Recession has not been good for the construction industry, but it’s helping to keep workers’ compensation rates down, say insurance and contractor executives. In the year that ended last June, 28 states filed for rate decreases, while nine filed for increases, says Peter Burton, senior division executive for state relations for the National Council on Compensation Insurance. Related Links: Economics: With Margins Cut to the Bone and No Demand, Costs Are Left With Nowhere To Go Market: More Bad Economic News Dims Industrys Confidence Cement: New EPA Regs Pose Cost Problems Labor: Wage Settlements Are Between A Rock and a

Pepco, the electric utility that serves Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs, will spend $256.5 million over the next five years to accelerate planned improvements to its distribution system after it struggled to recover from a severe thunderstorm in late July. More than 322,000 Pepco customers lost power after the storm; the company took five days to restore the power. The utility added $115 million to a planned system reliability upgrade after executives were grilled by the Maryland Public Service Commission about their response to the July storm and back-to-back snowstorms in February. Earlier this month, Pepco asked state regulators

Solar developer Albiasa Corp., the San Francisco unit of a Spanish firm, has teamed with Hawaii-based developer Pacific Light and Power to build a small but more reliable utility-scale project on Kauai. The 10-MW project also will be the state’s largest solar project, company officials say. Photo: Pacific Light & Power Project will use proprietary solar- capture technology to boost efficiency and cut costs. The $70-million project will use Albiasa’s “concentrated” solar technology but will add other processes developed by joint-venture partner Ram Power Inc., Reno, Nev., to extend power production to the early and later parts of the day

Rising medical costs are driving up workers’ compensation costs despite the success of safety programs in reducing the frequency and severity of construction accidents. “There are a number of competing factors affecting rates,” says Mary Ann Krautheim, client strategy officer for Aon Risk Services’ Construction Services Group, Boston. Incident rates are dropping because of increased safety measures, as well as a drop in the labor force due to the recession. Lost-time payments are declining, but the cost of claims is rising. “Medical inflation is countering the positive trends,” Krautheim says. “So it’s a push-pull relationship.” Related Links: Competition Intensifies as

The Tennessee Valley Authority has had a second leak at an impoundment at a coal-fired powerplant, this time from a gypsum pond at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant in northeast Alabama. The incident prompted Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to announce on Jan. 13 that she plans to seek federal regulation of coal-ash ponds across the U.S. Shifting gypsum dislodged the cap covering a 30-in. pipe once used to drain water from the gypsum pond into an adjacent settling pond, says John Moulton, a TVA spokesman. Once the cap came off, water in the gypsum pond flowed into the settling pond,

Twenty-five years after the first college-level program earned legitimacy through accreditation, construction education is feeling the highs and lows of maturity.