Philadelphia Construction Law Blog

President Obama signed an executive order that will have a huge impact on the construction industry on July 31, 2014. Amazingly, it has received little fanfare or attention until now.

Joseph Dougherty, 73, former head of Philadelphia’s largest ironworkers union, was sentenced Monday to 19 years and two months in federal prisonafter being convicted of overseeing a campaign of sabotage and intimidation of nonunion contractors including the 2012 torching of a Quaker Meetinghouse in Chestnut Hill. In addition, Dougherty will have to pay over $500,000 in restitution.

We have all seen projects where a design principle is bent a little or a construction technique is altered slightly for the sake of speed or cost. Often times, the attitude is “no harm, no foul”. But consider the other side of the situation and ask yourself what happens when there is harm. A recent case in Southern California is worth noting in that regard.

President Obama has signed the Drywall Safety Act of 2012, which was passed by the House and Senate last year. The legislation is designed to relieve some of the problems associated with tainted Chinese drywall that was, among other things, high in sulfur content. Another goal of the new law is to prevent the defective product from re-entering the U.S. market and causing further damage to property and the economy.

As election season hits full stride in the race to November 6, a good deal has been discussed about sequestration. The term has been mentioned most prominently in the context of cuts to defense spending. If it should occur, however, it will hit construction related budgets hard as well.

Philly.com reports that a deal has finally been struck between Post Brothers and the Philadelphia trade unions in relation to the Goldtex construction project. Congressman Bob Brady brought the two sides together at the Sheet Metal Workers union hall this week and brokered at least a temporary peace.

The U.S. Green Building Council has elected to delay implementation of its LEED 2012 rating system due to the high volume of comments it received to the proposed new standards. Both the name and the date to vote on the proposed changes have been changed. The new standards will now be called LEED v4 and it will be voted on in 2013.

Some new numbers compiled by Battelle and R&D Magazine suggest that construction spending is on the rise in the research sector of the economy. It seems lab owners in all disciplines are interested in building new facilities or renovating existing ones in order to keep up with ever changing technological advances and to meet certain “green” goals or safety concerns.

Alvin H. Butz, one of the Lehigh Valley’s largest construction companies, has broken ground on a new project in Allentown. Phase II of the Butz Corporate Center is a $10 million building located on Hamilton Street. The 6 story, 50,000 square foot Class A office and retail space will bring approximately 150 jobs to the Allentown area. It follows on Phase I of Butz’s corporate center project, which opened in 2006 and is estimated to have created 200 jobs in the city.

In a May 14, 2012, Memorandum Opinion, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down an NLRB rule that was designed to significantly change the manner in which elections over union representation in businesses would take place. The rule was published on December 22, 2011, and went into effect in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and every other state in the union on April 30th of this year.