sept. 3. Water had completely filled the store's parking lot,
Hurricane Irene punished the northeast coast of the U.S. and surprisingly triggered much more inland flooding in New Jersey, upstate New York, Massachusetts and Vermont than anyone expected. Connecticut suffered coastal damage as well.
Harold E. “Bud” Nelson, known to many as “the most influential fire protection engineer of the 20th century” and the father of the emerging discipline, died on July 21 in Fairfax, Va., from complications after a fall, according to the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). He was 82 and lived in Bethesda, Md.Fire protection engineering is considered a unique subset of construction, but its high-profile industry status today may stem from the pioneering 60-year career of Nelson, who developed many innovations in fire protection design, modeling and systems ap-proaches that have improved building safety, particularly in high-rise structures. Nelson began
Related Links: ENR's Top 225 International Contractors The big are getting bigger. Growing economies around the world and unforeseen global events—from financial shifts to earthquakes—are generating such huge demands, particularly in natural resource development, that owners and contractors are pushing out construction at record size and speed, participants say. Even long-term industry veterans think the trend is unprecedented. “The growth in the southern hemisphere is more than I've ever seen before at any one time,” says Bill Dudley, president and chief operating officer of Bechtel Group Inc. Australia's still untapped resource reserves have made it a hot spot for an array of
