Due to poor gains in industrial production, the Midwest continued to lag other U.S. regions in average backlogs, or the amount of construction work under contract, during the first quarter of 2012, according to a newly released survey by Washington, D.C.-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).Midwest backlogs averaged 6.34 months for the third quarter, as compared to a 8.88 months in the South, where backlogs are the longest in the nation due to the “rapidly expanding, commodity-rich states” in the region, says ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.“Construction backlog expansion in the Middle States continues to be stifled,” he says.
Minnesota lawmakers extended a legislative session scheduled to conclude Thursday in order to complete unfinished business, including a vote on Monday on plans to construct a new $975-million stadium for football's Minnesota Vikings. A push to pass a public subsidy for the project stalled Tuesday after Republican legislative leaders introduced an alternative to a plan negotiated by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, the Vikings and the City of Minneapolis.Republicans, who control the legislature, have since scrapped the plan, which would have reduced the amount of project costs funded by taxpayers.Dayton's plan relies heavily on taxes derived from gaming, a source opponents
Chicago's City Council on Tuesday approved plans to create a $1.7 billion infrastructure trust that will rely on private investment and bank loans to fund hundreds of millions of dollars in energy and transportation projects. The initiative is part of a larger plan by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to invest $7.2 billion in the city's aging subways, sewers and schools, including $1 billion to upgrade more than 100 city rail stations and $1.4 billion to expand capacity at O'Hare International Airport.“I won't tie the city to [Washington's] dysfunction,” Emanuel said on Tuesday. “Working together, we have a tool here take
Three weeks ago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called on American and United Airlines to support construction of a fourth runway at O'Hare International Airport in order to raise capacity and reduce delays at the Midwest's largest hub. Thursday, United Continental Holdings CEO Jeff Smisek responded, but not with an answer Emanuel wanted to hear.When asked during a public appearance what type of additional expansion O'Hare would require to meet current or future demand, Smisek replied, “None. The project that we have now is more than sufficient for any reasonably foreseeable demand.”American and United, O'Hare's two largest carriers, must approve capital
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said Wednesday that while the wind power industry is gaining momentum in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio, expiration of a key tax credit could curtail future projects and trigger massive lay offs in the Midwest and elsewhere. In its Annual Market Report, released earlier this week, AWEA indicated the Midwest continues to generate and consume greater amounts of wind power, with Illinois ranked fifth among states involved in construction of wind-related projects and Iowa ranked second among states that consume wind power, as a percentage of their portfolios.The report also indicates that the number
Despite efforts by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) to garner support for construction of a new airport in south suburban Chicago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has indicated construction of a fourth runway at Chicago's O'Hare Airport would eliminate need for a third regional airport. “I understand what he has to do as a congressman, but as a mayor, I have my interests representing the city and that means expanding O'Hare and its capacity, because if it runs on rails, if it runs on roads and if it runs on runways, it's coming through Chicago,” Emanuel said Tuesday, while attending
Illinois businesses are petitioning state lawmakers to strike down legislation that would impose $12 billion in consumer subsidies to support a planned coal gasification plant they say isn't needed and would cost electricity customers far more than originally promised. Supporters of the project, which would be sited in Taylorville, about 20 miles southeast of Springfield, contend the plant could serve as a model for future clean-coal initiatives while creating 2,400 construction jobs and 155 permanent jobs. They also believe the $3.6-billion plant, to be developed by Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska, would jump start the state's struggling coal industry.However, eight commercial interests,
BoschertMike Boschert has been named senior project manager with St. Louis-based contractor, design-build and construction management firm Paric. Boschert joined the firm in 2007 as an engineer and previously was promoted to project engineer. He earned a bachelor's degree in construction management at Kansas State University. Walter Rymsza has joined Chicago-based engineer Alfred Benesch & Co. as senior project manager/director of railroad structures. A structural engineer with more than 30 years of experience, Rymsza specializes in the design of railroad bridges, foundations and retaining walls as well as soil mechanics and the structural rating of railroad bridges. DarmodyJoseph D. Darmody has
Although some key market indicators, including a recent survey of backlogs by the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., show construction activity in the Midwest trailing activity in the South and Northeast, the region led in February's Architectural Billings Index (ABI), according to the Washington D.C.-based American Institute of Architects.The index, which provides a glimpse of future nonresidential construction spending activity, remained in positive territory in February for the fourth month in a row, with a score of 51.0, up from 50.9 in January. By comparison, the Midwest regional average score was 56.0, followed by the South with 51.3, the
Now that engineers have determined that a ruptured diaphragm plate led to the failure of a pair of cables on a 2,200-ft cable-stayed suspension bridge in Minneapolis, they are turning their attention to potential causes of the rupture, as well as fractures uncovered on two additional plates in late February. Photo Courtesy of the Minneapolis Department of Public Works The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge, a on a 2,200-ft cable-stayed structure bridge in Minneapolis, remains closed as investigators attempt to determine why a diaphragm plate supporting one its cables ruptured. Meantime, city officials say they are satisfied with results of an
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