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
Related Links: The Menomonee Falls Patch dedicated coverage page for the dispute The Menomonee Falls Radisson on Facebook Barry Bloom, owner of Assured Power in Milwaukee, Wis., knew something was wrong last year in the late stages of a renovation project to create a new Radisson hotel in nearby Menomonee Falls.Four months after the soft opening, the general contractor filed a $2.8-million lien on behalf of the subcontractors. The hotel’s owners insisted that funds were still available to pay all of the subcontractors, but Bloom says he never received the last of his draws after work was done.Bloom decided to
Photo courtesy of Construction Financial Management Association Economist Anirban Basu told the Construction Financial Management Association that Europe's financial turmoil will likely hamper the U.S. economy into 2013. Related Links: Deal Reached on Long-Term Transportation Bill Survived the Recession? Beware Recovery Risks Economic headwinds resulting from the ongoing financial crisis in Europe will remain one of the major factors buffeting the U.S. construction economy through the rest of the year and into 2013, economist Anirban Basu told an annual gathering of the Construction Financial Management Association in Orlando in late June.The industry economist admitted that his projection that Europe's economy
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