The U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s disadvantaged business enterprise program was designed to support the development and growth of legitimate DBEs. But the way the program is currently written, interpreted and administered actually defeats those purposes and undermines the goal. Recent DBE fraud prosecutions, most of which involve the test of whether a commercially useful function has been performed, have led some contractors to respond with overzealous and incorrect interpretations of the rules for regular dealers (our firm falls into this category of company).As background, all 50 states must comply with the DBE program. U.S. DOT serves as the administrator and
Target Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, U.S. Office of Personnel Management—their names have been splashed in the headlines because of the immense, damaging hacks of their systems. But hackers go after more than retail stores, big corporations and government agencies.
We’ve reached a teachable moment about risk when it comes to Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, which is being promoted as a major driver of housing and infrastructure. To make its case, the Olympics bid committee's proposal includes a risk plan that is detailed—but not detailed enough. Will Boston win?Such moments have arrived before with other Olympic hosting proposals, most notably Chicago’s bid, in 2009, to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. There, the proponents also showed they had covered all the risks with a detailed plan, but they failed to win the bid.Construction costs and overruns
At ENR’s “Risk Summit” last month in Dallas, the editors asked my panel to ponder why Texas subcontractors weren’t “dancing in the streets” in light of seemingly favorable laws such as prompt- payment statutes, retainage restrictions and limits on indemnification. While the panel focused on Texas, the topic is relevant throughout the U.S., and I’ll explain why. Every state has a mountain of protections for the purpose of benefiting construction participants at the bottom of the contracting chain.These protections can be traced to 1791, when Thomas Jefferson introduced the nation’s first mechanics’ lien laws in Maryland. In doing so, he
Owners and contractors, even when they operate in the same country, don’t always speak the same language. An owner may presume its customary construction practices and assumptions are applicable in any region; the contractor may not fully appreciate the owner’s standards for quality, safety, coordination or other considerations and how they should apply to a specific project. A consulting engineering firm, which operates with a foot in both worlds, best serves its client when it promotes clear communication between client and contractor. The consultant that understands the expectations of both its client and outside stakeholders will provide good stewardship of
Related Links: Charles Pankow Foundation's Ambitious Rebar Research Goal Pankow Foundation Whether we are architects, engineers or constructors, we're all facing an economy and environment much different than that of our predecessors. The world we're facing has many challenges. For example, the word "sustainability" wasn't even in the industry lexicon 20 years ago. Who would have thought that a ubiquitous materialsuch as portland cement, once considered harmless, would threaten the global environment because of its high energy demands and carbon footprint? And who would have considered that water, once believed to be so abundant that wasting large amounts wouldn't matter,
Related Links: Southland Industries Website BrueningAt the beginning of 2011, I was handling the closeout of a 1 million-sq-ft facility that my company, Southland Industries, turned over earlier in the year. I was also initiating two projects that had been fast tracked to meet a September completion milestone.While I was busier than I had ever been in my career, my boss stopped by my office one afternoon to brief me on the concept of a new internal leadership development program the company was calling Built to Lead (BTL). A week later, I was on a conference call with five of
Related Links: Risky Business coalition blog Bob Langert: Fast 10 Sustainability Leadership Tips Letter from Oil Majors on Carbon Pricing Unilever CEO Paul Polman: The remedies for capitalism B Corp website New Envision Tool Pushes Sustainability Beyond Buildings BeinsteinUnderstanding how sustainability’s triple bottom line (TBL) of people, planet, and profit impacts design and construction firms is becoming an ever more urgent priority. Perhaps never before has a topic been so important to the AEC community, yet so poorly understood. Globally, the movement toward sustainability and TBL-focused results is rapidly accelerating—but how individual business leaders adapt, and how their firms can
The design and construction process has been around for over 4500 years and dates back to about 2630 B.C., when Imhotep, the first structural engineer in history, built the step pyramid for the Egyptian Pharoah Djoser.The big question that rolls around in my mind is, “Exactly how far has our industry progressed?”In science, the progress is obvious. And there is also obvious progress in a more efficient, freely employed workforce, as opposed to slaves, and better technology, including multiple advancements in heavy building equipment for ease of construction and most recently, 3D building information modeling (BIM) for design and construction information development.
Transmission and distribution infrastructure in North America is in the midst of a major shift. An industry that historically has designed to meet the lifespan of its equipment now must refocus that design on the growing challenges of resilience and reliability.Our dependence on electricity makes us vulnerable to extreme weather changes. Katrina and Sandy were devastating reminders that our power systems need to be designed to better withstand these kinds of events, which are occurring with increasing frequency. But utilities have been slow to make changes, thanks to a web of interconnected challenges:1. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
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