Weeks after the Texas Dept. of Transportation defaulted a big Mexico-based contractor on at least five road projects, little is known about what happened or why.The projects, in Houston, Beaumont and El Paso, all are backed by surety guarantees. Zurich North America provided Tradeco Infrasestructura surety bonds for at least one of the projects, according to a TexDOT district engineer involved with one of the defaults.Public works agencies generally declare contractors in default for failing to make adequate progress in their work or for failing to pay subcontractors.Neither Tradeco officials nor Zurich officials could be reached for comment.On one project

Courtest NECA/IBEW Training for communication tower rescues that require specialized skills. PBS/Propublica Coverage of the tower accidents was featured in a Public Broadcasting Service-Propublica investigation. Responding to a troubling resurgence in communications tower accidents, union electrical contractors and workers this spring made communications tower safety and rescues a focus at a second Midwest location, a training center in St. Louis.The center is jointly operated by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1, and the St. Louis chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association. IBEW and NECA had already trained 75 journey workers in cell tower safety at a training

Related Links: Surety Discharged Due to Lack of Timely Notice TxDot Defaults Woodlands Parkway Contractor A few months ago, the Texas Dept. of Transportation declared that a medium-size contractor working on a highway-widening project on the Woodlands Parkway had defaulted on its contract.The work was 80% complete. It isn't clear if the issue involved is quality of work, failure to pay subs or suppliers or safety. But the default illustrates some of the complications of late-contract terminations, when contractors and owners sometimes reach an impasse on schedule and payment despite much of the work already being in place.Late-stage terminations at

Surety claims litigation sometimes seems to exist in an alternative universe. Recent cases in Texas and New Jersey bear this out.Continental Casualty Co. claims in a lawsuit that it lost $14 million fulfilling obligations on one payment bond and four performance bonds, all issued around July 2011, following the default of Brownsville, Texas-based Leal Construction Inc.The claim is contained in Continental's lawsuit against Leal in federal court in Brownsville, Texas, and it names Cesario Leal as the first defendant.While the complaint does not elaborate on the cause of Leal Construction’s default, an attorney for the general contractor says it ceased

The Solar Industry Foundation, a business group, says there were 143,000 solar industry workers in the U.S. as of late 2013, and that the fastest growing category is installers, up 22% or 12,500 overall.Depending on the municipality and circumstances, California contractors use electricians or laborers for such installations.So it's not a surprise that competition for work would lead to arguments, which is what has happened at a private school's new campus in San Mateo, Calif. The dispute broke out even though the project general  contractor, Devcon Construction Inc., Milpitas., had signed a project labor agreement with the San Mateo County