Photo courtesy of CDM Smith Special DeliveryCDM Smith and PC Construction are the design-build team on the $210-million Blue Plains advanced water treatment plant, including a new biosolids-processing main process train, for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. Related Links: Top 100 Design-Build/CM-at-Risk List Design-Build Institute of America Conference Design-Build Institute of America The prolonged recession hit the industry hard over the past few years. But for firms offering alternative project delivery, the recession took an additional toll. Many owners, seeing designers and contractors scrambling for work, decided to forego alternative project delivery in favor of hard-bid design-bid-build,
Photo courtesy of McCarthy Holdings Inc. McCarthy self-performed the complex concrete work on the parabolic arches of the Priory Chapel in St. Louis in 1961. Related Links: 2014 Top 400 Contractors Overview: Applying Lessons Learned 2014 Top 400 Contractors List and Markets Analysis (PDF-Subscription Required) 2014 Top 400 Contractors: Q&A With Bill Dudley, Bechtel New CEO 2014 Top 400 Contractors: Ranking Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary McCarthy Corporate Website When Irish immigrant Timothy McCarthy started building farmhouses and barns in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1864, he had no idea that, 150 years later, his firm, McCarthy Holdings Inc. (No. 18), would
Related Links: ENR Top 400 Contractors 2014 Overview: Applying Lessons Learned Top 400 Contractors List and Analysis 2014 (PDF-subscription required) Top 400 Contractors List 2014 Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary See the Complete First-Ever ENR Top 400 Contractors List from 1964 Bechtel Corp. Website Top 400 Contractors 2014: St. Louis Building Giant McCarthy Turns 150 In February, Riley Bechtel stepped down as CEO of Bechtel (No. 1) after being diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease. Bill Dudley, Bechtel's president, stepped in as the first non-family member to be CEO in the company's 116-year history.ENR: Tell us about your background. I have been
It was 1964. The Beatles were taking America by storm. The Civil Rights Act became law. At the New York World's Fair, General Motors' Futurama ride touted continent-spanning highways. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced a $2-billion construction program to support the moon shot. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and New York City's Verazzano-Narrows Bridge opened.And in its Aug. 6, 1964, issue, ENR magazine introduced its roundup of the 400 Largest Construction Contractors, the first time ENR published its Top 400
Photo Courtesy of Black & Veatch Related Links: 2014 ENR Top 500 Design Firms Overview: A Recovery in Need of Speed At about 1:00 a.m. on April 16, 2013, snipers hit and knocked out 17 transformers in 19 minutes at the Pacific Gas & Electric's Metcalf power transmission station near San Jose, Calif. This illustrates a nightmare scenario for electric utilities: A physical or cyber attack that disrupts power transmission.More and more utilities are bringing in engineers to examine the electrical grid's vulnerabilities to attacks."Our security consulting division is closely involved with our utility customers to find the best ways
The design profession has been hit hard over the past six years. By some estimates, as many as 40% of architects were unemployed during the height of the recession, in 2009.
Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Studios A scene from "Walking With Dinosaurs 3D," which used digital-mapping images from WHPacific for some of its backgrounds. Related Links: 2014 ENR Top 500 Design Firms Overview: A Recovery in Need of Speed When moviegoers watched the film "Walking With Dinosaurs 3D," which premiered on Dec. 20, 2013, they were not just seeing the work of gifted computer animators; they also were seeing the work of WHPacific Inc., an engineering and surveying firm.Many background scenes in the film were digital manipulations of mobile-mapping images generated by WHPacific from the Denali National Forest in
Related Links: ENR's 2013 4Q Cost Report (subscription required) Construction Financial Management Association After five years of tough markets and hopes of a recovery that never quite seemed to materialize, construction industry executives now believe the industry is back on the path to growth and the elusive turnaround has arrived. While some sectors remain sluggish, most industry executives surveyed believe the overall market is growing.The ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index survey for the fourth quarter shows the vast majority of respondents—328 executives of large construction and design firms—believe the market is experiencing a sustained recovery. The CICI index stands at
Image by ENR Art Dept. Related Links: ENR 2013 Third Quarterly Cost Report (subscription required) A Hundred Years of ENR Cost Indexes An Appreciation: How Elsie Eaves Built ENR's Cost Indexes Like Charlie Brown trying to kick that football, construction executives in recent years have hoped for different results—every year hoping that this would be year the industry would bounce back from the prolonged doldrums that began in 2008. But just like Lucy snatching back the pigskin, by the third quarter of each year, economic reality would set in and market confidence would plummet.The ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index survey
