e-newsletter of the
Construction Industry Coalition Council
PO Box 4163
McLean VA 22103-4163
703-734-2397 Fax 703-734-2908

June 2005

Summary of Construction Industry Coalition Council Meeting May 5, 2005

Overcoming Barriers to the Introduction of New Materials and Technologies in the Highway Market

The use of innovative materials and technologies in highway infrastructure continues to face a number of obstacles. The key constraints range from limited evaluation resources, regulatory environment, and liability issues, to challenges related to vendor credibility, variation in requirements from state-to-state, and risks associated with the use of innovative products and materials with no existing standards. While the overall acceptance has increased over time, there is a strong need to overcome these barriers to implementation of innovation.

 

This presentation discusses the need determination, implementation, and impact of the Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center (HITEC), a program established by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF) in 1994, to facilitate the product evaluation and pre-approval process at state transportation agencies, and to help overcome the barriers to innovation in the highway market.

 

Speaker: Muhammad Amer, Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF); 703-295-6392, mamer@cerf.org

 

Volatility in the Structural Steel Industry

The market for all types of construction materials has changed radically in the past year. No longer are we participating in a domestic market governed by the economics of domestic demand against domestic production supplemented by imports. Whether the topic is structural steel, reinforcing steel, cement, concrete, gypsum, lumber, plywood or copper the patterns of the old construction marketplace have been replaced by the dynamics of global demand and global supply. Today burgeoning demand in China for construction materials, a weakened US dollar, growing global production, escalating shipping costs, future growth expectations in India, increased competition for raw materials and a domestic policy favoring free trade have created the context for continuing price and availability volatility in all types of construction materials. This talk will explore the practical ramifications of this change with a particular emphasis placed on recent volatility in the structural steel industry.

 

Supplementary Materials (in pdf format):

Steel Market Trends - March Volatility

2005 Steel Price Outlook - Lessons from the Playground

Price Trends - May 2005

Speaker: John Cross, American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC); 312-670-5406, cross@aisc.org  

 

Next CICC Meeting - August 2, 2005

Location: The Surety Association of America, 1101 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 800, Washington DC (Metro - Red Line Farragut North)
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The Owner’s Role in Construction Safety: The Compelling Economic Realities Beyond the Moral Obligation
Every day 1,300 construction workers go home injured or ill—and three don’t go home at all. The industry employs seven percent of the U.S. workforce, yet it accounts for 20 percent of the all job-related fatalities. Seventy-five percent of fatalities are laborers most of whom perished in trenches. Safety needs to go from being a priority to being a value—priorities change; values don’t. Society and more specifically, owners bear the economic costs for every occupational injury, illness, and death on their projects—directly and indirectly. Owners of all types and sizes must be committed to reducing costly interruptions caused by contractors with poor safety performance and sub-standard or non-existent safety programs. Ninety percent of all construction companies employ less than twenty workers; the great majority has no formal job safety programs in place. These are small companies with limited resources. It is critically important for all owners—not just the Fortune 500 corporations, to lead by example and hire contractors that are committed to providing a safe and productive job site to their workers and for their clients. 
Speaker: Michael A. Youngblut, Vice President, Hess Egan Hagerty & L’Hommedieu, MYoungblut@hessegan.com

Differing Expectations Regarding Site Safety Roles
The federal OSHA standards and documents issued by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) all differ significantly in the roles they assume owners, designers and contractors will play regarding site safety. AIA, AGC, and ASCE stress safety as a fundamental responsibility of general contractors while OSHA standards focus on the responsibility to the employers. ASCE, which entered into a formal alliance with OSHA in 2003, has a formal policy and an unofficial initiative to encourage design professionals to consider the safety of construction workers during the design stage. This initiative is being pursued in collaboration with several national contractor organizations and construction trades organizations. For information on ASCE’s construction site safety policy and its alliance with OSHA, go to http://www.mmtmagazine.org/page/?id=48.
Speaker: Professor T. Michael Toole, P.E., Bucknell University, ttoole@bucknell.edu.

ANSI/ASSE 10.34-2001 Standard
OSHA and their state program equivalents focus only on the employer/employee relationship. A recently developed ANSI standard takes construction safety a step further and talks to safety and health of the public. This presentation focuses on the contractor's responsibility to protect the public on and around their construction sites. It provides a brief overview of the ANSI/ASSE 10.34-2001 standard.
Speaker: F. Robb Altenburg, Construction Safety Specialist, Smithsonian Institution, 202-275-0740, AltenburgR@si.edu

To register, contact Noel Raufaste, nraufaste@erols.com; 301-467-6767. There is no charge to attend CICC meetings.