June 30, 2009 -- Corps of Engineers planning huge contracting push in next few months - Over the next several months, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to advertise three dozen construction contracts that could cost upwards of $3 billion -- more than it has spent since Hurricane Katrina -- in its increasingly problematic race to provide the New Orleans area with extra hurricane protection by the 2011 storm season... The Times-Picayune
June 30, 2009 -- Rebuilding the Soo Locks - A massive project to build a Soo Lock finally will be launched after more than two decades on the drawing boards. Ground will be broken for two $1.9 million "coffer dams." The dams will hold back the river so construction crews can start work on a big lock to complement the aging Poe... The Detroit News
June 30, 2009 -- Wisconsin becomes the first state to require BIM on large, public projects - As of July 1 the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities will require all projects with a total budget of $5 million or more and all new construction with a budget of $2.5 million or more to have their designs begin with a Building Information Model... Building Design + Construction
June 30, 2009 -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis unveils Texas construction safety initiative at conference of American Society of Safety "Beginning in July, OSHA will increase the number of inspectors in Texas for a concentrated effort to prevent injuries and fatalities at construction sites. When these inspectors observe unsafe scaffolds, fall risks, trenches or other hazards, they are empowered to launch an immediate investigation," announced Secretary Solis. "As I have said since my first day on the job the U.S. Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business." ... Us Department of Labor
June 30, 2009 -- Southwestern Elec Continues Work On Arkansas Plant Amid Appeal - Southwestern Electric Power Co. will continue building a coal-fired power plant in Arkansas even as the utility challenges a court decision overturning a key construction permit for it... NASDAQ
June 24, 2009 -- Las Brisas job fair set for September CORPUS CHRISTI A job fair for people interested in working at Las Brisas Energy Center has been set for Sept. 26. The proposed power plant is expected to generate 1,300 direct jobs during the four- or five-year construction phase and 80 to 100 permanent jobs once the plant begins operating... Corpus Christi Caller-Times
June 24, 2009 -- Engineering News-Record Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:41 AM PDT
A sprawling reservation in southern Ohio long associated with the nuclear industry has been selected as the site for construction of Ohioâs third nuclear powerplant. If the project goes forward, it will be one of only a few nuclear plants in the U.S. proposed for a greenfield site...
ENR
June 24, 2009 -- FORT MYERS A piece of legislation introduced last week by U.S. Rep Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, would eliminate minimum compensation provisions for construction workers on public works projects. Mack is proposing the legislation would stimulate the economy by creating more jobs by repealing the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act... Naples Daily News
June 24, 2009 -- WASHINGTON- If you're getting federal stimulus money, stand up and prepare to be counted. And no cheating.The Obama administration issued its long-awaited rules for tallying jobs Monday and warned that local politicians trying to inflate their numbers would surely be caught. As part of the $787 billion stimulus law, governors, mayors and contractors must begin reporting job numbers to the federal government in October... NY Times
June 24, 2009 -- There's no date set for the ground-breaking of an area biomass plant, but potential construction companies are already calling. Since Lowndes County Commissioners unanimously approved rezoning property adjacent to Mud Creek Waste Water Facility two weeks ago, officials have been flooded with construction bids... WCTV
June 20, 2009 -- Twenty Large Upcoming Entertainment and Stadium Projects in The United States June 2009 - The accompanying table shows 20 of the largest upcoming entertainment and auditorium/stadium construction projects in the United States... Reed Construction Data
June 20, 2009 -- Pro-union group asks for project labor agreement for port construction jobs - With more than $3.7 billion worth of capital improvements coming to the Port of Los Angeles over the next decade, a pro-union group is lobbying for the construction jobs to require state-mandated wages as well as health care and pension benefits... Daily Breeze
June 20, 2009 -- Construction has started on a multi-million-dollar spaceport in the New Mexico desert that is meant to launch private citizens into space. Gov. Bill Richardson and other dignitaries staged a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday at the remote spaceport site in Sierra County... My Motherlode
June 19, 2009 -- Fluor Selected by Tenaska for Trailblazer Energy Center in Texas - Fluor Corporation announced today it was selected to begin limited engineering for Tenaskas Trailblazer Energy Center, a supercritical coal-fired plant development equipped with carbon capture technology in Sweetwater, Texas... Fluor Press Release
June 18, 2009 -- Nuclear-power plant planned for Piketon - An alliance of energy companies will be in Piketon, Ohio, Thursday morning to announce plans to construct a multibillion-dollar nuclear power plant on the site of a former uranium enrichment plant... The Columbus Dispatch
June 18, 2009 -- OSHA Takes Steps to Eliminate Fraudulent Trainers, Strengthen Outreach Training Program - In an effort to crack down on fraudulent trainers, OSHA intends to strengthen the integrity of its 36-year-old Outreach Training Program by improving how trainers become authorized to teach and ensuring these trainers are in compliance with OSHA program guidelines... EHS Today
June 18, 2009 -- House Democrats Craft Transportation Bill - House Democrats are crafting a transportation spending bill that would cost roughly $450 billion over six years, but no consensus has emerged on how to fund it, according to people familiar with the matter... Wall Street Journal
June 18, 2009 -- Unemployment Soars - The deepening economic recession is taking a tremendous toll on construction workers. In May, constructions unemployment rate jumped to 19.2%, more than double last years 8.6% rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest unemployment rate represents 1.77 million construction workers who are out of work. In May, total construction employment was 6.3 million, down from 7.3 million a year ago... ENR
June 16, 2009 -- Prevailing wages to be paid for most work on $4.2B plant
GlobalFoundries has started building a $4.2 billion chip plant in Malta, N.Y. Construction on the public-private industrial project is expected to take two years... Business Review
June 16, 2009 -- In April, the Carrollton City Council approved a $38 million mixed-use development next to a commuter rail station being erected downtown. The station is Carrolltons main gateway to the 28-mile Green Line, a $1.8 billion expansion of Dallas Area Rapid Transit. After the lines scheduled completion in late 2010, it will link Carrollton with downtown and southern Dallas... NY Times
June 16, 2009 -- The bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas on the Strip could soon receive bailout financing from the Union Labor Life Insurance Co. The Washington, D.C.-based, union-owned company has already committed $447.6 million in construction funding to the resort-casino development at the northeast corner of Las Vegas and Rivera Boulevards... Las Vegas Business Press
June 13, 2009 -- Quick Response Prevented Blue-Cross Crane Collapse -For every construction accident, safety experts say, as many as 100 near- misses occur. A quick response this year at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield building in Chicago is an example of one such accident averted... ENR.com
June 13, 2009 -- US backs first-ever clean coal plant - The US government yesterday tentatively backed the construction of an experimental clean coal-fired power plant, reviving a controversial project that has been more than five years in the making... Gulf Times
June 13, 2009 -- Dry Fork has 1,050 workers on site - Construction of the Dry Fork power plant north of Gillette already has hit a work force peak but plant developers say they are not worried about housing for the workers... The Gillette News-Record
June 13, 2009 -- NM to be site of nation's largest solar plant - A site in extreme southern New Mexico has been picked for construction of what could be the largest solar energy plant in the nation... KOB 4 Albuquerque
June 11, 2009 -- STEC selects Casey Industrial for new Power Plant
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:29 PM PDT
BROOMFIELD, Colo.----Casey Industrial - www.caseyind.com - has been contracted by South Texas Electric Cooperative - www.stec.org for the mechanical and electrical construction of their new 202.5-MW gas-fired power plant in Pearsall, TX... Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
June 11, 2009 -- Las Vegas Construction Industry Faces Deeper Hit - Amid Finance Woes on the Strip, Fontainebleau's Bankruptcy Filing Puts 3,000 Resort-Project Workers at Risk - The bankruptcy filing Tuesday night by Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC, a $3 billion resort project going up on the Las Vegas Strip, stands to have a harmful impact on a regional construction industry already struggling with unemployment... Wall Street Journal
June 11, 2009 -- Tenn. site being considered for new nuclear plant - A Tennessee site is being considered for construction of a new generation of smaller, modular nuclear energy plants, a Tennessee Valley Authority official said Wednesday at a news conference to introduce the new power plant design... Daily News Journal
June 10, 2009 -- Work to begin on $8.7 billion trans-Hudson tunnel - NORTH BERGEN â New Jersey officials will sink the first shovel into the nation's largest transportation project on Monday. The groundbreaking ceremony will kick off construction of a third tunnel under the Hudson River, an $8.7 billion project that's expected to be completed in 2017... The Record and Herald News
June 10, 2009 -- CRO Names Fluor To Best Corporate Citizen List- Fluor Corporation announced today that it was named a Best Corporate Citizen by the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (CRO) and is the lone engineering & construction firm on CROs Top 100 list. Companies were ranked based on factors including transparency, environmental performance, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial performance and governance using 343 separate data points... BUSINESS WIRE
June 10, 2009 -- OSHA seeks applications for nearly $7 million in new safety and health training grants -
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is soliciting applications for nearly $7 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants available to nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations... U.S. Department of Labor
June 10, 2009 -- Construction to begin soon on new B-N transit system facility - BLOOMINGTON -- Construction should begin this summer on a nearly $8 million Bloomington-Normal Public Transit System facility... The Pantagraph
June 10, 2009 -- Major Fort Bliss Construction - Housing, Post Exchange Work To Begin In July - Amid economic recession and a nationwide construction downturn, Washington is plowing ahead with major expansion plans at Fort Bliss. Officials expect to complete $4.6 billion in construction projects by 2012... KFOX14
June 06, 2009 -- Report: Las Vegas area lost 14,400 construction jobs - The boom-and-bust economy in Las Vegas has been particularly hard on the construction industry -- with little hope for a quick turnaround. The Associated General Contractors issued a report this week showing construction employment fell in Las Vegas and 275 other metro areas from April 2008 to April 2009. The Las Vegas statistics show construction employment here fell by 15.2 percent... Las Vegas Sun
June 06, 2009 -- Construction of Florida casino begins
UPI Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:13 AM PDT
MIAMI, June 5 (UPI) -- The construction phase of a plan to bring a casino to Miami-Dade County, Fla., has begun with the ritual groundbreaking ceremony, Churchill Downs Inc. says... UPI
June 06, 2009 -- TVA Board Approves Construction Of $820 Million Gas Plant In Northeast Tennessee - The TVA Board today approved construction of an 880-megawatt gas-fired power plant in northeast Tennessee and deferred two planned construction projects to upgrade gas plants in West Tennessee and Northeast Mississippi... The Chattanoogan
June 06, 2009 -- New law praised for ensuring safety on construction sites - CityCenter construction workers undergo OSHA training in 2008. A new law requires safety training for workers within 15 days of hire.
Photo by Tony Ilia/Business Press File Photo Union and construction industry officials on Thursday praised a new law they said aims to create a culture of safety on construction work sites throughout the state.The new bill, signed into law by Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday, requires all construction workers and supervisors to attend health and safety course training within 15 days of being hired... LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
June 06, 2009 -- First phase of Mississippi River bridge construction approved ST. LOUIS (KMOX News) -- Construction work leading up to the new Mississippi River Bridge is approved.
Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Drew Gates says $4.4 million will be spent to remove the Cass Avenue overpass and remove and replace the Madison Street and St. Louis Avenue overpasses... KMOX St. Louis
June 06, 2009 -- Corps: Costs for storm surge barrier work rises - NEW ORLEANS -- Top brass at the Army Corps of Engineers say the estimated price of a major project to build three floodgates and a 1.8-mile storm surge barrier to protect New Orleans from hurricanes is now $1.8 billion... The Associated Press
June 04, 2009 -- Longview port approves lease for grain terminal LONGVIEW, Wash. -- Port of Longview commissioners have approved an 80-year lease for a new grain terminal on the Columbia River. Construction on the $200 million project is due to start at the end of this month... Seattle Post Intelligencer
June 04, 2009 -- Big Apple Firms and Unions Will Cut Costs To Boost Work --
In an effort to jump start building projects in New York City and put idle union construction workers back on the job, the leaders of more than 40 different building trades and union employer groups announced on May 29 what they termed a âhistoric compactâ to cut wages of both labor and management and end expensive work rules... Engineering News-Record
June 03, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Construction spending rose 0.8 percent in April, defying economists' forecasts for a decline. The unexpected gain _ the most since August _ marked the second straight month that builders boosted spending on construction projects around the country, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Economists were bracing for a 1.2 percent drop in construction spending for April... Washington Post
June 03, 2009 -- Jacobs Expands Role at BP's Whiting Refinery -- Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. announced today that it is expanding its role to include construction management services for the Whiting Refinery Modernization Project for BP Products North America Inc. in Whiting, Ind... Yahoo Finance
June 03, 2009 -- Port commissioners OK grain terminal lease; construction to begin in late June --Construction of a $200 million privately financed grain terminal at the Port of Longview will begin at the end of this month, but how many of the 200 jobs will go to local construction workers is unclear, project officials said Monday... The Daily News
June 02, 2009 -- Panama Canal expansion is chugging alongThis month, officials will award the principal contract for the $5.25-billion expansion of the landmark Panama Canal, a project that will probably alter global shipping patterns and cement this Central American nation's place as a center of global logistics... Los Angeles Times
