In a coast-to-coast internet-and-telephone crime spree, alleged forgers who had websites that made them appear to be individual sureties have spread fake Chubb completion bonds across the U.S.
Courtesy of Unite the Union Frank Morris, an electrician and shop steward, returned to work at the CrossRail project after a year in which he and Unite the Union sought his reinstatement. At first the story that broke in 2009 seemed implausible: Dozens of U.K. contractors supported a craftworker blacklist since the late 1990s and used it to idle those deemed troublesome.Then on Oct. 10, eight of the U.K.’s largest construction companies announced a settlement that could be valued in many millions of dollars. Under the settlement, the contractors will compensate as many as 3,200 workers who said they were
Courtesy suttonma.org Groundbreaking at the Sutton, Mass., school project in July, 2011. Attorney Wendy M. Mead has had many contractors as clients, so she understands some of the pitfalls of construction. But it wasn’t until she volunteered to manage a big school renovation and expansion project that she found out how difficult that part of construction could be. As chairwoman of the Sutton, Mass. School Building Committee, she’s learned tough lessons while dealing with a $59.9-million combined middle school-high school renovation and expansion (the cost is roughly split between the town and the state).Sutton’s Board of Selectmen voted recently to terminate
Related Links: American Subcontractors Association's Supreme Court Brief PDF Atlantic Marine Construction's Reply Brief PDF There are no direct flights and 1,505 miles between Killeen, Texas, and Virginia Beach, Va., the base cities of J-Crew Management Inc. and Atlantic Marine Construction Inc., respectively. J-Crew says Atlantic Marine owes it $160,000 for work it performed as a subcontractor on a $7.4-million child development center in 2011 at Fort Hood, near Killeen. Instead of suing in Virginia, which its contract requires, J-Crew sued in federal court near the U.S. Army base. A federal appeals-court judge in Austin upheld J-Crew's right to sue
Photo by Steve Hill "We must lead the industry kicking and screaming ... to payment reform," said Bigane Wilson Photos by Steve Hill "Our motto is, 'Get to the hard yes instead of the easy no,' " said Littleton. Related Links: ENR's Risk & Compliance Summit Interview with Balfour Beatty Construction's Ed Littleton The perception of risk depends on where you live on the payment chain.That point became painfully clear after Balfour Beatty Construction's Ed Littleton described the way he manages through the changing landscape of construction risk, including subcontractor defaults, from the point of view of a top construction
City of San Jose Planned environmental innovation center is the heart of San Jose's plan to create green jobs. Related Links: In the rush to win federal stimulus tax credits for an environmental innovation center, the city of San Jose handed the project to a poor performing contractor, Applegate Johnston, that submitted the low bid. Now the Modesto-based contractor is bankrupt and the city and contractor's surety, Liberty Mutual, must find a way to finish the job.The innovation center is to be the heart of the city's ambitious initiative to create a nucleus of environmental innovation and bring 25,000 "clean
Denver Hospital Complaint Exhibit Handwritten note cited by Kiewit-Turner as Exhibit A. Courtesy of Kiewit-Turner Multi-building complex may come in at a cost close to $1 billion, says the construction joint venture. To measure how far apart the Kiewit-Turner joint venture is from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the final cost of completing a new veterans hospital in Aurora, Colo., you can start with their differing views of “the note.”The note is a handwritten agreement completed in November 2011. In it, both the contracting venture and the department pledge to devote resources to keep the project cost to
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
Photo courtesy of David Seibold Injury to onlooker may trigger new efforts to discourage live viewing at demo site. Related Links: A History of Explosive Demolition Man's Leg Amputated After Plant Implosion I n 1997, a 13-year-old girl and her family stopped to watch an explosive demolition of an abandoned hospital in Australia. She was killed by flying debris. "Almost overnight, implosions worldwide ceased being actively promoted as spectator events," wrote Brent L. Blanchard, operations manager for consultant Protec Documentation Services, Rancocas Woods, N.J., in his history of the demolition technique.Now there is a sad new chapter. California officials are
In 1997, a 13-year-old girl and her family stopped to watch an explosive demolition of an abandoned hospital in Australia. She was killed by flying debris. "Almost overnight, implosions worldwide ceased being actively promoted as spectator events," wrote Brent L. Blanchard, operations manager for consultant Protec Documentation Services, Rancocas Woods, N.J., in his history of the demolition technique. Photo courtesy of David Seibold Injury to onlooker may trigger new efforts to discourage live viewing at demo site. Related Links: A History of Explosive Demolition Bakersfield Power Plant Implosion Gone Wrong Results in Serious Injuries Now there is a sad new
