The Georgia Concrete and Products Association was named the national award recipient among trade associations for environmental performance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The group was nominated for the award by the Georgia Small Business Environmental Assistance Program of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Related Links: Value of Georgia’s May Contracts Slides 56% Cobb Co. Airport Project Named Project of the Year Griffin Tops Out Gwinnett Physicians Center Batson-Cook Completes National Infantry Museum The GC&PA represents ready-mixed concrete producers in Georgia, as well as manufacturers of cement-based products such as masonry block and paver products. Highlights of GC&PA’s environmental

May was another terrible month for new contracts in the state of Georgia, according to the latest information from McGraw-Hill Construction, publisher of Southeast Construction. The company reported that the overall value of new Georgia contracts signed in May for future construction fell 56% compared to the same period of a year ago. That was on par with the previous month, when new contracts slid 57%. The total value of new contracts for the month was $842.5 million, compared to last May’s total of more than $1.9 billion. Related Links: Cobb Co. Airport Project Named Project of the Year Griffin

Industry Briefs   August 2009 Federal Court Consolidates Chinese Drywall Cases A Multi-District Litigation Panel is moving forward on plans for consolidating thousands of Chinese drywall lawsuits throughout the United States. On June 15, the MDL selected the Eastern District of Louisiana Federal United States District Court in New Orleans to oversee the cases. An estimated 100,000 cases from across the nation are expected to be consolidated for pretrial matters and discovery in the drywall litigation that has impacted homeowners throughout the country. Florida is expected to have 35,000 cases filed within the next year regarding this problem. “This is the

The University of Georgia Athletic Association has dropped Hardin Construction Co. as prime contractor on an $18.6-million expansion of an office and practice facility building in Athens, Ga., because of concern following the Dec. 19, 2008, collapse of a deck section that killed one worker at a Hardin project at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. “We didn’t want additional attention brought to the [new] project while that incident is being investigated,” says Arthur Johnson, associate athletic director. Atlanta-based Hardin is contesting a proposed safety fine over the accident. Although the final contract for the expansion project at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall had

Competition for projects in the four-state Southeast Construction region has been at an intense level throughout 2009, as an increasing number of building contractors find themselves chasing a declining number of new contracts, hoping to build a backlog during this historic downturn. Photo: Sam Barnes. State transportation departments throughout the Southeast are reporting that early bids for stimulus-funded projects are coming in lower than expected. As the residential and commercial markets continue their declines, contractors operating in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have been witnessing unprecedented bidding activity on some contracts. At the same time, as the billions

The board of Tampa Bay Water has approved staff recommendations for an estimated $125-million repair program for the agency’s four-year-old, 15.5-billion-gallon C.W. “Bill” Young Regional Reservoir. The facility, which cost roughly $140 million to construct originally, has been experiencing significant cracking since late 2006. At the same time, the authority is moving ahead with a lawsuit against the three lead members of the project’s design and construction team: HDR of Omaha, Neb., the designer; Barnard Construction Co. of Bozeman, Mont., the contractor; and construction manager Construction Dynamics Group of Columbia, Md. In late 2006, the agency discovered significant cracking along

The latest information from McGraw-Hill Construction indicates that the value of new Southeast retail project starts will decline by more than $1 billion, compared to last year. The slump in retail sales is hitting the market for new construction of stores and restaurants. According to the latest information from McGraw-Hill Construction, the overall value of new retail starts in the four-state Southeast Construction region of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina will total about $3.1 billion during 2009. That would be a decline of approximately $1.2 billion from McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2008 tally for this sector, when new projects equaled

The Florida Dept. of Transportation breathed life into its plans for a $1-billion Port of Miami Tunnel, agreeing after days of intense negotiations with local officials and the South Florida legislative delegation to attempt to reach an agreement with its original concessionaire Miami Access Tunnel, even though MAT’s equity partner Babcock & Brown of Australia bailed out of the deal late last year. FDOT Secretary Stephanie C. Kopelousos stated in a letter to Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the agency would make its technical team available to participate in a working group with county staff, who hope to use

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act came along just as traditional revenues for new roadwork were drying up in North Carolina and road lettings were being reduced to a small fraction of recent levels. The North Carolina Department of Transportation has between only $15 million and $20 million available monthly for traditional lettings. That’s down 75% from 2008, when the state let $948.6 million in new contracts, or an average of nearly $80 million per month. Revenues are down about 11% overall, but the highway-use tax, derived from vehicle sales, is down about 30% this year, says Burt Tasaico, state

An estimated $12.2 billion in federal stimulus funding should help Florida shore up some of the holes in the state budget and put thousands of Floridians to work. That was the message from Gov. Charlie Crist when he hailed the passage of the federal stimulus bill in mid-February and just days later when he announced his $66.5 billion 2009-2010 budget on Feb. 20. Photo: PB Americas The Florida Department of Transportation plans to make full use of the roughly $1.4 billion in stimulus funding it will receive. According to a Feb. 20 statement accompanying the release of Gov. Crist’s budget,