Author: agcnews

Contractors’ bid prices for constructing new nonresidential buildings finally caught up with soaring costs for the materials and service they buy in May, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association officials cautioned that contractors will have a hard time keeping pace with additional price spikes for many key construction materials. “After enduring more than a year of runaway increases in the cost of items needed to build projects, contractors have finally raised their bid prices by an equivalent amount,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But the runup in materials costs…

On June 8, AGC sought clarification from OSHA on its enforcement of heat-related hazards under its National Emphasis Program (NEP). Due to the absence of specific guidance clarifying how compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) will evaluate a contractor’s implementation of protocols to address heat exposure, fair and consistent enforcement will be significantly impacted across all regions. In addition, the NEP’s ambiguities may ultimately put workers at further risk of injury or illness. Based on AGC’s review and analysis of the NEP, it is unclear if following the principles of Water. Rest. Shade. under OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Campaign will be deemed acceptable. It also raises questions…

Environmentalists are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undertake a rulemaking to classify discarded polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) as hazardous waste under federal law and to revise the solid waste management guidelines on disposal of PVC. AGC filed comments on June 3 on a proposed consent decree that would settle the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in D.C. federal court, saying EPA unreasonably delayed responding to CBD’s 2014 petition that asked the agency to regulate PVC under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under the proposed “sue and settle” agreement, EPA promised to decide within nine months whether to…

KANSAS CITY, MO. – The bi-state region’s fast-growing construction sector, which last year started $8.3 billion worth of projects, contributes an extra $10.7 billion to the local economy and supports 83,000 non-construction jobs, according to a new economic impact analysis released by the Associated General Contractors of America today. The new analysis shows the broader impacts of an industry as the region’s two largest building associations announced plans to merge by the end of the year. “Construction is expanding in the Kansas City metro area,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “As a result, the industry is adding good-paying jobs at…

Struggling to find enough workers? On this episode, three young construction professionals share their insights about how they made a decision on a full-time position and why their selected firms stood out. Guests include Trent Fair, recent graduate of Pittsburg State University, who landed a Superintendent role with Simpson Construction Services, Jack McGavran, also graduated from Pittsburg State who will be joining McCarthy Building Services as an Engineer, and Collette LeManske of Kansas State University, who will be taking on a Project Engineer role with Brinkmann Constructors. These three new additions to the industry provide some great information about what…

The Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) is the largest association of construction owners in the United States. COAA just held its Spring Connect conference in downtown Baltimore on the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) campus. One session featured “What I Love and Hate About Updating My Contracts from an Owners’ Perspective.” ConsensusDocs’ Executive Director & Senior Counsel Brian Perlberg spoke on a panel with Joe Cleves of Taft Law and Pen Wolf from the Cleveland Clinic. Pen Wolf from Cleveland Clinic outlined the process he used to update his contracts recently. The Cleveland Clinic builds facilities annually and owns different facilities at different…

Struggling to find enough workers? On this episode, three young construction professionals share their insights about how they made a decision on a full-time position and why their selected firms stood out. This episode was pre-recorded at AGC’s Annual Convention. When recording on the road, audio isn’t always studio-quality, but the content is worth the listen! Thanks for following! Guests:Our guests each bring different perspectives on the recruitment and hiring process and share what got them where they are now. Trent Fair – Pittsburg State University / Simpson Construction Services, simpsonconst.com/Jack McGavran – Pittsburg State University / McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., www.mccarthy.com/Collette…

Rapidly rising hourly earnings enabled the construction industry to add 36,000 employees in May, but a record number of job openings going into the month suggests contractors want to hire even more workers, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of new government data. Association officials said firms would have hired even more workers if they could find more people willing to work in the sector. “It is encouraging that contractors were able to add workers in May, but they will need many more to meet the increasing demand for infrastructure and private nonresidential projects,” said…

Nearly three-quarters of federal contractors report they will stop bidding on federal projects if the Biden administration were to follow through on its plans to impose government-mandated project labor agreements according to the results of a survey of firms released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. The survey also found that the federal mandate will make it harder for contractors to partner with small, veteran, minority or disabled-owned firms. In addition to limiting competition for federal projects, the survey found that imposing project labor agreements will make it harder for firms to find enough workers to hire. Nearly 40 percent…

Consensus doesn’t mean unanimity. ConsensusDocs is the first and only broad-based coalition in the United States that publishes standard construction contract documents. ConsensusDocs has existed for over 14 years and has grown to over 40 construction organizations, including the three largest owner organizations in the U.S. One aspect that made consensus possible was allowing each participating organization the opportunity to provide their own individual comments to the standard ConsensusDocs language. This is done through the ConsensusDocs Guidebook. You can access the published ConsensusDocs Guidebook here: https://www.consensusdocs.org/guidebook/. The Guidebook allows associations to highlight important risk allocation issues and project-specific concerns for…