An unexpected change in the weather had left a thin layer of frost on our windshield. As we carpooled to a transportation megaproject in Asia where fellow expatriates and I were serving as construction advisors, we talked of the day's upcoming concrete pour. Upon arriving at the site, we immediately found the project manager and quoted to him the bilingual project specifications that described the temperature limits of cold-weather concreting. Smiling courteously, he merely replied, "Yes, I know. I will discuss it with the client." And we knew what that meant: proceed as scheduled. The sector we were working on
Fasten your seatbelts--potholes ahead! Beginning next fiscal year, and as early as July in some places, the value of public infrastructure must be stated in the annual financial statements of state and local governments. The accounting rule--a radical change that some public officials want to ignore or downplay--will put a spotlight on the condition of our nation's infrastructure. It could revolutionize how infrastructure is financed and managed, and may encourage the allocation of more money for infrastructure preservation. For too long, public infrastructure has been built without regard for the long-term costs of operations and maintenance. This is because funding
Few working people accept Karl Marxs old saw that "productivity" means working longer and harder. Still, much of the construction industry hesitates to endorse important ideas introduced at about the time of Marxs death. In the 1880s in the U.S., Frederick W. Taylor urged finding ways to work "smarter." More than a century later, the industry remains archaic in many of its practices, with too many construction officials suspicious about the value of measuring productivity on the jobsite. Consider a recent experience of mine: While visiting a powerplant project, I listened to a familiar claim: "Were giving it 100% and
Want to take a fast multibillion-dollar ride to a dead end? Taxpayers soon will if the Federal Railroad Administration continues to railroad through plans for the nation's first commercial train operated with magnetic levitation. Seven authorities in six states shared a first-round allocation of $12.2 million in maglev planning awards. Last month in one of its last acts, the Clinton administration promised up to $55 million in second-round funds to both the Pittsburgh and Washington-Baltimore areas to refine plans for a maglev pilot project. Whichever area succeeds may receive another $950 million under the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the
Imagine working under 200 tons of structural steel being hoisted by two cranes. One operator has the skills to safely operate his crane. But the second operator, untrained and unskilled, accidentally drops the load on the 22-ft-high crib pile where you are standing. The first operator struggles to maintain the load, but his boom starts to buckle. You realize you've lost control over whether you will live or die. Major construction failures in recent years have cost many lives and millions of dollars in property damage. Collapses not only killed three friends of mine last July at Miller Park stadium
If politicians really want to solve California's current energy crisis, they must undo the artificial shortage created by unions and project labor agreements. More than 10 years ago, many nonunion and some union contractors began complaining about a new tactic that forced power producers to use only union contractors. At that time, Thomas R. Adams, an attorney in San Mateo, Calif., and Thomas J. Hunter, business manager of District Council 51 of the plumbers' and pipefitters' union, pioneered the use of environmental protests against projects as a way to bargain for union-only project labor agreements on them. Previously, PLAs had
Half-baked designs seem especially prevalent in underground construction, as I know firsthand. During the past 45 years, my company, Tri-State Drilling, has drilled tens of thousands of shafts into the ground. We know that no matter how many test borings or investigations are done, you simply can't foresee the tremendous variety and bizarre combinations of variables in the subsurface. Let me give you an example. We were asked to install drilled shaft foundations for a large power transmission tower in the Midwest. Drilled shafts are great foundations for these towers. They're relatively straightforward to design, and we've installed hundreds of
Last month, details of a federal probe into alleged environmental data fraud by a Texas laboratory were splashed across the front pages of the national press (ENR October 2 issue p. 12). Prosecutors said the possible faulty data by Intertek Testing Services Environmental Laboratories Inc. could affect thousands of waste sites. The story didn't have any particular impact on me. I don't own a lab company, and I don't work for one. But as a long-time business consultant in the environmental services industry, it pains me to see some of the ill-informed or wrong-headed reactions to this incident. Some impressions