Related Links: Beware the Recover: What History Teaches Prospering in Cyclical Markets In 2000, I wrote that the number of existing general contracting enterprises would be reduced by 20% by 2020. Recently, I started to update my research for the years 2003 to 2012. At first, it looked like I was wrong because, leading up to 2008, mergers and acquisitions slowed. However, the recession brought changes.From 2008 to 2012, the entire construction industry shrank by 19.6%. During the slowdown, larger general contractors held on to more market share than smaller ones. ENR's top 100 contractors declined only 14.5%, and the
Related Links: Construction Industry Learning Goes Borderless Industry Commits to Hire 100,000 Military Veterans We are facing a shortage of skilled workers. We hear that message almost daily. Many reports say the shortages are already here. We have heard the reasons: an aging work force, letting 30% of our people go during the recent downturn, a weak immigration policy, bad industry image and students unaware of construction career opportunities. The time to focus on solutions is now.The shortage must be solved at the local level, but first we need a national strategy. In mid-February, President Barack Obama wrote a letter
Photo courtesy of T.J. Lyons An image of Alice Hamilton (left), alongside a quote from her autobiography, hangs above the author's desk. Above my desk hangs a picture of a woman born in 1869—Alice Hamilton. She is the mother of industrial hygiene and the ultimate safety professional. I recommend that every safety manager read her autobiography, “Exploring the Dangerous Trades,” in which Hamilton details her safety investigations of armament factories in New Jersey, mercury mines in the southwest and lead smelters in Wisconsin. The first poisonings of some good people.In her book Hamilton recounts a conversation with a close friend
CarrAn impending workforce shortfall is a clear trend in the construction industry—as baby boomers retire, fewer U.S. graduate engineers choose an industry career, and an improving economy and energy revolution ramp up demand for skilled workers. Yet despite some recent increase in focus, women still account for less than 10% of the total construction industry workforce, with an even smaller number in professional or managerial positions. Now more than ever, it is critical to take advantage of a highly skilled and diverse talent pool by attracting more women into our workforce and allowing them to develop the same kind of
Related Links: Environmental Review Reform Gains Momentum Transportation's Next Chapter: Maintenance, Mobility, Money Maryland Transportation Chief Picked for Deputy U.S. DOT Post Just when it seems that we have resigned ourselves to the partisan gridlock in Congress, there is a bypass lane for at least one issue that will immediately benefit the U.S. economy. We can rebuild American infrastructure faster, and with better results. And we don’t need Congress to get it done.Over the years, we have shackled our projects with accreted policies and procedures that are not legal requirements and often don’t generate better results.Think of it as the
Related Links: Practical Wisdom: Blog Post by Sharpe and Schwartz Ingenuity is an integral aspect of engineering. In fact, "ingenuity" and "engineering" are linked etymologically. However, it seems to me the latitude for engineers to inject imagination and creativity into their work has been steadily diminishing. Why is this happening? Greek philosophers recognized three distinct knowledge categories:"epistime," knowing that something is the case; "techne," knowing how to achieve a predefined outcome; and "phronesis," knowing how to act in a contextually sensitive, appropriate way.The first survives today in terms like "epistemic" (of or having to do with knowledge) and "epistemology" (the
Readers love a rescue drama and Neil Swidey’s new book, "Trapped Under the Sea" (Crown, $26), is an unforgettable review of how the final stages of the cleanup of Boston Harbor in 1999 turned into a disaster that killed two divers.
Image Courtesy The Lego Movie Related Links: Bridginess: More of the Civil Engineering Life, by Brian Brenner, P.E. The Lego Movie The idea of making an entire movie about Lego toy building blocks seemed far-fetched and a bald-faced marketing ploy. It didn't appear to have much of a chance at success. Who would watch it? And after a movie about Legos, what next? Maybe a movie about toothpaste ("The Colgate Movie") or toaster ovens? With the expectation bar set pretty low, the reviews came in.Rotten Tomatoes, a website with aggregated movie ratings, reported the reviews to be 96% positive. For
Related Links: New Corps Commander Taking Stock Lt. Gen. Bob Flowers, who commanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 2000 to 2004 and is now retired, tells a humorous anecdote about a Mississippi landowner in the mid-1990s who was especially impatient about a future flood-protection project. Flowers was commander of the Mississippi Valley Division and agreed to meet with him."We had just received authorization for the project, and I told him I would request an appropriation of $28 million, which would allow the Corps to proceed," he said. "The gentleman then reached in his pocket, pulled out his checkbook
Related Links: Some Insurance Exclusions May Surprise Contractors Hotel Razing and Defects Trial Could Be Best Shows in Vegas For years, some state courts and insurance companies have been telling contractors that the construction defect claims they face aren't covered by their insurance because faulty work is not an "accident" that insurance is intended to guard against. This situation is rapidly changing, however, as more and more courts are concluding that defective construction is an "accident." This has opened the way for these claims to be covered by insurance.There are four questions that must be answered to determine if a
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