Industry News Briefs

May 29, 2008 Headlines

DHS Awards $844 Million to Secure Nation's Critical Infrastructure
Green Buildings Net Results, Study Shows
Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves Offer Energy Relief
Commercial Real Estate Continues To Slide
As Campuses Crumble, Budgets Shrink

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DHS Awards $844 Million to Secure Nation's Critical Infrastructure
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (05/16/08)

Grants totaling more than $844 million have been awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as part of its Infrastructure Protection Activities program to bolster port security and augment transit, trucking, and intercity bus systems, with the overall goal being the development of prevention, protection, response, and recovery strategies against terrorist attacks, major catastrophes, and other emergencies. The Port Security Grant Program has been awarded $388.6 million to further its initiatives to enhance access control and credentialing, safeguard against an improvised explosive device (IED) and other non-conventional attacks, and perform exercises for disaster-response scenarios. The Transit Security Grant Program, whose goal is the protection of vital transit infrastructure, will receive $380.1 million, while the Intercity Passenger Rail Program and the Freight Rail Security Grant Program will respectively get $25 million and $4.9 million; the former will underwrite the National Passenger Railroad Corporation to fortify underground and underwater track and tunnels against IEDs and also expand visible deterrence operations and provide key staff with counter-terrorism training, while the latter will supply awards to railroad operators that transport security-sensitive materials through highly populated regions. The Trucking Security Grant Program, which will receive $15.5 million, will focus on the support of participant identification and recruitment, planning, training, communications, and information analysis and distribution. The Buffer Zone Protection Program will get $48.5 million to fund security and risk-management capabilities at state and local levels to shore up pre-designated Urban Areas Security Initiative Tier I and Tier II critical infrastructure sites, which include financial institutions, chemical facilities, stadiums, dams, nuclear and electric power plants, and other high-risk/high-consequence installations. Finally, $11.2 million will be awarded to the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program, with priority on IED prevention and detection, guarding of high-risk/high consequence assets, development of vulnerability assessments and security plans, antiterrorism training and preparedness exercises, and visible, unpredictable deterrence activities.
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Green Buildings Net Results, Study Shows
Federal Times (05/12/08) Vol. 44, No. 13, P. 5; Kauffman, Tim

A recent survey of 12 federal buildings that have sustainable design features found that, on average, they generate 33 percent less carbon emissions, require 26 percent less energy, and use 3 percent less water than U.S. commercial buildings. Furthermore, employees in these buildings were 29 percent happier with their working conditions than employees elsewhere. However, some of the surveyed buildings ranked lower than buildings without green features in the same categories. "If you set good project goals to be energy efficient and focus on these higher performing issues, you're more likely to achieve them. The projects where green was maybe not a top priority from the start are buildings that don't perform quite as well," says Donald Horn, director of sustainable design at the General Services Administration. The study linked employee dissatisfaction to inadequate acoustics, poorly planned lighting, and maintenance troubles. However, both the Carl T. Curtis Midwest Regional Headquarters of the National Park Service in Omaha, Neb., and the Omaha regional headquarters of the Homeland Security Department were rated "gold," the second-highest ranking a facility can receive, by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Environmental Design (LEED) program. They both spent the least on utilities and maintenance, had the greatest number of satisfied employees, and used 54 percent less water than the national average. Another building examined in the study was the John J. Duncan Federal Building in Knoxville, Tenn., which exceeded federal energy reduction objectives by 33 percent after its building manager introduced a variety of sustainable design features. Now, it conserves 400,000 gallons of water every year and over 290,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year over previous use, an amount that could power 26 regular homes.
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Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves Offer Energy Relief
U.S. Department of the Interior (05/21/08)

A new study from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concludes that there are massive reserves of unexploited oil and natural gas on public lands, and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management C. Stephen Allred urges that "at a time when energy prices have reached record levels and Americans are feeling the impact, we must find ways to develop those key energy resources that are available to us right here at home, on our public lands." Various federal agencies oversee the 279 million acre inventoried, and some of these acres feature privately owned surfaces and federally controlled subsurface mineral resources. The BLM currently manages 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate throughout the United States. The report estimates that there are 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on public lands, and that leasing is currently banned on 60 percent of the onshore federal lands with potential as domestic sources for oil and natural gas, which means 62 percent of the oil and 41 percent of the gas are not accessible for development. Furthermore, the development of an additional 49 percent of onshore federal gas and 30 percent of onshore federal oil is subject to limitations over and above standard environmental lease terms. "Current technology allows us to develop energy resources without adversely impacting the environment or permanently diminishing other non-energy resources found on public lands," says BLM director Jim Caswell. "With the means to make energy development a temporary use of the land, we don't have to choose between energy security and healthy lands."
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Commercial Real Estate Continues To Slide
Investor's Business Daily (05/22/08) P. A2

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that U.S. commercial real estate activity declined 0.7 percent in the first quarter, marking the third consecutive three-month decline. Cooling is now expected to continue for the remainder of 2008. The NAR index is a gauge of future commercial real estate activity that is compiled from 13 variables. Among them are: REIT prices and returns, industrial output, and employment gains.
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As Campuses Crumble, Budgets Shrink
Chronicle of Higher Education (05/23/08) Vol. 54, No. 37, P. A1; Carlson, Scott

At colleges across the country, more money is being spent on new buildings than repairs, leaving many institutions with a backlog of maintenance. Many are struggling to keep up with the cost of fixing buildings built in the past 10 years, especially as they deal with a volatile economy and an impending energy crisis. Those who do not keep up with repairs are also more likely to have lower enrollment rates as students are turned off by unattractive facilities. While public colleges normally receive assistance from state budgets, much of that money is being put toward pressing infrastructure repairs in other public spaces. Maintenance money is more likely to come out of a school's operation budget because colleges tend to ask donors and legislatures to help fund new buildings rather than repairs. "They either don't have the stomach for it or they don't think it is glamorous enough for their watch," says Harvey H. Kaiser, who has advised many colleges on deferred maintenance. "It's going to start to spiral downward again to a huge backlog." Deferred maintenance is typically measured with a "facilities condition index," calculated by taking how much it would cost to pay for all the overdue, urgent maintenance concerns on the backlog and dividing it by how much it would cost to replace those buildings and systems. Backlogs of 5 percent are believed to be healthy, though most institutions fall in the 10 percent to 20 percent range. Colleges can deal with deferred maintenance before beginning work on a building by raising extra money to endow lifetime maintenance, though the endowment must equal the cost of the building. They should also stop building until all repairs have been made, though that is a tall order according to Terry W. Ruprecht, a contributor to a new book about college-maintenance difficulties titled "Buildings…the Gifts That Keep on Taking." Ruprecht says, "You start talking about the maintenance and upkeep on that, and nobody — nobody — wants to talk about that. ... You have all this help when it comes to soliciting funds for a new building. There is no help when it comes to soliciting funds to maintain it." The time when donors will be most likely to pay for maintenance is when a college decides to renovate revered campus buildings. "That is probably the only space where universities can be successful raising money for deferred maintenance," says Joe Kender Jr., vice president for advancement at Lehigh University. "Most people who are giving money to an institution want to fund new buildings, new discovery, or new programs." Though it is harder to get money for everyday renovations, colleges may be successful if they directly state what their greatest needs are. "The more specific or transparent you can be about stating your needs, whether it be a board of regents or a state department of administration, the more effective you will be at getting the funds you need," says Matt Adams, a prominent facilities consultant.

Best Solution for Traffic Woes? Eliminating the Drivers
North County Times (CA) (05/17/08) Muhlhausen, Emily

According to the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic congestion costs the U.S. economy $78 billion annually in terms of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel, producing 27 billion kilograms of greenhouse gases. Traditional approaches to alleviating congestion focus on expanding roads and introducing specialized tolls, but some experts claim that the best way to optimize traffic flow is to eliminate the real problem, the drivers. "Congestion is often not caused by the road, but by the way drivers are driving," says Leon James, a psychology professor at the University of Hawaii. If just one driver in traffic makes a mistake, tailgates, or changes lanes unnecessarily, hundreds of cars may have to suddenly put on the brakes. "We call it a traffic wave. ... Everything suddenly slows to a crawl, but there's no obstruction." Driverless concepts include Personal Rapid Transit, involving passenger taxi-pods on rails; automatic highway systems that guide driverless vehicles using magnetic guidelines; and dual-mode systems, in which cars can be driven like normal on smaller roads and can go driverless on specialized electric rails for high-speed travel. According to Jerry Schneider, a University of Washington professor emeritus of urban planning and civil engineering, a dual-mode lane could accommodate 15,000 cars or more per hour, compared to a normal highway lane, which has a capacity of approximately 2,000 cars an hour. Optimization would be achieved through standardized spacing between vehicles, allowing speed efficiency. Jim Longbottom, a co-founder of the Center for Energy, Environment, and Transportation Innovation at Texas A&M University, says nationwide implementation of a dual-mode system would cost approximately $1.5 trillion.
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34 Percent Cut in Federal Highway & Bridge Funding Coming
Transportation Construction Coalition (05/21/08)

The Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) ran a print add in Capitol Hill publications warning of a severe shortfall in federal highway and bridge funding in conjunction with its May 20-21Washington Fly-In, in which more than 400 transportation design and construction officials visited Capitol Hill to meet lawmakers and push for greater investment. According to the ad, which directs lawmakers to a Web site to learn about potential highway funding cuts and job losses state by state, the Highway Trust Fund is facing its first-ever deficit. Unless lawmakers take action, states will suffer a 34 percent cut in highway and bridge funding, starting Oct. 1. TCC was established in 1996, is co-chaired by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and Associated General Contractors of America, and includes 28 national associations and unions with market interest in federal transportation programs.
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Architecture Billings Index Remains Weak
American Institute of Architects (05/21/08)

The American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Architecture Billings Index increased to 45.5 in April, up from the historic low of 39.7 in March; a score higher than 50 indicates an increase in billings. "After dropping rapidly the past two months, this uptick shows that the slowdown is beginning to moderate," says AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. "Even though the downturn in design billings has come on very quickly, most areas of the country aren't showing signs of an oversupply of nonresidential facilities. That provides hope that this weak patch may be relatively short-lived." The score of inquiries for new projects stood at 53.9.
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Less Shopping = Fewer Malls
Wall Street Journal (05/21/08) P. C13; Hudson, Kris

The boom period for retail construction has ended as retailers continue to slow growth plans and lenders remain tight with their funding. Several of the nation's biggest developers of shopping malls and retail centers have reacted to this waning demand for space by postponing some of their projects by a year or more. They include Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and Related Cos. Such other developers as Regency Centers Corp. and Weingarten Realty Investors are building venues piecemeal as conditions allow. Still others have canceled their projects altogether. Home Depot, J.C. Penney Co. and Starbucks Corp. are just three of the national chains that have recently scaled back their expansion plans. In total, the International Council of Shopping Centers expects approximately 6,500 U.S. stores to close this year--the biggest total in seven years. The retail sector's recovery could be slow to materialize amid depleted home equity and high personal-debt levels plaguing American consumers. J.C. Penney Chairman and CEO Myron Ullman comments, "We believe it is going to be harder for consumer confidence to come back quickly until some of these issues are resolved."

Managing Tipping Point Dynamics in Complex Construction Projects
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (06/01/08) Vol. 134, No. 6, P. 421; Taylor, Timothy R.B.; Ford, David N.

Complex construction projects are susceptible to tipping points, which can cause projects, especially nuclear power plant construction projects, to fail. A tipping point is a set of conditions that divides two very unique, internally driven, behavior modes. If too much work is added to a project, a tipping point can become crossed, prompting system behaviors to drastically alter their performance. Therefore, tipping point dynamics must be managed. The Limerick Unit 2 nuclear power plant project found that a model used to test procedures for managing tipping point dynamics is effective. Project managers should work to develop an understanding of how tipping point dynamics can influence project performance. Project teams should think about what systems will probably need the most iteration (rework), how that iteration can be reduced or eliminated, ripple effects it might cause, and how those ripple effects can be minimized. Before beginning a project, it is important that project managers determine tipping point structures and factors that could push projects to a tipping point. The more complex a project, and the higher the number of its interdependent components, the more likely it is to undergo tipping point dynamics, which can threaten its completion.

Grant Proposals Sought for Construction of Science Research Buildings
NIST Tech Beat (05/20/08)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking grant proposals for the construction of science research buildings from institutions of higher education and non-profit organizations. The agency will award about $29 million in grants based on the scientific and technical merits of proposals, the quality of the design of the proposed facility, and the quality of a project execution plan as well as how well the proposal fits in with the agency's science and technology programs.

Weight Watcher
Roads & Bridges (05/08) Vol. 46, No. 5, Kleinhans, Danielle D.

The widening of the road-rail Huey P. Long Bridge in the New Orleans area, a 73-year-old four-span bridge that is close to 2,400 feet in length, is requiring close monitoring of the existing structure to ensure that the load transferred from the widening truss members to the existing truss members is as expected. The project is part of the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIMED) Program, whose economic-growth goals have become much more important following the Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita destruction. The bridge's two rail lines are supported between its trusses, while vehicular traffic is supported by outboard cantilevered floor beams. For the widening, more than 800 static and dynamic strain gauges on the existing truss members will measure axial and bending load effects, while tiltmeters will track the piers' inclination. The static-load monitoring system makes use of vibrating wire strain gauges, and the live-load monitoring system makes use of full-bridge resistance strain gauges. Temperature measurements will also be made. During construction, the predicted and measured strain values will be compared daily to track progress and identify potential problems or needed changes.
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Stabilizing Deep Pit Sidewalls in Tight Quarters
Associated Construction Publications (05/15/08)

The installers of a new pump station's foundation in the Indianapolis area made use of a PRO-TEC Slide Rail System to shore up pit sidewalls in a much faster time frame than if steel sheeting had been used, while also avoiding complete traffic interruptions or disturbances to the neighborhood. The contractor, Bowen Engineering Corp., was faced with shoring up an excavated pit tightly located between a road and a river levee that is part of the area's flood control plan. The pit was excavated with a CAT 345, using its 42-foot reach, and the shoring solution was chosen with the help of PRO-TEC supplier MacAllister Machinery. Slide rails and steel sheeting were about equal in material costs, but the slide rail system took about half the time the other option would have taken. "Given the city street area we were working in, the Slide Rail System gave us the luxury of shoring up the walls without completely interrupting traffic and disturbing homes and businesses in the neighborhood," says slide rail specialist Taylor Clark of MacAllister Machinery.
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Citigroup-Albertis Team Wins Right to Lease Pennsylvania Turnpike
Philadelphia Business Journal (05/19/08)

Citigroup has teamed with Spanish toll road operator Abertis Infraestructuras SA to win a bidding war for the right to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The group's winning bid was reportedly in the $12.8 billion range. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has been a vocal proponent of leasing the turnpike as a means of funding bridge and road repairs and mass transit in the state. The lease is set to run for 75 years. The next step is for New York-based Citigroup and Albertis to meet and discuss plans with lawmakers, who still have to approve the deal. The bid is set to remain in place until June 20, but Rendell expects no problems in extending it as the legislature deliberates. The other final bidder was a group led by Goldman Sachs Group and Transurban Group, an Australian toll-road operator, which bid $12.1 billion. A third bidder was led by Australia's Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Spain's Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructura de Transporte SA. Together, they offered $8.1 billion.

What You Can Do to Deter Construction Theft
Utility Contractor (05/08) Kennedy, George

With heavy equipment theft costing the construction industry between $300 million and $1 billion every year, it is crucial that contractors take steps to deter thieves. Many owners do not record information on the equipment they sell, which makes it hard to catch criminals. An equipment inventory management system should be created that encompasses information about every piece of equipment, even smaller items, such as generators and compressors. The exact make and model number, product information number (PIN), serial number (SN), and all prefixes and other component numbers, including engine, chassis, or attachments, should be inserted into the file, as well as a picture of the equipment. To help spot equipment after it is stolen, something that will help identify the company should be painted or etched on units. An item should also have its PIN or SN etched in two places, one visible and one hidden. Another tool used to track stolen equipment is the National Equipment Registry, where individual pieces can be registered. Contractors should also take action to prevent theft by securing all equipment and materials. There are locking devices made specifically for different units that make it hard for a criminal to move the equipment. Attempts should also be made to construct fences or barricades around equipment and materials or to surround smaller equipment with bigger equipment. Thieves will also be less likely to rob a well-lit site, so lights should be installed along the perimeter and should be aimed at the equipment. Lighting can usually be connected to other security tools, like fences and sensors, but it is important to make sure that the power source is also secured to stop thieves from interrupting it. There is also a variety of high-tech options, such as a mobile remote surveillance system that combines lighting, alarms, voice alerts, cameras, and the option of sending a video or photograph to a business computer network, project manager's laptop, or BlackBerry. Another tool is the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System, which tracks stolen equipment using a concealed radio frequency transceiver. Other high-tech solutions include electronic "smart" key systems, programmable keypad ignition locks, and immobilizer systems.
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