A team of my colleagues, led by Tudor Van Hampton, has garnered well-deserved honors for coverage of the spate of crane collapses that occurred, including in March of last year in NYC. I've had my unfortunate share of covering these unhappy incidents, including the one that marred the building of the beautiful new Maumee River Bridge.

 My favorite corner pub in NYC is O'Hanlon's, where I've popped in off and on for 10 years. It's a true community bar with everyone from lawyers and doctors to cops, firemen and of course, journalists -- and people in the construction industry (off-hours, of course!). Little did I know that one long-time bar buddy, Carmelo Diaz, is a construction consultant! Little did he know either that I wrote for ENR. Well, better late than never.