Under the gun to stay on schedule with more than $4 billion in Base Realiagnment and Closure Act projects at Fort Belvoir, Va., post program managers have developed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ first 4D, Google Earth-based animated construction model for an entire military installation. Using Google Earth as a backdrop, the model links a mountain of facility and site data with nearly 140 project schedules to enable more effective construction coordination on or around the 8,600-acre garrison. Belvoir New Vision Planners, a joint venture of PBS&J, Tampa, Fla., and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago, developed the model with
Uncertainty looms over the petroleum sector. In March, the industry saw new opportunities open up when President Obama lifted a 20-year moratorium on offshore drilling along the East Coast, as well as portions of the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaskan coastline. Three weeks later, the political environment took a dramatic turn following the April 20 explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration ordered a temporary ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf and halted exploration of several new areas. Portions of the oil industry have since been locked in a court battle over
After more than two years in the doldrums, design firms are starting to hear the rumblings of a recovery, but it could be many months before talk turns into action. With private developers still severely hampered by the credit crunch and many public entities facing budget shortfalls, the funding stream for projects remains a trickle. Photo: HDR While there are fewer hospital megaprojects being built, some continue, such as this $1.27-billion replacement hospital for the Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and
Rear Adm. Greg Shear, retiring chief of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, likely had a few sleepless nights in 2006 when he first took over the U.S. Navy’s construction and facilities management arm, worrying about how it would handle a then-record $9-billion building mission. But at least that would be the peak, he told Navy brass. Three years later, the NAVFAC program has grown nearly 80% to $16 billion and is reaching around the world. “So, I’m not a good prognosticator,” he says. Changing military missions, new political priorities, global disasters and other contingencies have combined to test NAVFAC’s ability
Associated Builders and Contractors members are lobbying Congress to stimulate construction, not with stimulus funds but by pushing financial regulators and banks to restore lending to private-sector projects and firms. To push jobs, the open-shop construction group calls for unfreezing project lending for more access to capital, examining federal guidelines on write-downs and curtailing financial institutions from “unnecessarily restricting, reducing or calling in lines of credit” to contractors and suppliers. “Freeing up credit is how to create a real economy,” said James W. Elmer, president of the Spokane, Wash.-based construction firm that bears his name and ABC’s chairman. Also speaking
With revenue continuing to be a significant struggle for many contractors, salaries for construction staff are languishing at levels not seen in decades. Salary increases fell from 4.1% in 2008 to 3% in 2009 among companies that offered raises, and contractors estimate they could dip to 2.9% in 2010, according to a recent survey by PAS Inc., a construction-compensation consulting firm in Saline, Mich. Related Links: ECONOMICS: With Stimulus Spending Running Out Recession Will Keep Grip on Costs CONFIDENCE SURVEY: Industry Firms Begin To Believe The Worst May Soon Be Over CEMENT: Weak Demand Undercuts Prices HIGHWAYS: Soaring Asphalt and
A change in the political tide in recent years has stoked the debate over potential use of project labor agreements on government-funded projects in the Mid-Atlantic. During his first month in office, President Obama overturned a Bush administration executive order that banned PLAs on federally funded projects. Stopping short of a mandate, Obama drafted a new order encouraging the use of PLAs on projects valued at more than $25 million. Photo by Bruce Buckley Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Dept. of the AFL-CIO, speaking at the Building and Construction Trades 2010 Legislative Conference, says more project
In January, NCR awarded a $73-million contract to Turner Construction of Arlington, Va., for the modernization of Federal Office Building 8—a 547,000-sq-ft building constructed in the 1960s in Washington—into an FDA lab. With the economy still struggling, GSA is getting good value. Guerin says that bids nationally have averaged 8% to 10% below original estimates. In the NCR, Bush says it’s not uncommon to see bids between 15% and 20% below estimates. Fueled by the saving, GSA produced a list of additional projects that could be added to the program. “We looked at our existing inventory of projects that were
After years of a development boom that brought billions of dollars in work to the region, the economic downturn hit hard in Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania. The recession, coupled with limited access to financing, all but dried up opportunities in 2009. Even the area�s colleges, universities and health-care facilities, which typically buzz with activity, dulled to a low hum. Tough times have continued through 2010, although some see a glimmer of hope on the horizon. �The best I can say is that there�s a lot more chatter in the industry today than last year,� says Greg Stewart, executive vice president
