Courtesy of EBR Engineer Johnson (back, left) with Maser Consulting President Richard Maser and students at reading program launch earlier this year. Related Links: Engineers' Leadership Foundation-Engineering Better Readers website Tennesee Geotechnical Engineer Reclaims More than Riverbanks Engineer Is Committed To Make Reading Key to Young Students Future Success When Hanifa Johnson joined Maser Consulting, Red Bank, N.J., last year as a senior project engineer—along with technical and management skill, she brought a commitment to help the community in which she was raised and has worked—Newark, N.J. Since 2011, Johnson had been the “local champion” in that city for Engineering Better
Related Links: BLS employment report for March 2014, including data tables Construction's unemployment rate continues to head in a positive direction, improving to 11.3% in March from February's 12.8% as the industry gained 19,000 jobs.The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest monthly employment report, released on April 4, also showed that construction's jobless rate last month was markedly better than its March 2013 level of 14.7%.Those rates are not adjusted for seasonal variations. Construction is highly seasonal and its workforce tends to grow in the spring and summer months.All construction-industry sectors added jobs in March, led by specialty trade contractors, which
Anvil Builders Anvil Builders staff and CEO HT Tran (far right) on-site at the Transbay Transit Center project in San Francisco. Related Links: Anvil Builders website ENR 2007 Newsmaker-Bob Nilsson Helps Injured Vets Launch Construction Careers Industry Commits To White House Plan for 100,000 Military Vet Hires Going from combat to a civilian career can be tough for returning veterans, especially those who have been injured in service.But Hien Manh Tran, known as HT, is making the transition from recovering in an Army hospital to running construction jobsites as founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Anvil Builders, a full-service general
Photo Courtesy of Crossrail Ltd. London's huge Crossrail project is pioneer in using system to pay subs faster. Related Links: Prime Minister Announces Supply Chain Finance Scheme Highways Agency Project Bank Accounts Q&A Since the recession, U.K. subcontractors and suppliers have found themselves increasingly squeezed to pay bills while waiting for prime contractors to release project funds.But now "project bank accounts," which the government introduced three years ago to speed and secure payments down the supply chain, are spreading as one of several initiatives to improve liquidity among smaller firms on public-sector projects.By the end of March, the government expects
Photo Courtesy of the HorvathGroup 2014 AGC President Alan Landes speaks at the convention. Photo Courtesy of the HorvathGroup Riders try out AGC's revamped facilities at Horses 4 Heroes in Vegas. Related Links: 2013 AGC National Convention Coverage 2012 AGC National Convention Coverage Increasing workforce shortages and declines in infrastructure spending clouded an otherwise upbeat economic picture for the nearly 2,800 attendees at the Associated General Contractors of America convention in Las Vegas earlier this month.AGC economist Ken Simonson told attendees he sees workforce shortages increasing, up to 49% below critical levels in some regions. He forecasts 4% to 8%
Bruce Buckley for ENR Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson sought union support for Keystone pipeline. Related Links: Pipeline Bursts Heat Up Safety Questions Over Keystone XL Shale-gas Project Boom Drives Solutions to Shortfalls in Craft, Tech and Management Jobs North America's Building Trades Unions Link to Tradeswomen' Annual Conference: Women Building California and the Nation, April 25-27 Chemical Producer Methanex Moves Plant from Chile to Louisiana Construction labor is locking arms with the petrochemical industry in hopes of clearing a political path for the Keystone XL pipeline and other stalled oil and gas projects.Union presidents joined with industry leaders at the
Related Links: Bureau of Labor Statistics release and data tables Statement and analysis from AGC's Ken Simonson Statement and analysis from ABC's Anirban Basu Construction’s unemployment rate rose in February to 12.8% from January’s 12.3%, but the industry continued to add jobs, picking up 15,000 in the month.The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly employment report, released on March 7, also showed that construction’s jobless rate improved markedly from its February 2013 level of 15.7%.Last month’s rate was the industry’s lowest February figure since 2008.The BLS unemployment rates for construction and other individual industries are not adjusted for seasonal
Related Links: URS Cuts DOE Whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis, Citing Budget March 11 Senate subcommittee hearing website on Hanford site whistleblower retaliation with statements Hanford Challenge website New Finance Panel Chair Wyden Will Be Key Player on New Transportation Bill OSHA Releases Online Form For Workers to File Safety Complaints Donna Busche, another URS Corp. senior employee at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Hanford nuclear waste cleanup site in Washington state, is tieing her termination from the company to safety concerns she has raised about the site’s troubled waste vitrification plant, whose design now is under review.Busche claims that her Feb. 18
Photos by Tony Illia for ENR Workers can play key role in modularization, Ironworkers' union President Walter Wise told labor- management gathering in Las Vegas earlier this month. Owner executives urged union to change negative perceptions about organized labor. Ironworkers must embrace more project collaboration by providing preconstruction, value engineering and constructability services while adapting skills toward increased modularization, Fluor Senior Vice President Robert Prieto told union members, contractors and owners at a Las Vegas labor-management meeting.“We need to understand that the vast majority of projects have marginal economics today,” he told attendees.Construction has a 55% to 60% efficiency rating, which
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