Schiavone Construction Co. has agreed to pay a $22.4-million settlement of a federal investigation of Schiavone's use of phony companies in place of legitimate minority-owned businesses on four big New York City infrastructure contracts, prosecutors said Nov. 29. Photo: NYC DEP Subcontracting on Croton water filtration plant in Bronx, N.Y. and other projects are at center of fraud settlement. The payment is a civil settlement agreement' made with the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch said that the firm admitted that some of its employees engaged in a scheme to defraud public agencies by submitting reports

New York City-based Skanska USA has confirmed that the government is probing subcontracting arrangements made by the company and other large contractors that may have involved phony certified minority and women-owned firms. Photo: NYC DEP Subcontracting on Croton water filtration plant in Bronx, N.Y., set for completion in 2012, is under investigation. The New York Times also reports that Schiavone Construction Co., Secaucus, N.J., is a target of the investigation. Neither firm has been charged with any crime. The investigation, according to published reports involving unnamed sources, centers on contracting activity on the $2.8-billion Croton Water Filtration plant in Bronx,

Before a courtroom filled with rank-and-file workers, Michael Forde, former executive secretary-treasurer of the New York District Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, an additional three years of supervised release and restitution. He pleaded guilty in July to participating in what Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Zornberg called a �mind boggling� 15-year racketeering scheme. On July 28, 2010, Forde admitted to taking bribes from multiple contractors, helping contractors cheat the District Council Benefit Funds out of millions of dollars, rigging job assignments, lying under oath, and obstructing investigations into his conduct.

After deeming Hoboken, New Jersey�s 14th Street Viaduct structurally deficient and functionally obsolete despite its history, Hudson County selected Stantec along with consultants, Trans Systems and T.Y. Lin International/Medina to complete a replacement design for the 100-year-old viaduct. Rendering courtesy of Stantec Currently, the 14th Street Viaduct stretches almost ¼ of a mile and rises over 70 ft carrying over 20,000 vehicles per day. It is also considered an iconic landmark in the Hoboken skyline and a result, the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office required certain steps to be taken to have the replacement structure appropriately reflect the context

Skanska has been selected to construct an approximately five-story, 17,200-sq-ft intermediate and high school at South Hunter�s Point in Long Island City, New York through a contract totaling $61 million. The school will consist of 26 classrooms and house teaching facilities for 1,000 intermediate and high school students as well as laboratories, a music suite, gym, kitchen and cafeteria and a 4,736-sq-ft roof terrace. Skanska will be responsible for implementing the project which will be designed to meet Silver LEED certification. Work is scheduled to begin this November and is expected to be completed in October 2013.

Lorraine Grillo has been appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as President of the New York City School Construction Authority which manages new school construction and renovation of the city�s existing school buildings for the Department of Education. She has been serving as Acting President since April when then SCA President Sharon Greenberger was appointed by the Mayor and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Education. The announcement made today comes at a time when there is a lot of turnover taking place in the administration as Cathie Black is said to replace

Thomas J. DiGangi, Jr. has been hired as Executive Director of Associated General Contractors of New Jersey, based in Edison. DiGangi’s comes to AGC from the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, where he served as Chief of Staff, Acting Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Operations before taking on the role of Acting Chief Executive Officer during the Corzine/Christie transition. DiGangi is also the founder of Triangle Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in government and public affairs and has previously served as Director of Government Affairs for Building Contractors Association of New Jersey. “We’re fortunate to have Tom

Construction on the new 410,000-sq-ft, state-of-the-art Mount Sinai Center for Science and Medicine located on Madison Avenue in New York City which aims to expand its research and treatment programs while providing hundreds of job opportunities to local residents is currently underway. The new building is designed to facilitate interactions through the integration of four types of space including interactive space such as education spaces, lounges and computer facilities, basic science research space, the Mount Sinai Brain Institute and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, the Center for Translational and Molecular Imaging and the Cancer Center which will be linked by

Spector Group, a New York-based architecture and design firm has been named executive architect for the renovation of a 260,000-sq-ft full-service Volkswagen dealership. Once home to Potamkin General Motors, the existing building located at 798 11th Avenue in Manhattan is being transformed to fit the national image of Volkswagen Group of America�s dealerships with the help of Volkswagen�s design/brand architect, Detroit-based Cityscape Architects, Inc. as well as Audi�s design/brand architect, New York-based CR Studio, Architects, PC. The new facility will occupy six floors of space, along with the building�s roof and a portion of its cellar and will house new

Blending interviews and historical photographs with breathtaking original high-definition video, BUILDING ALASKA, a 90-minute documentary, recounts the dramatic stories of how engineers, constructors and craft workers built some of the greatest feats of infrastructure in the state�and around the world�under some of the most challenging conditions. Featured are stories on construction of Alaska railroads of the early 20th century; building the Alaska Highway construction and invasion of Alaska by the Japanese in World War II; and rebuilding the state in 1964 after the biggest earthquake ever in North America. The film, written and produced by Great Projects Film Co. Inc.,