Author: agcnews

Earmarks Also Set to Return after a Decade Hiatus Congress is again faced with an impending deadline to fund the government by March 11. The House of Representatives has passed a full fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding package that would set new spending levels for the year after multiple continuations of funding at prior year levels. Since it is so close to the March 11 deadline, they also passed a stopgap measure to fund the government until March 15 just in case the Senate does not have the chance to consider and vote on the full year funding bill before…

Contractors Association Urges Washington Officials to Boost Funding for Career and Technical Education, Open More Apprenticeship Opportunities to Attract and Prepare Workers for Careers in Construction Construction employment climbed by 60,000 jobs between January and February as hourly pay rose at the steepest pace in nearly 40 years, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association leaders urged officials in Washington to boost support for career training and education to enable more workers to pursue high-paying construction careers. “All segments of construction added workers in February,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s…

Association Officials Note Congress Has Yet to Fund Promised Increases in Infrastructure Funding Outlined In the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, While Administration Adds Restrictions Congress Didn’t Put in the Law Construction spending increased in January compared to both December and a year ago, with strong gains in private nonresidential and residential construction but mixed results for public spending, according to an analysis of federal spending data the Associated General Contractors of America released today. Association leaders urged Washington officials to speed the award of funds promised by the Bipartisan Infrastructure law. “Private nonresidential construction, especially for manufacturing plants, has rebounded sharply in…

Good legal writing is simply good writing. Construction contracts written in legalese confuse rather than clarify performance expectations. “Gotcha clauses” buried in a contract leads parties to distrust one another. ConsensusDocs standard construction agreements are written in clear and concise language. This helps the parties understand, administer, and interpret the contract. One distinguishing feature in ConsensusDocs is the integration of the general terms and conditions into the agreement. This allows parties to complete an agreement with one document instead of two, which has many benefits. There are three main benefits with integrating your terms and conditions into the agreement: These…

Construction employment in December remained below levels reached just before the start of the pandemic in more than half the states despite widespread gains last month, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said employment hasn’t recovered fully because most firms report difficulty finding workers, according to the association’s recent survey predicting the industry’s hiring and business outlook. “Even though employment has risen in more states recently, so has the number of job openings as contractors struggle to find qualified workers in an increasingly tight labor market,” said Ken Simonson, the…

On February 22, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced nearly $450 million in newly available grant funding for port-related infrastructure projects through the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP). This announcement represents a historic level of funding for this program that awards competitive grants to projects that improve the safety, efficiency, or reliability of the movement of goods into, out of, around, or within a port. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act significantly increased the funding levels for this program, as it has awarded no more than $293M per year since its conception in 2019. Past project awards include rail enhancements, container capacity and…

AGC Continues to Push Back on “Fix-it-First” False Narrative On Feb. 18, Republican Senators, led by Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), called on Secretary Pete Buttigieg to rescind or substantially revise the controversial Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) guidance memo that calls for, among other things, limiting a state’s ability to add new highway capacity. You might remember, AGC provided feedback to FHWA on this same memo back in January. The FHWA memo promotes the same narrative that some external stakeholders and Members of Congress already pushed, that state DOTs should focus exclusively on maintenance and repair work on…

Construction firms are coping with a seemingly unending series of supply-chain disruptions that are compounding problems caused by record materials cost increases and pandemic-induced challenges to operations. It has never been more important for project participants to be prepared with strategies to mitigate the risk of material price escalation and delays due to material shortages — in order to preserve the feasibility and profitability of the project. On this episode, Greg Sweeso of Tarlton Corporation, Jack Mumma of Michigan State University, and Ronald Ciotti of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP share risk mitigation strategies available during the bidding, procurement, and…

NEW! ConstructorCast Episode: Material Price Escalation, Delays, and COVID-19 Construction firms are coping with a seemingly unending series of supply-chain disruptions that are compounding problems caused by record materials cost increases and pandemic-induced challenges to operations. It has never been more important for project participants to be prepared with strategies to mitigate the risk of material price escalation and delays due to material shortages — in order to preserve the feasibility and profitability of the project. On this episode, Greg Sweeso of Tarlton Corporation, Jack Mumma of Michigan State University, and Ronald Ciotti of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP share…

While traditional contracting or design-bid-build is still the most prevalent project delivery method in the United States construction market, the design-build project delivery method has risen in usage significantly over the past 20 years to become a well-established contracting vehicle by private and public owners alike for all types and sizes of construction projects. The ConsensusDocs design-build standard contract documents are some of the most used in the United States. A comparison of the ConsensusDocs design-build contracts as compared to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) can be found here. Design liability has become a…