Industry News Briefs

November 13, 2008 Headlines
Obama May Spend on Highways, Bridges to Stimulate U.S. Economy
Democrats to Seek New Stimulus Package
National Construction Loan Delinquency Hits 10 Percent

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Obama May Spend on Highways, Bridges to Stimulate U.S. Economy
Bloomberg (11/04/08) Keane, Angela Greiling

President-elect Barack Obama has signaled that spending on surface transportation infrastructure will be one of his top priorities as he tackles the slumping U.S. economy. "We'll create 2 million jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, schools and bridges," Obama said in an Oct. 13 speech outlining his plan for stimulating the economy. Obama has urged lawmakers to pass an economic stimulus bill immediately after the election. The measure, as pushed by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), would include spending on highways and other transportation infrastructure. Obama has also called for an infrastructure bank to invest $60 billion a year on roads, bridges, and other projects over the coming decade. "He's identified infrastructure as one of the ways to strengthen the American economy," says Janet Kavinoky, transportation infrastructure director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "So we would expect it to be on his list of actions both for the stimulus and longer term."
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Democrats to Seek New Stimulus Package
Bond Buyer (11/06/08) Vol. 365, No. 33001, P. 1; Dutton, Audrey; Schroeder, Peter

Congressional Democratic leaders have said that they will push for a second economic stimulus package when lawmakers return to Washington on Nov. 17. A $61 billion stimulus package previously approved by the House includes $6.5 billion for the clean water state revolving fund and $1 billion for the drinking water state revolving fund, through which states can supply low-cost loans for local water and wastewater infrastructure projects. The measure also includes $12.8 billion for highway infrastructure and $600 million for airport construction. The package was blocked by Republicans, who then had an incentive to protect President Bush from having to use his veto power. It may serve as the basis for a new bill, and Republicans lack the incentive to stand in the way this time. President-elect Barack Obama has emphasized the importance of infrastructure spending to help stimulate the U.S. economy.

National Construction Loan Delinquency Hits 10 Percent
GlobeSt.com (11/02/08) Miller, Brian K.

Foresight Analytics reports that construction loan delinquencies nationally rose to 10 percent in this year's third quarter, compared to 8.1 percent as of June 30 and 5.5 percent in last year's fourth quarter. Foresight principal Matthew Anderson notes that the increase is being fueled by a sharp rise in Nonaccruals, which are past due loans on which the lender has ceased accruing interest because full repayment is unlikely. The root cause is single-family residential construction lending, the delinquency rate for which is expected to hit about 15 percent for the July-through-September period--an increase from 12.5 percent at mid-year. Meanwhile, Anderson says many smaller banks indicate rising delinquency rates for non-commercial building construction, with the delinquency rate for commercial mortgages on a steady rise ever since the summer of 2007.

In Challenging Economic Times, Leadership Training Is an Edge
Engineering News-Record (10/27/08) Vol. 261, No. 13, P. 30; Setzer, Steven W.; Rubin, Debra K.

Engineering firms and other companies are responding to economic uncertainty by placing greater emphasis on leadership training as a means to maintain performance and profitability, and some experts believe college-level engineering and construction programs need to focus on training the next generation of leaders. According to CH2M Hill Cos. Chairman and CEO Ralph Peterson, "Management is about understanding numbers, controls and processes. Leadership is about understanding insight, inspiration and alignment." Cincinnati-based Messer Construction has made leadership training its business foundation, focusing on a half-dozen behavioral competencies, including performance, vision, and interpersonal skills. The company depends on formal assessments of personality, as well as feedback from managers, peers, and subordinates. Meanwhile, a leadership program created by Brent Darnell International Principal G. Brent Darnell focuses on follow-up coaching and health and wellness, as they both help improve an individual's leadership skills. More schools are incorporating leadership programs, with Barton Malow Human Resources Vice President Jim Nahrgang noting, "People come out of school thinking they're going to be building buildings, but the first thing you find out on a jobsite is that you're building relationships."

Will the Economic Crisis Trump the Smart Grid?
Risk Center (11/06/08) Harper-Slaboszewicz, Patti

Research suggests the global economic crisis could affect funding for SmartGrid projects. Prior to the meltdown, funding for advanced metering infrastructure or outage management systems had little trouble clearing steering committees, board members, or regulators. But an Oct. 14 report by Standard and Poor's (S&P) suggests that regulated utilities may have to shore up spending until the markets settle. In the report, S&P predicts utilities may significantly modify their spending estimates in response to the crisis, but that "the adjustments will not be so much to reduce or eliminate the expenditures permanently as to defer them for some indeterminate period." S&P drew its conclusion from a survey by Black & Veatch that reveals "perhaps as much as 60 percent of the generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure is at least near the end of its service life, while in some cases 20 percent to 25 percent is past its intended usefulness."
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VCs Have a Nuclear Reaction
San Francisco Business Times (11/03/08) Riddell, Lindsay

Rising oil costs have forced venture capitalists to take a fresh look at nuclear power. After decades of bad publicity, nuclear power is considered a viable alternative by investors and some environmentalists. Sequoia Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson are among the long list of Bay Area venture capital firms evaluating underwriting opportunities for new nuclear plants. Altira Group started the trend in 2007 when it agreed to front the $25 million for Hyperion Power Generation. Industry watchers cite rising oil costs as one reason why investors are willing to invest in nuclear projects. "I think the dependence on foreign oil has something to do with that, so new types of nuclear power are going to be sought after," says venture capitalist Tim Draper. Moreover, new nuclear plants are smaller in scale, more efficient, and less expensive to build than their predecessors. For example, the nuclear facility being developed by NuScale Power in Oregon is only 60 feet by 14 feet and can be added to existing plants or operate by itself. The micro reactor Toshiba is building is 6 feet by 20 feet and generates 200 kilowatts of energy at about 5 cents per kilowatt hour.

Imaging Software Makes Bridges Safer
United Press International (11/05/08)

An image-processing software program capable of automatically spotting irregularities in bridge materials has been developed by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Researcher Markus Rauhut says the software automatically inspects photographs of a bridge for certain traits and inconsistencies, in contrast to the traditional method of on-site inspection. The scientists took metrics from photos that included typical bridge defects in either steel or concrete bridges and placed the information in a database. When a bridge photo is loaded into the program, the software compares the characteristics of the new image with those of the saved sample defects. When any irregularities are detected during the comparison, the program marks the respective area on the image. "Unlike a human, the tool doesn't miss any abnormalities—even minor damage is identified and signaled," notes Rauhut. Engineers report that they have been employing the software to examine bridges in Italy for the past six months.
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When the Roads Talk, Your Car Can Listen
New York Times (10/30/08) Wald, Matthew L.

Several federal agencies have come out in support of the concept of a roadway information network that uses fleets of cars as roving sensors to gather real-time information about road conditions. Many cars already have the sort of technology that would be needed to gather such information, but there is no agreed-upon system by which the information can be compiled and communicated to authorities. "Once you have the ability to gather data from all the cars on a roadway network, and a back-end computer, you would have all kinds of capability to take action," says Ralph Robinson, of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. For example, information gathered by cars on the roads could help guide snowplows, police, repair crews, and rescue squads to the places where they are most needed. A type of sensor that is already in many cars is the anti-skid system; if a number of cars' anti-skid systems are found to be activating in one place on the road, that could be a sign of an icy patch or other problem. Similarly, GPS-equipped cars can help police and other authorities discover areas where traffic is not flowing smoothly so they can take action. "You can find a crack in the road and fix it before it becomes a hole," says T. Russell Shields, chairman of Ygomi, a company that is looking into how cars could be linked to a central reporting station. There are already cars out there that are relaying information to central reporting stations—such as those linked to the OnStar system or Dash Navigation's Dash Express—and some additional work could allow them to collect and transmit even more information.
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Infrastructure Matters
Water & Wastes Digest (10/08) Vol. 48, No. 10, Cunningham, Caitlin

Population growth, security threats, and greater accountability have all helped push infrastructure management and maintenance to the forefront for utilities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Infrastructure and Wastewater initiative embraces a four-pronged approach to infrastructure for water and wastewater utilities: state-of-the-art management, higher rates, greater efficiency in water use, and watershed protection. Regarding management, the EPA and partners have created a list of 10 attributes possessed by the utilities that are most effectively managed, and the www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/watereum.html Web site can help utilities learn to implement these attributes. Some of the most important aspects of asset management are long-term planning, proactive operations and maintenance, lifecycle cost estimation, and capital replacement plans that have a cost/benefit basis. Regarding rates, utilities will have to change the belief among the general public that water is inexpensive and endlessly abundant. "Water is a bargain," says Mark Halleman of Infrastructure Management Group, adding, "We as citizens will always require a high quality of water. As power and chemicals used in water treatment become more expensive and water—in certain parts of the country—becomes scarcer, the cost of water will greatly appreciate. Water rates certainly have to go up. Infrastructure needs to be repaired.” Along with the higher rates comes the attitude change that water is a precious resource to be conserved with greater efficiency; the American Water Works Association, for example, estimates that installing water-saving features could cut average American household water use by 30 percent. Finally, utilities can reduce their treatment costs and their systems' wear and tear by protecting the watershed so the source water is cleaner; this could include "green" stormwater management practices and water quality trading programs.
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Life in a Fishbowl
Architect (10/01/08) Vol. 97, No. 13, P. 102; Gerfen, Katie

A new kind of social experiment is in the works at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, one that aims to demonstrate to colleges how energy-efficient dormitory design can translate into long-term savings. A twin set of dormitories drafted by the city's own Dirk Denison Architects will provide an additional 420 new beds to the primary student housing area on campus. Though identical in structure, one building will incorporate enough green building features to receive a LEED silver rating, while the other will include more eco-friendly technologies with a sight toward achieving a LEED platinum rating. The energy output in both buildings will be monitored and compared, and any findings will be taken into consideration for the future construction of dormitories and classrooms. Both buildings will rely on solar positioning and mixed-use ventilation systems, coupled with an exterior shell designed to trap heat and cool air depending on the season. The platinum building will take the sustainability to a higher level, with 800 square feet of photovoltaic (PV) rooftop slides that will cultivate roughly 2 percent of the unit's energy. The PV panels and four rooftop turbines will generate hot water for the bathrooms as well as energy for other assorted heating and cooling needs. A visual representation of individual energy usage involving an electronic fish tank with "energetic"/low-energy usage fish and "lethargic"/high energy-usage fish was designed by founder Dirk Denison and his team and will be installed in the building's lobby. "It will create this event where everyone can find their fish and compare it to everyone else's," Denison says. "I think what we're going to find is that it is not giving them information about their own use, but on other people's in comparison—that is the crux."
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Current Events
Roads & Bridges (10/08) Vol. 46, No. 10, P. 32; Yehia, Sherif

Electrically conductive concrete that has been under development over the past decade is capable of producing sufficient heat to prevent the buildup of ice on a bridge deck when linked to a power source. Seven years ago, Western Michigan University (WMU) professors Christopher Tuan and Sherif Yehia devised a conductive concrete mix that employed carbon powder and steel fiber that boasts a compressive strength of 4,500 psi and supplies an average thermal power density of 55 W per square foot with a heating rate of 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit per minute in a winter environment. A conductive concrete inlay was installed at the Roca Spur Bridge in Roca, Neb., as a demonstration project, with slab temperature and current monitored and maintained by a microprocessor-based controller system. Over the past five years the deicing system's performance has been outstanding. WMU is currently engaged in an investigation of conductive concrete for other applications, such as cathodic protection of reinforcement and electromagnetic shielding.
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Study: 'Bright' Green Buildings a Growing Trend as ROI Improves
Commercial Property News (11/03/08) Kalinoski, Gail

Throughout North America, there is an increasing use of intelligent technologies to take green building practices to the next level. A new report by the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) aims to show property firms that using intelligent building features along with green building designs can result in a substantial return on investment (ROI), as well as provide a more healthy and productive environment for tenants and their employees. CABA President and CEO Ron Zimmer notes that the report "reveals how 'bright' green buildings lower operating costs due to more efficient operations and better control, thereby enhancing the value of the buildings themselves." The typical intelligent building features a fully networked system integrating data, voice and video with security, HVAC, lighting and other electronic controls on a single Internet Protocol (IP) network platform. Chiefly, it is capable of monitoring and controlling lighting conditions, heating and air conditioning, and water usage. Marybeth Marx, vice president of marketing for Ortronics/Legrand, comments, "IP-based building technologies will become mainstream when the cost-saving benefits become more fully understood in both the IT and building management companies." The CABA study went on to offer several real-life examples of intelligent technology used in buildings around the world, including hospitals, universities and shopping centers.

Endgame: Construction Fatalities Soar Nationwide
Mid-Atlantic Construction (10/08) Vol. 5, No. 3, P. 50; Illia, Tony

Since the end of 2006, there have been 12 construction-related deaths in the Las Vegas Strip area. MGM Mirage's CityCenter project alone has seen eight deaths in 19 months. The project's general contractor, Perini Building Co., reached an agreement with the Southern Nevada Council Building and Construction Trades Council that included 10-hour OSHA training, additional safety meetings, and full job site access by union officials and safety directors. Meanwhile, the Ironworkers District Council of California has convinced the federal OSHA to annul compliance directive CPL 02-01-034, which allows builders to bypass the use of flooring and/or netting every 30 feet if workers wear safety harnesses. The ironworkers say both safeguards would have saved at least two lives on the Las Vegas Strip by helping prevent falls. The state of Texas had the highest number of crane-related worker deaths in 2005-2006, totaling 26 deaths out of 157, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The state does not require crane workers to be certified. In New York, a March 15 incident resulted in the deaths of seven people when workers lost control of a 6-ton bracing collar, causing the collapse of a tower crane. OSHA has pledged to revise its crane-and-derrick standard.
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