Baybutt.com Nantucket Memorial Airport was one of the first projects on which Baybutt Construction Co. was terminated. This photo is from a gallery of project photos on Baybutt's website. Clients are cutting ties to Baybutt Construction Corp., the Keene, N.H.-based general contractor that has been doing business in New England since 1964. Most of the contracts are small but the apparent failure of Baybutt may signal another, more perilous year for recession-weakened construction companies, say people familiar with contracting and Baybutt's troubles.Commissioners of the Nantucket Memorial Airport in Massachusetts voted to terminate Baybutt Dec. 11 from a $4.5-million contract to
Related Links: First Sealord Surety Fought Numerous Legal Battles in Last Years The fallout continues from the liquidation of First Sealord Surety, Inc., which was suddenly shut down last year by Pennsylvania insurance regulators. The shutdown forced small contractors served by First Sealord to scramble for replacement bonds.Then, last September, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Considine filed a complaint against the Villanova, Pa. company's former directors, accusing them of diverting funds from First Sealord and using fraudulent and reckless reserving practices. The insurance department held the officers responsible for $7.87 million of the company’s losses.The complaint alleges that First Sealord's former
ballengerconstruction.com Related Links: Ballenger Construction's First Day in Bankruptcy Court Ballenger Penalized for Road Project Lateness When Ballenger Construction Co., a well-known Texas contractor founded in 1937, sought protection from its creditors in federal bankruptcy court in Corpus Christi Dec. 7, equipment and material companies among the major creditors were left with millions of dollars in unpaid bills.But while those companies may have been surprised by the bankruptcy, one company that probably wasn’t is Ballenger’s main surety, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. It has been working with Ballenger since the summer first to try to sell the company and now to
Related Links: Efforts To Light Up Africa Gain Momentum Uneven Growth Projected for Africa's Construction Industry Africa has shown renewed interest in raising financing for infrastructure projects through Eurobonds and infrastructure bonds.The shift to international and domestic capital markets is also expected to draw interest from international contractors keen to expand their market share of work in the region.Angola, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Mozambique all plan to issue Eurobonds in the coming months to bridge their infrastructure budget deficits.In addition, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in September it will float a $40-billion infrastructure bond to fund infrastructure expansion
Contractors and building owners may flood insurers with builders’ risk claims in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but they haven’t started showing up yet, according to brokers.The full extent of the claims won’t be known for a while. “It’s too early,” says Paul Primavera, who heads the construction insurance operation for Lockton Cos., the insurance broker and consultant.Other brokers say the claims are inevitable. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a substantial number,” said one insurance broker outside the disaster area. Something half-built doesn’t stand up as well as something fully built, he notes, and “if the project involves
Related Links: McGraw-Hill Research and Analytics: 2013 Dodge Construction Outlook ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index survey (2Q 2012) The construction industry next year will continue its slow climb out of a long and deep recession, but the recovery is unsteady and remains vulnerable to factors such as the cloudy federal fiscal picture, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2013 forecast, which was released at its annual Outlook conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24.Total construction starts will rise 6% next year to $483.7 billion, as a continuing rebound in housing and private nonresidential building outweighs weakness in institutional building and public works
North Carolina Division of Coastal Management Bulkheads, similar to this soundly constructed one shown by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, proved to be a costly problem to Intercoastal Contracting. Related Links: NCDOT Announces Suspension of Bridge Work News Story on Intercoastal's Bankruptcy Filing Bankruptcy and the Completing Surety A North Carolina contractor lost a big lawsuit, ran into financial trouble and then stonewalled surety Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. for a short while before filing for protection from its creditors in U.S. bankruptcy court.That is the picture that emerges of Intercoastal Contracting Inc., a Castle Hayne, N.C.-based heavy construction
Related Links: Trainor Glass Default Raises Questions About Subs' Vulnerability The fallout continues from the failure of Trainor Glass, which filed for protection from its creditors in March and has affected operations of several firms. The newest development concerns a hospital in Peridot, Ariz.Recently, General Contractor McCarthy Building Cos. and Trainor’s surety, Westchester Fire Insurance Co., filed a joint motion requesting a federal bankruptcy court judge in Chicago to lift an automatic stay on the bankruptcy filing. The court granted the order on July 20, allowing the surety to complete Trainor’s glass and glazing contract on the 184,000 square foot
Courtesy of McDonough Associates High road? Engineer was owed for work on this Illinois project. Related Links: Chicago Tribune Op-Ed on IDOT Suspension of McDonough Associates The Illinois Dept. of Transportation is at war with one of Chicago’s most important engineering consulting practices over billings and payments.A federal judge in late June ordered IDOT to pay Chicago-based designer McDonough Associates almost $2 million that the DOT had withheld from the company for work on three projects. IDOT had stopped paying and suspended the engineering firm for three years because of what IDOT claims were years of overbilling.IDOT started turning over
RSS
