Short sea shipping (S3), the shipping of cargo or goods over relatively short distances or to nearby coastal ports, has many advantages over trucking and rail transport. In addition to reducing road congestion (its greatest benefit), waterborne transport often uses less fuel, costs less, produces less air pollution, is faster, and has greater space capacity as there are extensive shipping lanes. Despite its many selling points, S3 currently is hampered by a lack of adequate port infrastructure. Historically, rivers such as the Mississippi and Hudson were the primary means of cargo transport before the advent of the now-mature Interstate highway
LUPO We kill three people every day in the construction industry. It’s an alarming statistic, especially given the exhaustive training, rigorous risk-management policies and tough laws that penalize contractors for safety infractions, injuries and jobsite perils. But there is another way to reduce this deadly statistic: create personal safety records for individual workers as an incentive for them to assume responsibility for safety. Recently, an employee made a decision to disregard a company’s 6-ft 100% fall-protection policy and disconnected his lanyard to climb across some formwork that was being stripped. He fell 14 ft and severely injured his knee. This
We no longer do five-year plans. We don’t do one-year plans. We do five-day plans, says Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay. With the onslaught of new communication channels, the reality is you’re only going to get five minutes to get a statement together when a crisis hits. Every first-rate building professional knows the necessity of a good plan. Well-defined plans are a huge portion of any project, but the plan shouldn’t stop with the building. You will face a crisis at some point. How you handle it is up to you. The good news is that a little pre-planning
The construction industry has seen rapid and dynamic technological changes in the last decade: new materials, new project-delivery systems and enhanced IT systems. In many cases, these rapid and complex changes have confused and even irritated potential users rather than provide promised increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness. NEFF Software that is hard to use, tries to do everything and is difficult to integrate with other, even similar products is a case in point. Civil engineering has been slow to introduce new technology into its processes and, more importantly, slow to integrate the technology and use it well. We often do this
SCHLEIFER When a construction firm’s backlog falls off, the pressure on the company escalates and “recession” takes on a new meaning regardless of the actual definition of the word. Prospering in cyclical markets and surviving a recession starts with recognizing what will happen when a market softens. The result is totally predictable and has occurred without fail in every industry down cycle for the last 50 years. When there are fewer projects, competition intensifies and prices and potential profits diminish. The ideal in a shrinking market would be for each contractor to accept proportionately less work so that market share
Car dealers are required to disclose a car’s fuel efficiency rating to consumers. Now, in California, building owners will be required to disclose the building’s energy efficiency rating to buyers and lessees. As of Jan. 1, commercial buildings in California are required by law to participate in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager program. Energy Star has been around since 1992 and is seen on everything from kitchen appliances to HVAC equipment. Energy Star Portfolio Manager is a program that serves commercial building owners. In 2009, California utilities will be submitting building information to the Portfolio Manager,
High energy costs have always been an incentive for improving the energy efficiency of commercial buildings. Now that the threat of global climate change and record-high costs have ratcheted up the urgency, federal tax deductions originally passed in 2005 give commercial property owners, and in some cases, architects, engineers and contractors, generous allowances for the construction or renovation of energy-efficient buildings. These tax deductions are available for systems “placed in service” in U.S.-located commercial buildings from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2013, even if the deductions were not originally taken in 2006 or 2007, they can generally be claimed
Washington hosted the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) annual meeting just prior to President Obama’s inauguration. One month earlier, over 200 participants from 16 countries attended the 20th biannual International Maglev Systems Conference in San Diego. Only this year, there were no TRB maglev presentations, nor were there any Federal Railroad Administration or Federal Transit Administration representatives. So why was the most advanced transport technology conspicuously ignored? Answer: the Bush administration was anti-maglev and discouraged official review or acceptance of the technology. Related Links: Video: The Promise Of Maglev Things have changed. President Obama provided some much needed leadership and pushed
Now that the stimulus package is reality, the big question is, what�s next?�Will this program be truly successful, will it put people to work on worthy projects or will it bog down in bureaucracy and be driven by a multitude of negative forces coming from politicians, lobbyists, special interests, trade associations, government at various levels and so on?�It is critical that stimulus projects be in the best interests of the country and aligned with the objectives of the program. Our history provides guidelines. Lessons can be learned, both positive and negative, from the Works Projects Administration (WPA) that existed from
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