PHOTO COURTESY OF Associated General Contractors CEO Stephen Sandherr, Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who was active in the negotations, and FAA Administrator Randy Babbit (from left) held a media event at LaGuardia Airport. PHOTO Courtesy OF Swinerton Builders A control-tower project at Palm Springs, Calif., International Airport, idled by a congressional stalemate, is set to resume. Passage of a stopgap Federal Aviation Administration extension bill through Sept. 16 has ended a congressional stalemate—at least temporarily—that had forced the agency to issue stop-work orders on more than 200 airport modernization contracts, including construction and engineering projects, estimated at more than $10.5

An appeal filed to overturn a decision to hire a public-private partnership to build the second phase of San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway replacement project was dismissed this week by the state’s court of appeal, first district, in Alameda. The Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) filed the appeal earlier this year after a superior court judge dropped PECG’s temporary restraining order and Caltrans announced the winning P3 consortium.PECG has been fighting the P3 concept for the Presidio Parkway project since it was announced last summer. In 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on a state senate bill to test

Six years ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ San Francisco Bay Area’s Infrastructure Report Card gave the region an overall grade of “C-.” The newest report card gave it a straight “C,” but “improvement” might not be a proper description. According to the ASCE San Francisco section committee’s reevaluation of the various infrastructure categories in 2011, several categories scored a “D+” grade. The committee says that bringing all the categories up to a “B” grade would cost in the neighborhood of $2.83 billion annually, up from the annual investment need forecasted in 2005 by $1.8 billion dollars. The need

It may not be back to business as usual in the California construction industry—due to lingering economic uncertainties and owners' resulting reluctance to proceed with projects—but major contractors see some silver linings in upcoming project opportunities, especially in health care, transportation and other infrastructure. In this year's Top Contractors ranking, total revenue at the top 10 firms dropped 10.3% to $8.1 billion from $9.1 billion a year ago. But many contractors anticipated the slowdown and diversified into new market sectors and that helped stem the recessionary tide. Moreover, the growth of technology firms in the San Francisco Bay Area has

As the clock ticked closer to the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the federal debt limit, the focus shifted to dueling plans from Senate Democrats and House Republicans. Both proposals, unveiled on July 25, would raise the debt cap and cut deeply into federal spending, but the plans themselves differed sharply on the timing and structure.Lawmakers on each side maintained they did not want to see the U.S. default, but they remained at odds and continued to blast the other's proposals. Construction industry and state officials also hope lawmakers can avert default, which economists say could drive up interest rates

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) awarded the second phase of the Third Street Light Rail project, also called the Central Subway, to Barnard Impregilo Healy joint venture, Bozeman, Mont. The partnership’s bid was $233,584,015, the lowest responsive and responsible bid of six total packages sent to the SFMTA earlier this month. The agency engineer’s estimated cost for the project was $225 million.The other opening bids were submitted by Shea Traylor JV ($257.8 million), Frontier-Kemper/Tutor Perini JV ($296.3 million), Obayashi Corp./Kenny Construction Co. JV ($274.5 million), Judlau + Shimmick JV ($266.8 million) and Dragados USA-Flatiron West JV ($234.8 million).SFMTA

Recent bid openings for subway projects in New York City and San Francisco revealed a range of prices and teaming partners. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency opened bids on June 7 for a contract to furnish and install systems and finishes on the No. 7 subway line extension. A joint venture of Skanska Civil and Railworks was the low bidder at $513.7 million, followed by the joint venture SPP, at $539.8 million; Tutor Perini, at $542.2 million; a team of Judlau and Citnalta, at $563 million; CCA, at $598.5 million; and CHRE Construction LLC, at $758.5 million,

Following a four-week trial in Sonora, Calif., a 12-member jury dismissed two business-interference claims that a California training school lodged against a crane-operator testing company. The trial followed protracted litigation between the two parties. California Crane School (CCS), Grass Valley, Calif., is a training center that prepares candidates for certification exams developed by the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO), Fairfax, Va., a non-profit that industry members also refer to as CCO. The lawsuit claimed that NCCCO and its testing-services provider, International Assessment Institute (IAI), interfered with business relationships of CCS and its owner, John Nypl, with

Not content to see themselves locked at 2.5% of the national craft union workforce for the past 30 years, more than 625 tradeswomen gathered in Oakland last weekend to learn how to boost those numbers at the first national conference for women in the trades. Photo by Vicki Hamlin, Tradeswomen Inc. Photo by Vicki Hamlin, Tradeswomen Inc. Sean McGarvey, national building trades� secretary-treasurer The meeting, co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Dept., included women craft workers from across the country and Canada. It was also the 10th annual Women Building California conference, which, according to conference organizers, never

At the first national conference for women in the trades held on April 30 in Oakland, Calif., more than 625 craftswomen gathered to learn how to boost their share of the workforce. They are not content to see women stuck at 2.5% of the craft union workforce, a national average they say they have not exceeded in 30 years. The meeting, co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Dept., included women from the U.S. and Canada. Photo courtesy of Women Building The Nation Tradeswomen from across the country and across the building trades’ unions attended the event in California.