The recession is killing off many smaller construction firms, and surety losses are growing. But bigger, better-managed companies continue to win jobs. Further, overall, the surety losses will be manageable.Speaking at the International Risk Management Institute's construction conference in San Diego, Richard Resnick, senior vice president of Aon Construction Services Group, noted that the number of new contractor-controlled wrap-up insurance programs has pulled even with those of new, owner-controlled programs.Bid credits are the amount saved when a contractor removes the cost of insurance from its bid. "If you look at the number of CCIPs 15 years ago, they might have
The California Dept. of Transportation—first reeling, then hunkering down following revelations that one of its technical engineers may have falsified data regarding the structural soundness of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge's self-anchored suspension-span foundation—has agreed to allow a peer-review panel to conduct an independent investigation of all the records related to the inspections of the piles.Following a long, comprehensive investigation, The Sacramento Bee released details on Nov. 13 about the inspection work of the technician, Duane Wiles. Caltrans released him, along with his foundation testing-group supervisor, Brian Liebich. (Liebich's dismissal, the agency insists, is related to a separate matter
Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR Fraud trial of Derish Wolff, former CEO of design firm Louis Berger, is not likely to start until next spring. By Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Manslaughter trial of James Lomma, the owner of the collapsed tower crane, is delayed until February. Looming high-profile criminal trials involving two construction industry executives are facing new delays.In a Nov. 9 arraignment in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., regarding the federal fraud case against former Louis Berger Group CEO Derish Wolff, Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. granted attorneys' requests for a 60-day continuance, until Jan. 9.
Michael Goodman for ENR A federal indictment says Wolff intentionally conspired to bill the U.S. Agency for International Development "at knowingly inflated rates" for contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Derish Wolff, former CEO of Louis Berger Group, is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 9 on federal charges that he led a plan to intentionally inflate overhead charges on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts over nearly 20 years. A tentative trial date is likely to be set at that appearance.An indictment unsealed on Oct. 20 in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., says Wolff intentionally conspired to
Photo for ENR by Janice Tuchman CH2M Hills McKelvy, Kiewits Grewcock and Parsons Corp.s Harrington talked about strategies for training thousands of employees on rules of ethics as firms face increased scrutiny. Courtesy of Lane Construction Reaching out Lane uses colorful posters to encourage employees to make the call. Compliance officers searching for construction-specific advice should not feel alone. Speakers who presented best practices for small- and mid-size firms at the Construction Industry Ethics and Compliance Initiative forum, held in Denver on Oct. 10-11, all shared the same experience: They started their careers in operations or legal work with no
Related Links: Tibor Varganyi Plea A co-defendant in a negligent homicide case stemming from a 2008 tower crane collapse that killed two New York City construction workers quietly changed his plea to guilty earlier this month and has promised to help prosecutors convict his former boss, James F. Lomma, who had owned the crane, court transcripts show. The trial had been set to start next month.Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Thomas Farber granted a request by defendant Tibor Varganyi, 65, former head mechanic at Lomma’s firm, New York Crane, to change his plea in a closed courtroom, but the judge refused
Michael Goodman for ENR Wolff directed other Berger officials to devise fraudulent billing scheme, indictment charges. Related Links: Aug. 10, 2010, ENR story: "Probe Leads to Wolff's Likely Exit From Berger" Text of the indictment (PDF) The former CEO of Louis Berger Group, Derish Wolff, has been charged with leading a plan to intentionally inflate overhead charges on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts over a period of nearly 20 years, federal officials said.According to an indictment returned by a grand jury in federal district court in Newark, N.J. , on Oct. 19 and unsealed on Oct. 20,
Related Links: Airing the Engineering Pros and Cons of TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline Editorial: Build the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Necessary Evil New York Times Story on Pipeline Contract Conflict Issues Even if it met the minimum standard for ethical conduct, the State Dept.'s environmental consultant for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, Cardno Entrix, should have refrained from taking the job in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, says an expert on engineering ethics and environmental work.“It's got to be above suspicion of doing something sneaky,” says Aarne Vesilind, former professor of engineering at Bucknell
Two U.S. Corps of Engineers officials and two other men were arrested on Oct. 4 and charged with conspiracy, bribery, kickbacks and money laundering on two Corps contracts, the Justice Dept. says. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. said, “This indictment alleges one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting.”The case involves an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a $1-billion-plus maximum value and a planned contract with a $780-million cap.Neither was competitively bid.The indictment, returned by a grand jury on Sept. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and unsealed on
Related Links: Weighing the Merits of Lomma's Case Criminal prosecution of the owner of a tower crane whose collapse led to the deaths of two New York City construction workers in a 2008 accident will proceed next month. On Sept. 19, a state Supreme Court judge rejected a motion to dismiss negligent homicide charges against James F. Lomma, his former head mechanic and two firms the owner controlled.Paul Schechtman, attorney for Lomma, says he has made “no final decision” on whether to request a judge or jury trial, but sources close to the case say a jury trial is more