With polls indicating that New Jersey voters know little or nothing about the “Building Our Future Act” on the Nov. 6 election ballots, boosters are planning a big rollout next week to promote passage of the $750-million bond measure to fund construction of higher-education facilities. The measure, which allows the state to borrow for new academic buildings and upgrades at research universities, public colleges and community colleges, is the first since 1988 that supporters were able to get on the ballot. If approved, the funds would be combined with existing bond proceeds of about $500 million to create a $1.2

Opponents of New York University's $6-billion expansion plan filed a lawsuit against city and state officials, claiming they approved it illegally. The groups, which sued Sept. 25, include NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan (NYU-FASP) and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP).According to the groups, the 2031 expansion plan, also referred to as the Sexton Plan, which would add about 2 million sq ft to NYU's space in Greenwich Village, "illegally alienates parkland, destroys historic resources, and impacts the university's neighboring residents."The lawsuit was filed in New York County State Supreme Court and follows a July 26 vote,

New York City Photo by Joe Woolhead Settling Up: The PANYNJ and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation have reached a deal to settle their protracted financial dispute. Photo Courtesy of iStock Photo Concrete Data: Starts in both the residential and non-building sectors grew in the first half of the year. Related Links: ENR New York Featured News Work at the World Trade Center site's 9/11 museum is set to ramp up in the first week of October, says Steve Coleman, a spokesman at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. That follows the agreement announced

Plans to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge have moved a step forward with the federal government’s approval of the final environmental impact statement for the project. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office announced yesterday, Sept. 25, that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has issued a record of decision (ROD) approving the state’s plan for the $5-billion-plus bridge replacement. The move is the final step in the review of the project’s environmental impact. “With this major milestone, New York once again is demonstrating that we can make government work efficiently and effectively for the people of the state, and we

Construction starts in New York City dropped 16% in the first half this year, to $6.6 billion, compared with the same year-ago period, according to a recent New York Building Congress analysis of McGraw-Hill Construction Data. The non-residential sector took the hardest hit in the first six months, diving 48% to $3.2 billion, NYBC says. The data cover all project starts including new construction, alterations and renovations. Photo by Mark Lyon A project related to the Second Avenue Subway was one of the biggest starts in the non-building sector in the first half of 2012. "The data from the non-residential

The New York City Dept. of Design and Construction (DDC) says it plans to issue new guidelines on Sept. 13 for the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for new public buildings. The guidelines establish a framework to enable all future DDC-managed public building projects to be delivered using 3-D technologies and BIM processes. ENR New York reported on DDC's plans to roll out BIM standards earlier this year. The agency joins a small list of others in the region including the NYC Dept. of Buildings (DOB) and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York that have BIM

One construction worker was killed and a second was severely injured after the roof of a four-story residential structure gave way on a construction site yesterday, Sept. 10, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, says the New York City Dept. of Buildings. The injured man was taken to a hospital but no current status is available, says the Fire Dept. of New York.A Dept. of Buildings spokeswoman says that a preliminary investigation of the site shows that five workers were standing on the roof when a heavy load was delivered, and the roof gave way causing the two workers to fall to

ESPN says it has donated $1 million to help fund construction of a new 38,000-sq-ft family center for the Boys and Girls Club in Bristol, Conn., the same town in which ESPN’s headquarters are located. Construction is expected to begin in spring or summer 2013 and be completed later that year. The construction manager is a joint venture of O&G Industries Inc., Torrington, Conn., and The S. Carpenter Construction Company, Bristol, Conn. Amara Associates, West Hartford, Conn., is the architect. Photo by John Atashian/ESPN Last year, volunteers from The Boys and Girls Club and ESPN built a playground in Bristol,

On the heels of OSHA's announcement of a new safety campaign concerning construction-related falls, news spread of an ironworker fall at 3 World Trade Center on Aug. 29. The 36-year-old male ironworker fell Wednesday about 15 feet from a beam while erecting structural steel at the base of the building, John Gallagher, spokesman at Tishman Construction, said in an Aug. 29 statement. Tishman is the 3 WTC construction manager. The worker was alert when taken to Bellevue Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he adds.The worker, whose name was not released, is with Falcon Steel Co., Inc., Wilmington, Del. Company officials

Lee Petrella, vice president of Thornton Tomasetti’s New York office and known to his colleagues as “Big Lee,” died on Monday, Aug. 20, in Astoria, Queens. He was 54. Petrella Petrella, who became vice president in 2008, had been battling cancer for many years, says a Thornton Tomasetti spokeswoman. He is survived by his wife, Luanne.Petrella began his career with Thornton Tomasetti’s predecessor company Lev Zetlin Associates in 1980 after graduating from City College of New York (CUNY) with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He was a member of the Thornton Tomasetti building structure team and worked on many