Construction Industry News Archives

In a positive sign for the construction economy, noted economist Anirban Basu recently commented on the stability of prices for construction materials in the Producer Price Index. He found the steadiness of construction material pricing particularly important given all the factors that suggest it should have risen.

The House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would fund Department of Defense construction at $9.95 billion and Department of Veterans’ Affairs major construction programs at $342 million in 2014. While these amounts are no doubt sizeable, they represent decreases in both budgets.

The first lawsuit relating to the fatal building collapse at 22nd and Market Streets in Center City Philadelphia has been filed. Mariya Plekan, a Ukranian immigrant, has brought suit and listed a number of devastating injuries.

The Pennsylvania state legislature is now getting involved in the building collapse case in Philadelphia. Two state house committees will be holding hearings on the accident to evaluate how building codes impact demolition work and whether changes to the code can prevent the type of accidents that occurred in this instance. Both the Labor & Industry and Urban Affairs Committees will hold hearings on Tuesday at 1:00 at the Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

There is good news for the construction industry in a recent report by economist Anirban Basu. The performance of hotels in the United States has improved over the last 12 months. As a result, more hotels are being built or renovated. More specifically, Philadelphia is among the improved cities with regard to occupancy rates with a 21% increase.

The fact that contractors working in the City of Philadelphia have routinely used work-arounds to get work classified as minority-owned, woman-owned, or disabled-owned is among the construction world’s worst kept secrets. One of the strategies – hiring businesses that qualify for DBE contracts and using them as a pass-through – recently came under serious scrutiny by the City. In an effort to crack down on what City officials argue is an abuse of the system, the Office of Inspector General has started to investigate more claims. It also recently identified and cited a number of prime contractors for violating the DBE rules. One contractor, William H. Betz, Inc., was the center of recent attention.

Following the carnage left by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey, the state legislature passed a bill allowing for the expansion of project labor agreements on construction projects using public money in the state. While they were already permissible by law, the new statute was seen as an attempt by labor unions to grab more of the market share and, as a result, the effort to rebuild New Jersey after the storm. In a veto message this week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hinted that he saw it the same way.

The construction industry job market continues to struggle, but fresh unemployment numbers did decrease slightly from earlier this year. According to the March 8 employment report by the U.S. Department of Labor, he construction industry jobless rate declined from 16.1% in January to 15.7% in February. The rate in February 2012 was 17.1%

Engineering News-Record is reporting that the large New Jersey design firm Birdsall Services Group is embroiled in a pay-to-play scandal that could cause significant additional damage to the company. Birdsall recently filed for bankruptcy and is working through the process of reorganization.

An open and ongoing dispute between a researcher for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Environmental Protection Agencyis starting to appear in construction related publications. The researcher, Christopher Horner, thinks EPA is hiding something and is suing in Court for what he claims are violations of the Freedom of Information Act.