ENR Art Dept. In CPM scheduling, sharing dominates but it hasn't proven to be the perfect solution yet. ENR Art Dept. Is Owning Float an Absurdity? Options and Motives Cited by Contractors and Construction Managers in Project Scheduling Decisions. William A Manginelli and his colleagues at Trauner Consulting Services say that manipulating or gaming the amount of float in a critical-path method schedule is difficult and perilous for contractors. But contractors and construction managers suggest that many of the decisions about how float is treated in contracts and the strategies used in preventing disputes over delays are based on worries
The recession is killing off many smaller construction firms, and surety losses are growing. But bigger, better-managed companies continue to win jobs. Further, overall, the surety losses will be manageable.Speaking at the International Risk Management Institute's construction conference in San Diego, Richard Resnick, senior vice president of Aon Construction Services Group, noted that the number of new contractor-controlled wrap-up insurance programs has pulled even with those of new, owner-controlled programs.Bid credits are the amount saved when a contractor removes the cost of insurance from its bid. "If you look at the number of CCIPs 15 years ago, they might have
The construction recession is killing off numerous smaller companies and surety losses are growing, said insurers at the International Risk Management Institute's construction conference in San Diego, which ended Nov. 17. But bigger, better-managed companies continue to win jobs, so surety losses overall will be manageable.At the same time, risk managers, brokers and insurers in attendance at the IRMI event said the never-ending legal wrangling over scope of coverage has led lawmakers in four states to attempt to assure that construction defects are covered under contractor liability insurance. As a result, they added, a few insurers reportedly are steering clear
Related Links: Contractor-Controlled Wrap-Up Insurance Plans Gain Popularity The construction recession is killing off numerous smaller companies and surety losses are growing, said insurers at the International Risk Management Institute's construction conference in San Diego. But bigger, better-managed companies continue to win jobs and the surety losses overall will be manageable.At the same time, say risk managers, brokers and insurers at the conference, the never-ending legal wrangling over scope of coverage has led lawmakers in four states to attempt to assure that construction defects are covered under contractor liability insurance. As a result, a few insurers reportedly are steering clear
Related Links: Biography of Zachry's Susan Staff Website of insurance consultant Wrap Strategies Website of Aon, Chicago-based insurance broker Link to release last year about broker JLT Specialty Ltd. name change The number of new contractor-controlled wrap-up insurance programs has probably pulled even with the number of new owner-controlled programs, Richard Resnick, senior vice president of Aon Construction Services Group, told an audience at the International Risk Management Institute's construction conference in San Diego Nov. 14. Other speakers at other sessions joined in "debates" set up by IRMI over whether a contractor-controlled program (CCIP) was better than an owner-controlled one (OCIP). Susan
Courtesy Smith Group ENR Art Department Related Links: Hashtag This: Social Media Risks and Rewards in Construction VHB/Eng-Wong, Taub and PB: Building Client Relationships with Social Media Corps Finds Facebook Excels for Flood Emergency Communications Writing the Social Media Policy Handbook at Burns & McDonnell, HOK In Social Media, Some Conversations Are Best Kept Private Water Social Networking Site Matches Water Providers With End Users Looking back on the past year spent working in marketing for Smith Group in Washington, D.C., Kate Erdy, 27, remembers the uncertainty she felt when she had to decide whether to take the job last
Related Links: Airing the Engineering Pros and Cons of TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline Editorial: Build the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Necessary Evil New York Times Story on Pipeline Contract Conflict Issues Even if it met the minimum standard for ethical conduct, the State Dept.'s environmental consultant for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, Cardno Entrix, should have refrained from taking the job in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, says an expert on engineering ethics and environmental work.“It's got to be above suspicion of doing something sneaky,” says Aarne Vesilind, former professor of engineering at Bucknell
Sept. 5, 2011, was not a happy Labor Day celebration for the New York City area's building-trades unions, especially with the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks bringing back memories of union members' self-sacrificing rescue-and-recovery work. In the months leading up to the holiday, building-trades employers were busy bringing unions to reluctant agreement on the new post-recession realities. Unions for electricians, paint-ers and crane operators have come to terms on work-rule changes and limits on overtime that cut costs to employers by about 20%. New contracts with other unions still remain unsettled.At different times, the news media have mentioned that
AP Photo/Seth Wenig Construction workers disassemble a temporary building on the beach that was set up for an upcoming surfing competition in Long Beach, N.Y., anticipating Hurricane Irene hitting the East Coast. Related Links: U.S.G.S. Hurricane Irene Tracking Map, Surge Data You could call it the Great Button Up. Or the Big Batten Down.Either way, contractors, owners and government agencies all along the Northeast U.S. coast secured jobsites in anticipation of Hurricane Irene making landfall over the Aug. 27-28 weekend. As of Friday afternoon, Irene was classified as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. For some, the
Courtesy of Harmon Properties Harmon Corners, a retail property that topped out recently in Las Vegas, is financed with the developer's own money. Related Links: Video Interview with Barclays Analyst on Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Tight-Fisted Banks Stall Development (ENR 2009) Goldman-Citi Offering Is Pulled Over Ratings The comeback of the commercial mortgage-backed securities sector, which reached a high of $230 billion in new issues in 2007 but then collapsed in the turmoil that hit financial markets in 2008, has run into big trouble."There are economic headwinds that are causing a slowdown in the pipeline,” says Steve Renna, chief executive officer
