Antarctic researchers spend months in total darkness and brave -55°C temperatures and winds in excess of 100 mph. Yet these hardy souls endure and thrive at the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station, a $42-million habitat constructed in one of the most hostile environments on Earth.
Megaprojects are keeping construction crews hopping in California and Hawaii. Five projects on ENR California's 2013 Top Starts list are valued at more than $1 billion; in 2012 only one project exceeded the $1-billion level. Related Links: View a Ranking of the 35 Largest Starts in California & Hawaii ENR California's 2014 Owner of the Year: L.A. Metro The current ranking, which highlights the 30 largest projects to break ground in California during 2013, features a broad mix of project types, including health care, highway, transit, commercial and water/infrastructure. New this year, Hawaii's active construction market is represented in a
Recent legislative efforts to streamline the far-reaching California Environmental Quality Act should lessen the environmental-review burden on infill and transit-oriented projects, proponents say.
Image courtesy of National Basketball Association/Sacramento Kings In 2013, incremental CEQA reforms were merged with a bill allowing rapid development of a new basketball arena for the Sacramento Kings. Related Links: Sacramento Arena Gets Protection From Environmental Litigation, Signs PLA OPR's Preliminary Evaluation of Transporation Alternatives Metrics Recent legislative efforts to streamline the far-reaching California Environmental Quality Act should lessen the environmental-review burden on infill and transit-oriented projects, proponents say. Detractors contend the reforms won't reduce the lawsuits that, they claim, abuse CEQA's original intent. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed S.B. 743 into law in September 2013. The bill amalgamated
In order to match the challenge of creating high performance buildings, the construction industry needs to move toward high performance construction, says McGraw Hill Construction senior director Stephen Jones. During his remarks to open ENR’s Futuretech conference March 18-19 in San Francisco, Jones said the industry should foster “the industrialization of construction to reduce risk and uncertainty and get better designs out there.”Lean construction practices are paramount to a high performance construction strategy, but awareness and adoption of lean techniques is lagging. According to a McGraw Hill Construction study conducted in 2013, 30% of firms surveyed had not heard of
Photos courtesy of Yard Club A recent one-month rental of a Caterpiller D9 Dozer saved the renter $8,500 versus a traditional rental, according to Yard Club. Related Links: CONEXPO 2014: Trends to Watch Platinum Equity Pays $1.1 Billion for Volvo Rents A San Francisco start-up hopes to save U.S. contractors billions of dollars in equipment rental fees and lost revenue with the rollout of a new online equipment-rental market model.Incubated in Silicon Valley, YardClub.com aims to expand the service to Southern California, the East Coast and cities throughout the U.S. in the next six months."We are hiring like crazy," says
A San Francisco start-up hopes to save U.S. contractors billions of dollars in equipment rental fees and lost revenue with the rollout of a new online equipment-rental market model.
