A building inspector on a large project we completed was complimenting the way our team worked. He mentioned how we strive to get all the info a tradesperson really needs on the drawings and how we make quick decisions to resolve potential problems. He especially liked how pleasant we were with him in resolving difficult issues. Then he told a story about another project. commercial building was being built without a building permit. When the Authority Having Jurisdiction found out, they assigned this Building Inspector to go an ascertain the status. The Building Owner fussed and cussed. Moral?

ENR reports that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, acting on behalf of the Obama Administration, has given an ultimatum to California: either vote in June to provide the matching state funding for the high speed rail from Bakersfield to Fresno or lose the $3.3B US federal grant. struggle when I think of 3,300 million dollars. That’s a lot of scratch…to continue the chicken analogy. The CA Legislature had planned to vote to authorize the funding, but moved toward more hearings in the summer and delay the decision till August. August is too late for us.”

You are walking through a charming square in Belguim and you see a big red button with a sign hanging above that says, “Push to Add Drama.” ” What do you do? If you work in construction, my guess is that you push the button. Click on the link and you’ll see what happens: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9OIJRMqYAA0. feature=player_embedded&v=9OIJRMqYAA0. Hope you had a good week that didn’t have too much drama. As for me, I had more than my share this week. Oh well, I’ll just work harder next week.

I read an article in ENR that opened with: As California Department of Transportation Construction Manager Douglas Coe tells it, the key to success on a very complicated seismic retrofit of the Antioch Toll Bridge is the mastering of the three B’s – birds, bearings and bracing. Now I understand that a seismic retrofit for a bridge would involve some work on the bridge bearings and the bracing structure, but why did birds top the challenge list? If a nest is built and eggs laid, then all work has to stop for the 6 to 12 weeks till the eggs hatch and birdies fly away.

So how can the Construction unemployment rate for April 2012 fall to 14.5% (from 17.2% in March) but the industry lose 2,000 jobs? As ENR reported, the laid off construction workers find jobs outside the construction industry. In fact, though the unemployment rate has steadily dropped, the construction industry employs less workers than in April 2010. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly report, though, the architectural and engineering services have added 7,400 jobs in the last month. That’s normally a harbinger of good news for construction.

If you find yourself renovating a building with an extra elevator shaft, what are your options? Some quirky spiral stairs? Lots of floors with small rooms with off-set firemen’s poles? How about a toilet? Found on Interior Design and Inspirational Homes , this toilet room located in an old elevator shaft would encourage bowel looseness. That is to say, a sit down would likely scare the crap right out of you. Designed by  Hernandez Silva Arquitectos and located in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, this penthouse on a 1970s 15 story building inspires. The living room looks fantastic.

For $5,000 US, you can purchase a small CNC machine. This small Computer Numerically Controlled milling machine can do amazing work. The ShopBot cuts aluminum, plywood, plastic and lots of other materials. Google SketchUp can direct the cutter to make almost anything you can dream. Here’s an excerpt from the Boing Boing article : I work at Stanford’s design school — called the d.school. The process was very fast, and relatively cheap. ShopBot + Sketchup allowed us to do many cycles of design/build/test, which ultimately yielded some very refined artifacts.

We hoped for 100 volunteers to strip the bark off saplings for the Eastern Woodlands Longhouse we’re building. We got over 250 folks that came and worked. worried that volunteers would get frustrated with getting the bark off the hickory trees, particularly the many shagbark hickories. We were told every bit of bark would need to be cut off with a drawknife. We found a stripping secret that allowed the workers to peel the bark off in large sections. In fact, some of the folks managed to peel an entire tree and deliver only big piece of bark. It’s such a fun project.

Do you ever need to convince someone that your firm is the one to hire? Here’s a great video that will make you laugh and give you an example to avoid. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8IelPxzRFs. x8IelPxzRFs. Think hard about the work you do, who your best customers are and why they choose to work with you. Know where you add the most value and stick to that. got offered the chance to manage a $20M construction project today by one of my favorite customers. As soon as he told me about the project, though, I told him I wasn’t the guy to do it. laugh out loud when I watch it. 47cGzu6-q40.

I never get tired of seeing buildings implode. think about all the work it takes to plan, strategize and fight your way through a big construction project. Then I see it all turn to rubble in 25 seconds. It’s a metaphor, baby. The Amway Arena in Orlando, FL was built a mere 23 years ago and cost $103M. I’m still wearing underwear bought 23 years ago and these folks can’t even make a huge building last that long. Watch the first 25 seconds below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OAgj2-EBIY. 7OAgj2-EBIY. Watching this works as a de-stressor for me. think I’ll watch it again.

Last week I posted about the Eastern Woodlands Longhouse that we are designing and building. We’re working for the 1719 Hans Herr House and having a great time trying to figure out the construction details. wrote about how busy I am and how this project didn’t come at an opportune time, but sometimes we just need to say yes to the fun things in life. So we’re building a longhouse. My next post chastised a project owner for his arrogance. hate arrogance. We all win when we struggle to control our arrogance and highlight our honor and humility. Aren’t I wonderful? owe you.

About a week ago, I blogged about the Tampa Bay Water Authority losing their lawsuit against HDR (their design engineers). The $97M lawsuit claimed that HDR incorrectly designed the new reservoir and caused the cracking and leaking. TBW rejected a $30M mediation settlement and went to a jury trial. It only took the jury four hours to decide against TBW. Now the $24M in legal fees (about half for each side) will likely have to be paid by TBW. So how does TBW respond? With continued arrogance, they announced they plan to file for a new trial. So who’s at fault? So I blame the head of TBW.

I spent yesterday with two construction supervisors walking a 35 acre forest tract searching for saplings. Not just any saplings, but ones that fit the species, width, length and look to build a 62′ long by 20′ wide by 20′ high Eastern Woodlands Longhouse. We painted the saplings one of three colors, so we could sort them for the strippers. Bark strippers, that is. The invitation below explains our volunteer bark stripping day. I’ve spent months working on the plans and have thoroughly enjoyed learning and thinking in new ways. What more could you want?

If you want a laugh, watch about 20 seconds of this video. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WmhvdtX72eQ. feature=player_embedded&v=WmhvdtX72eQ. The only thing that would have made it better would be for the bear to have chased and caught him…truly teaching the miserable distracted walker a lesson about paying attention. I’m becoming a proponent of cutting down on all the multi-tasking. Most of us would benefit from doing one thing at a time and doing it well. I’ve vowed to severely limit my distracted driving and hope you’ll do the same.

I’m happy to report that a jury took less than four hours yesterday to unanimously decide that HDR Engineering wasn’t negligent in designing the Tampa Bay Water reservoir. don’t fully understand the technical facts of the dispute, but I know that Tampa Bay Water rejected compromise and negotiation and went for the big $97M court win. Tampa Bay Water had previously settled with their construction manager for $6M and the general contractor for less than $1M. Obviously TBW believed the HDR Engineering was primarily responsible. Instead, that work will now be paid by tax payers.

The Big Dig $15B project in Boston just decided to replace all the florescent light fixtures …at a cost of $54M. year ago one of the light fixtures crashed to the ground. The investigation found corrosion in the light fixtures that would likely lead to more collapses. As the Authority evaluated options, they found that a switch to LED bulbs would save $2.5M per year in energy costs. The long bulb life will also save substantial re-lamping and maintenance costs. The selected fixtures are plastic, taking away the corrosion problems. The lighting revolution offers us a chance to shine.

If you’re tempted to just let the technology waves go past you without swimming along, you should think again. The pace of innovation will increase and you can’t afford to be a Luddite. We all stress about finding the time to keep up, but I admonish you to stay in the struggle. The Google Googles video below shows what your competitors will be using in a couple of years. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9c6W4CCU9M4. feature=player_embedded&v=9c6W4CCU9M4. On the other hand, keep vigilant against technologies that lower your quality of life.

I love a good analogy that lets me better understand the physical world. I’ve worked around reverse osmosis water filtering systems for years, making mineral free water to rinse cars cleanly in car washes or to brew better tasting coffee in church. Yet I’ve never had a good understanding of the RO process. From high school chemistry I remember that osmosis happens when a filter (think window screen) separates two different types of water. If the one side has a high concentration of a mineral (say very salty) and the other side doesn’t, then osmosis occurs.

If you’ve been following the California high speed rail saga, the proposed project from San Francisco to Los Angeles recently received a revised estimate of $98B US. In 2008 CA voters approved a $9B bond thinking the project cost was $43B. As I’ve railed about before in these posts, our industry does such a dismal job of projecting costs. Yet what really struck me about this recent ENR article was Gov. Jerry Brown’s involvement. Apparently he told reporters that he spent “several hours” this week on the project and cut the cost from $98B to $68B.

Brent Darnell focuses on people skills in construction, making the case that our profits correlate directly with our ability to communicate and influence others. like Brent and think he’s a man of integrity doing work he’s passionate about. So I was happy to see that Engineering News Record named him one of the top 25 newsmakers for 2011. Brent has a construction management background, but now works as a speaker, author, personal coach and teacher. encourage you to purchase his book The People-Profit Connection. know you’re busy. You may download it for free.

The US Supreme Court, in the news because of their evaluation of the health care law, just issued a less lauded decision that will impact contractors and developers. In a March 21, 2012 unanimous ruling (I didn’t think anything in America could be unanimous anymore), the Court ruled that an Idaho couple could legally challenge the EPA’s wetlands ruling. Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased a property and wanted to build a home. While attempting to get the permits, the EPA review instructed them to restore the wetlands on the property or face up to $37,500/day fines.

If you want to prosper in the construction business, select your customers carefully. know most folks in small (and large) construction firms believe they need the next job so badly that getting work trumps all other concerns. That type of thinking leads to lots of hard work for little reward and often to bankruptcy. propose that getting what appears to be a good job with a horrible customer is worse than having no job. The horrible customer will be satisfied only by screwing you at every opportunity. Let chislers work with chislers. We’d lose money on the project. On the other hand, a 0.0

While I generally post about construction concepts, I like to showcase creative solutions from diverse sources. Lex sent me this college application essay that makes me laugh out loud. The kid who wrote it now attends NYU. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON? am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. enjoy urban hang gliding. don’t perspire.

Green (or sustainable) design too often comes from checklists instead of logic. Some of the Green design makes no economic sense and little technical sense, raising costs and offering scant benefits. hate that kind of “Bragging Rights” Green design. So when I encounter some great Green design, I like to make the contrast. Google has a 990,000 sf data center near Atlanta, GA that needs a huge amount of cooling. Rather than relying on all chillers (with their high electrical energy use), Google went with more evaporative cooling (think cooling towers). www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnlgM1yEU0.

As I walked in the woods this morning, watching the dog chase squirrels with pure delight, I thought about passion. As several deer ran ahead of me with their white tails like flags in the the air, I just had to smile. I’m stressed these days, with lots of work and that same amount of time in each day. Yet I enjoy my work, my writing and thinking and my exercising. know the stress makes me more productive as long as I don’t go into the nutty range. So here’s to long balanced and productive days, just short of nuttiness. This is your one shot on Earth, man, make the most of it!

A bit of levity to end the work week. Here’s a use for all those old VCR tapes we have gathering dust on our shelves: VCR Blocking. On this next photo , I love the normalcy of the folks just standing waiting for a bus. The likelihood of the bus stop canopy crashing down on them doesn’t appear to be a concern. I’m imagining a workman’s comp case and the construction company owner decides that if the employee has to be on crutches, he can still come to the job site and shovel. Hence the invention of the crutch-shovel. Hope you have a wonderful good week-end.

I love the 1932 photo of New York construction workers lunching on a beam. Due to the collaborative nature of Wikipedia , we now know much more about the photo. It was taken by  Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the  RCA Building (renamed as the GE Building in 1986) at  Rockefeller Center. Ebbets took the photo on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction. It appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the  New York Herald Tribune. Most of the men in the photo have been identified by relatives or descendants in the last few years. Regis Mohawk Reservation.

Guest post by the ConstructionKnowledge monkey: Lex Pelger. There are many helpful tools for life and construction available to those who use Android smartphones (also known as the Enlightened). Here’s a short list of some of my favorites. If you have any of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments. SmartTools. handy toolbox for anybody in the field. It can measure length, angle, distance, height. It can be a range finder, a stud finder and a decibel meter. Tiny Flashlight. There’s lots of free flashlight apps but I found this one to be the simplest and easiest.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Feb 2012 construction unemployment rate was 17.1%, an improvement from the 17.8% Jan 2012 rate. It’s a substantial improvement from the Feb 2011 rate of 21.8%. In fact, the report shows notable gains in construction employment in the last year across all categories. The seasonably adjusted rates are shown below (in thousands). Type                                   Feb 2011     Feb 2012. Constr of bldgs              1,141.11      1,236.3. Resid  bldgs                      528.0          573.1. Resid spec trades         1,328.3     1,457.6.

Gizmodo featured a hand cranked machine that slices plastic bottles into roof thatch. The photo below shows the machine and the finished product. In Ecuador, the traditional thatched huts were getting more challenging to build with the loss of grass lands to farming. By utilizing this machine and gathering 1600 two liter soda bottles, a permanent thatched roof can be installed. Along with being a long life material, the plastic allows light to pass into the hut. This daylighting reduces the reliance on candles and other harmful light sources. love to see creative adaptive reuse.

Google just announced the launch of Google Play , a site where all your media (apps, books, movies, songs, etc) can be found in one place. You can upload all the media you have and Google stores it for you free (and it never gets lost or needs the location changed). Also, the site will rent and sell all media from all time. So rather than trying to search all over various sites and hard drives, everything can be in one place, at no cost. think this site will be useful for expert computer users as well as novices. Looks like Google hit a home run on this one. That’s a real benefit.

Back in college, one of my wrestling buddies was doing lots of research on indoor air quality and energy conservation. Princeton was a leader in developing the blower door concept to test the actual infiltration (air leakiness) of houses and apartments. hung out in the lab, doing some solar energy/ethanol research of my own and got to know Andy Persily. Andy was a PhD student, lots of fun, laid back and scary smart. like hanging out with smart people, the contrast amuses me. We use the same old details we’ve used for years. If you want to be truly green, get this one right.

I was on a job site yesterday and complaining that the steel erectors weren’t tied off when placing deck. Upon looking further, though, I realized they had their harnesses connected in innovative ways. The owner of their firm noted that they always stay tied off, even though it often makes their work more difficult, and sometimes less safe. As I thought about safety and unintended consequences, this video illustrates the concept in a way that will make you laugh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9XUH28V520. s9XUH28V520. Be sure to pay attention and work safe. This guy is good. W8SK0rk5jdE.

I appreciated RB’s comments on my last post. Since the many documents needed on a jobsite tend to be digital anyway, why can’t we take the next step and just look at them on our mobile devises? Carol’s Construction Technology Blog addresses this issue and reports some huge productivity gains. She mostly discusses using the invoice approval and accounts payable system as a fully digital (that is to say, paperless) process. Apparently, dual computer monitors make the process much easier for accounting staff. Now’s the time to be evaluating these type options.

As more smartphones, iPads and Android tablets show up on the construction site, more construction apps become available. On the jobsite, our projects change quickly and we communicate visually. That combination makes construction a great industry to capitalize on this new technology. Coupled with the fact that many contractors don’t type well, a touch screen with menus, instant size changing and drag and drop capability further ups the value. Think about having all your current project drawings kept up-to-date on a file transfer protocal (FTP) site like Box.net.

I was reading an ENR story about the San Francisco PUC Headquarters building and was impressed with a value engineering detail. During the construction document design phase, the structural engineer changed the steel frame to post tensioned concrete and saved $5M US. The two-way post tensioned floor slab had shallower edge girders which allowed for more day-lighting. The concrete floor also allowed for an open ceiling, eliminating acoustic drop ceiling and providing a cool, open look that is also more cost-effective. “One good solution kept on bringing other positive results.”

If you could give some advice to a younger you (say 10 years ago), what would you say? That seems a wonderful question to me, one that helps us probe into that area of priorities and what we really know or don’t know. It’s a “Big Question” question. saw the question above posted by a friend on Facebook and without giving it too much thought, I responded, Relax. Put in a good effort then let go of the outcome. You own the effort but not the results. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be non-possessive. stop freaking out.

Looking for construction work? Has the economy not quite rebounded in your locale? Well here’s an opportunity for the not-so-faint-of-heart. The Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan announced yesterday that Russia wants to help with the reconstruction of Afghanistan by restarting over 150 construction projects started during the last Soviet invasion. The The Ambassador stated that the highway and factory projects should help strengthen the weak Afghanistan economy. What could be better than working for the Russians in Afghanistan? Think Coolies, 1880s, in the American West. WmDszVxti0.

As you know, I normally stay out of politics in these posts. Folks of all political stripes can agree on the endlessly fascinating aspects of the construction industry. So that’s what I try to showcase. Yet, sometimes, in the course of human affairs, a wrong presents itself that simply must be righted. So please forgive my delving into politics today to right such a wrong. I’m a big Abraham Lincoln fan. He’s a brilliant, yet folksy, self-made man who consistently took the hard road to do the right thing. In short, to me, he’s just the bee’s knees. q3tOFWBhP0s.

I just read Nadine Post’s blog post “Water Guzzlers Take Notice !” She ” She describes the 52 acre Brooklyn Botanical Gardens that consumes 21M gallons of water each year. That’s over 50,000 gallons per day. You know how long it takes to fill a 55 gallon barrel with water? Think about filling 1,000 of them every day. So the botanical garden guzzles water. They recently installed a rainwater capture system that should meet almost all their water needs. Their largest private donation ever of $7.5M US helped fund this work. Energy rain water capture

When I walked up to the mailbox this morning and saw the new ENR magazine with the cover showing the Best of the Best projects for 2011 (of which I was a judge), I felt like Navin R. Johnson when the new phonebook came out. You really do need to take a minute and watch the video below, you can’t possibly be too busy and you need the laugh. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY. kOTDn2A7hcY. My thoughts were similar to Navin’s as I walked down the driveway and thought: I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday. PELGER. President.

As I was walking and thinking this morning, I contemplated the military teaching on priorities: God, country, family, then self. remember one of my first bosses in construction telling me that he was taught those priorities in the Navy, but wasn’t quite sure he agreed totally with the order. Lex recently sent me the post below from Letters of Note of a man who lived and died by those priorities. Just a week later, he was killed in the  First Battle of Bull Run along with 93 of his men. The letter was later found amongst his belongings and then delivered to his widow. July 14, 1861. Sarah.

I read an ENR article about some design flaws in the World Trade Center NYC projects adding millions of dollars to the cost. I’m always curious about how those type problems arise and get resolved. Apparently One World Trade Center will be a 104 story tower developed by the Port Authority of NY and NJ. The future Manhattan skyline is shown below. As the construction nears completion, they realized that a temporary subway station blocks the access for the loading docks into the new building. As I read more, though, that trend seemed to intensify. Construction managing construction

I like to check out new architecture while vacationing. With some research I found that architect Frank Gehry had designed the New World Symphony building and parking garage in South Beach. Apparently he babysat the current New World Symphony director and couldn’t resist the call to work with a friend. As I looked for the building, I assumed it would be more modest than many of Gehry’s works due to funding constraints. Certainly the building exterior indicated a Gehry design, but also a restraint. It was lauded as a truly functional and beautiful space. Oh well, I yam what I yam.

TBW and I just got back from a few days relaxing in South Beach (Miami Beach, FL). We enjoyed a few days in the sun…a pleasant diversion from our winter routine. TBW gets a bit down during the short winter days, so a trip towards the sun seems to brighten everything. When Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. We especially enjoyed the South Beach Art Deco Walking Tour. Here’s the photo from their website. We learned that the Art Deco buildings that began to be built in the 1930s were getting torn down rapidly in the 1980s. Spring seems much closer now.

As a kid, I loved the music of Leon Russell. He was an amazing piano player and just as cool as they come. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Z9qN8R9Bg. d2Z9qN8R9Bg. Turns out, Leon Russel was one of Elton John’s heroes as well. But as Sir Elton’s career just kept building speed, Leon Russell’s was broken down by the side of the road. Leon had fallen on some hard times in recent years. As Elton tells the story, he was thinking about the big influence Leon Russell had on his career and wondered where he was. So my question for you and me today is, “Who Helped You?”

I was reading Henry Petroski ’s An Engineer’s Alphabet which has him playfully pontificating on various engineering and construction terms. When he gets to “C”, he writes the following about concrete: Because concrete is often called “cement” by lay persons, the usage of the word serves as a kind of shibboleth distinguishing the technically illiterate from the technically literate. So, what in the world is a shibboleth? As I read the quote above, I had just shut down my computer for the night. But back to shibboleth. Ned Weirdness terminology in constructio

I got the following news release from the folks at Engineering News Record about the contest I helped judge. It was a fascinating process. Engineering News-Record (ENR) is pleased to announce the winners of its fourth annual Best of the Best Projects Awards, a national competition that recognizes design and construction excellence based on regional winners of ENR’s seven regional publications’ Best Projects 2011 Awards. Winners will be profiled in the February 13, 2012 issue of ENR. submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana by Traylor-Massman-Weeks LLC. submitted to ENR California by Facebook.

I came across one of the most thought provoking lectures I’ve seen in years and decided to share it with you. Since you read this blog, you probably do some construction related work…or wish you did. often write about the joy of building. When we build, we use tools to improve the physical world. In fact, our tools differentiate us from the rest of life on the planet. Pulling an illustration from the lecture, how efficient do you think humans are in locomotion (moving ourselves a certain distance)? Turns out, we are middle of the animal pack. know 38 minutes is a long time.

Having my own construction business was never really a dream of mine. knew my wife’s concern for security and believed that she simply wouldn’t be able to live with the perceived risks. Then again, I never really did much long range planning in my life. thought hard about what I wanted to do that day, that week and even that year, but never planned beyond a year. With all the variables involved, planning beyond a year just seemed (and still seems) like a waste of effort. But November of 1995 suddenly lined up a few elements in my life. If not now, when? Life is short.

Houston Neal at Construction Software Advice pulled together a survey to gather data on construction estimating. The 2012 Construction Estimating Benchmark Survey does an excellent job of making you think about how you estimate projects and how your estimating process works. Since estimating costs matters so much in construction, it’s worth ten minutes of your time to do the survey. Neal will send you the results, which should also provide some valuable info for most of us. Even if you’re not primarily an estimator, please take the survey. Thanks.

The photos below show a hydraulic excavator working on the roof of a 12 story building in China. Presumably wanting to demo the building without the expense of a controlled implosion, the Contractor should be paying the excavator operator combat pay for this assignment. The most fun part of this story is the comments the local residents posted about the excavator on the roof. Take a moment to read those comments and you’ll get a bit of insight into China. Certainly different from comments you’d read about a similar incident in an American city. Cool Projects demolition in China

22 years ago the Swedes built a 500 sf igloo and called it the Ice Hotel. Every winter a new incarnation gets designed and built, each time bigger and better. This year’s building comes in at almost 50,000 sf and stuns the senses. The photos below give us a peek. So you probably don’t have anything as cool (or as cold) to work on as the Ice Hotel today, but you’ve got something important to do. Strive to work hard and do your best today. In the end, you’re either in that small group of competent people that get things done…or you’re not.

Last week I got an email from Jewel Cameron. He wanted to join the Construction Knowledge mailing list and told me a bit about himself. He’s from Guyana and has 25 yeas of practical construction experience there. thought, “That sounds fascinating” and asked him to provide some details about building in Guyana. He obliged below. Guyana, located in South America near the Equator, is surrounded by three Countries and the Atlantic Ocean. To the East is Suriname, West is Venezuela , South is Brazil , North is the Atlantic Ocean. Guyana. We have no winter. Jewel C Cameron MBEng.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtOQZ-rtnE. wgtOQZ-rtnE. Thought this might make you giggle a bit on a Friday. Ned Weirdness construction dancing

Michael Bloomberg was a tech entrepreneur prior to being mayor of NYC. Last year Bloomberg solicited RFPs from universities to develop a high tech campus on city owned land with $100M of public money thrown into the mix. love that kind of big thinking, it’s part of what made America great. For example, when the Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, which was considered a huge boondoggle by many at the time, everything changed for NYC. Within 15 years, the NYC port became the largest in America by far. NYC hopes the high tech campus will be another Erie Canal moment.

Maps are important in design and construction. During the project conception, we compare various locations and alternatives. We travel to places without addresses and consider the complexity, cost and value of building something. During construction, we struggle through the logistics of getting things from where they are to where they need to be. From the time I was eight years old, I remember loving maps. As our family of seven drove to Florida in the station wagon, I was following our progress on a AAA map marked with a highlighter. loved finding where we were and knowing where we were going.

On January 5, 1933 construction began on the Golden Gate bridge, linking San Francisco to Marin County, CA. With a main span of 4,200 feet, it would be the longest suspension bridge in the world from it’s completion in 1937 until 1941. Lest you think the hassles of getting projects approved are unique to our times, read what bridge engineer and poet Joseph Strauss went through (from The Free Dictionary ): Strauss spent more than a decade drumming up support in Northern California. 14] The bridge faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. I’ve noticed a trend.

When I was in second grade, I recall the teacher mentioning the year 2000. did the math and realized I’d be 43 years old. thought I certainly wouldn’t live that long. Now it’s 12 years after that iconic date and I’ll hit the double nickel this year. As each year passes, I’m learning to better live in the now and drive the dream. To live in the now means to let go of past failures and accomplishments. What ever else they were, they are now past. It also means to let go of worries about the future. To live in the now requires courage. Solitude rocks. Endure.

Fun helps change behavior for the better, whether for yourself or those you supervise. watch superintendent Dereck Hench get amazing production on our projects from his employees and from other trade contractors. He makes it clear to all his employees that they must help others on the job whenever it’s reasonable. For example, if he sees a guy struggling to lift something, he jumps in to help. Everyone on the jobsite gets strongly encouraged likewise. We also try to keep a forklift on the jobsite to keep guys from having to carry materials multi-floors or in other difficult ways.

Woody Guthrie wrote some of the best American songs, including “ This Land is Your Land “, as he traveled looking for work in the Great Depression. In fact, he sub-titled the song, “God Blessed America for Me” because he was tired of Irving Berlin’s unrealistic “ God Bless America ” that got so much radio play. I’ve been a fan of Woody Guthrie’s hobo writing style since my teenage years and was fascinated by the hard times he lived through. Many folks in construction are getting a taste of those type of hard times in the last few years.

My friend Kneal sent me this construction site video that had me laughing out loud. If you work in or around construction, I guarantee you will laugh if you watch. warning, though, you may find some of the language offensive. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvxOuC7Bhc. 7KvxOuC7Bhc. Hope you have a day where laughter invades your life. Remember, the first 100 years is the hardest. Construction construction fun

If you help manage construction projects, you are a distracted driver. All the changes and struggling that happens on a project doesn’t flee from your brain when you get behind the wheel. got pulled over by a state trooper last year and he said he’d been following me for a mile with his lights on and I hadn’t noticed. He thought I was drunk. explained I’d just got out of a construction job meeting, he saw rolls of blueprints in my vehicle and he just shook his head and gave me a warning. Texting while driving is even worse. ” We all know we are. IwAUkh_7pKA.

When I was a teenager, I loved reading Richard Brautigan stories. He had a character in A Confederate General at Big Sur that wrote many letters in the novel and used the closing “As Always,” For years that was the closing I used, it amused me to write it when everything in my life seemed to be changing constantly. As usual, it never entertained anyone else as much as it delighted me. stopped using “As Always,” as a closing for letters when it became true in my life. Lex sent me the following letter that Ben Franklin wrote to a friend of 30 years. It just makes me happy.

I have a guest post blog today on a boring topic. Yet we should all understand the basics construction bonds, just to better understand our business. When a project owner asks if you can bond the project, do you understand the question? Generally government projects require bonds (and occasionally private projects). The most commonly required surety bonds are payment and performance bonds. While they are two separate bonds that serve different purposes, they are usually acquired jointly. Definition of Surety Bonds. Surety bonds are an agreement, or contract, between three parties.

TBW and I took a friend last night for his first visit to Costco. Our friend spent the last 15 years in prison, so has been denied the shopping delight that is Costco. He was astounded by the great selection of organic foods and the low prices. We bought enough food to make it through a snowy PA winter (which I’m hoping to avoid since we just started footings this week on three projects). As we loaded our prizes into the car, the young fellow in the next vehicle started talking about his wonderful weekend attending a Pittsburgh Steelers game. My friend recalled a most exciting time.

When a problem occurs on a construction project that can’t be resolved by those on the site, documentation becomes essential. If an off-site person must approve a change order or pay an insurance claim, that person will need to understand the reality on the job site (even though  that situation seems so very obvious to those currently on the site). Photos and video help bridge that gap. I’ve wanted to take more job site photos for years, but never seem to have my camera when I need it. The smart phone really helps resolve that problem. These lens for smart phones seem worthwhile.

For a bit of Friday fun, I thought about nearby Speedwell Forge Lake and how the nervous nelly state engineers required it to be drained because of safety concerns about the dam. These engineers work to factors of safety far exceeding the likelihood of dying in a plane crash, but it’s almost impossible to convince engineers they are being too conservative. So while there’s not much fun in conservative engineers destroying recreational spots, the actual dam breaks do intrigue. Here’s a video of some guys making the best of a flooding situation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuwQJRA1KYk.

Engineer Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner, did a nice blog post today titled A Traffic Engineer’s Lament. He bemoans the fact that engineers no longer run transportation departments in most cities and states in America. He further laments that the traffic engineering of the last century focused so strongly on cars. Here’s an excerpt: An example I’ve used time and time again in New York City is that the Brooklyn Bridge, when it was largely a rail and walking bridge, handled 430,000 people daily.  Consider your current project and think about improvements.

When I was a young foreman on a construction site, an old guy (younger than my age now) taught me how to do construction layout with an optic level. The first thing he explained was about bench-marks. To measure the relative elevation of different objects (I was laying out curbs…badly), I needed to be able to measure the height of my instrument off a known elevation, a bench-mark. As I just completed the judging for the Engineering News Record Best Projects of 2011, I’ve been thinking about bench-marks. In our tele-conference yesterday, the other judges agreed.

I’m spending many hours judging the ENR Best Projects 2011. The 80 nominated projects spread between categories: civil works – infrastructure, cultural – worship, green projects, industrial – manufacturing, residential – hospitality, retail – mixed-use, projects under $10M, sports – entertainment and transportation. As I thoroughly review the proposal from each project, I’m enjoying learning from some of the best construction operators. So they studied the transformer failure with a millisecond by millisecond analysis.

I just got back from a few days at deer camp, along with most contractors in PA. had the pleasure of taking my son-in-law and 10 year old grandson along for their first deer camp experience. The first night in a cabin full of men producing chain saw snoring and flatulence created a lasting impression for the DiCicco boys. Nothing in their previous lives prepared them for the cacophony of sounds and smells. For me, the actual deer hunting will be a time I’ll remember. Though hunting really doesn’t work as a word to describe what we did. ” Which I thought was pretty funny.

I’m honored to have been selected a judge for the Engineering News Record Best Projects of 2011. ENR is the top construction magazine in the world, delivering in-depth coverage on innovative projects, pricing trends, overall economy trends and stories about the people who push the business forward. The Best Projects of 2010 shows the diversity of the projects they cover. For this year’s projects, the 24 judges will rate about 80 projects that have already won regional honors. I’ll give it my best, though. glean some ideas that could help us all. They were in a crisis.

You owe it to yourself to watch this clip and remember how truly blessed you are. Do you have a room? We are renovating the third floor of the General Sutter hotel right now and they actually have room keys that look just like the one in the Peter Seller’s clip. It’s a curious thing these days to be handed a hotel room key with a big “So it don’t get lost” weight on it. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Do something fun. Ned Weirdness

Eric Schneider, a 3rd grade teacher in Manhattan, bought a 450 sf studio apartment for $235,000. To put the area in context, it was basically a 15′ x 30′ room with a tiny kitchen at the end. With the innovative design shown in the video below, that little studio apartment was transformed into having a cook’s kitchen, bedroom and guest room with some privacy, a home office or a reasonably large entertaining room. Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? Watch the video. appreciated the line by the designer in the video about working in a scale between furniture and architecture.

iPads and Android tablet computers differ from laptops because of their touchscreens and their simplicity of use. When the iPad debuted, I thought it a silly tool that old people might find useful. Wrong again! now think the tablet computers will change construction more than any technology we’ve seen in years. If a job site has wi-fi, then anyone on site will be able to use their tablet to access the cloud computing world. In the cloud, all the current project drawings and shop drawings will be available for tablet viewing. What if that were reversed? That’s a game changer.

I was barefoot running yesterday on 4 mile route that includes some smooth paved roads (which feel nice on the feet) and some tar and chip roads (which don’t). As I strided along on one of the tar and chip country roads, a backhoe operator stopped his work to watch me approach and said, “Don’t ‘dat hurt?” ” As I ran along, considering my standard smartass response, “It feels so good when I stop,” I thought about all the other areas of my life that show the rougher road to be the better path. The Secret to Success? www.youtube.com/watch?v=462l9qlVpAI.

When Americans sit down on the toilet and “Drop off the kids at the pool”, they rarely give thought to where that fecal matter goes. We have laws, regulations, municipalities, engineers and sanitary workers that take care of our dirty business. We rarely appreciate them. remember my first trip to Haiti and the surprise at seeing the swale along the side of the road operating as an open sewer trench. Seeing toddlers playing in the fluids made me more fully appreciate being an American than anything else I can recall. Imagine the logistics of such a line.

To my non-English-as-a-first-language readers, I apologize. Our language is hard enough without yahoos like me purposely writing bad grammar. Let Lynda Teach You works grammatically, but doesn’t amuse me. remember playing with the neighbor farm boys as a kid. They’d often get angry with their brothers and threaten, “I’ll learn you to not do that again.” ” They also taught me a colorful spectrum of profanity that one wouldn’t expect from Mennonite farm kids. But grammar and weird childhood memories aside, what can Lynda teach us?

With everyone writing about all the excess inventory in the housing market and how the recovery may be years away, check the facts. The housing boom up till 2008 wasn’t as spectacular as seems to be remembered and the current bust goes way beyond what logic dictates. The Economist chart below shows it clearly. With 1.5M new houses built every year as the average, look how the 2007 peak isn’t as outrageous the 2010 valley. On the other hand, with home prices 30% below their peak in 2008, the confidence of potential home buyers has been battered. So buying a house looks wise today.

My friend Kneal sent me this fascinating link about the Global Village Construction Set. It’s an open source collaboration which will result in fabrication plans for 50 construction, industrial and farming machines. Focused on cost and energy effectiveness, tools such as tractors with backhoe and loader attachments, compressed earth brick presses and welders can be made in a poor village. These tools will help transform the economy, allowing businesses to build,  grow and create wealth. love the concept. Watch this short video to get a better understanding. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD1EWGQDUTQ.

I was running a job meeting yesterday for a project that’s had all sorts of challenges, yet the progress on site amazed me. The Superintendent has gotten all the trades working together in ways that exceed my project schedule and my expectations. It’s great to see guys shifting around on the jobsite work flow to be efficient and keep things moving. The job meeting was a pleasure as we all laughed about several items and addressed some concerns. started thinking about the value of humor on the job site. good laugh lubricates social interactions, making everything run more smoothly.

Beacon Power Corp , which previously received a $43M US Dept of Energy loan guarantee, just filed for bankruptcy protection. Beacon developed a 20 MegaWatt flywheel storage facility in upstate New York to help manage electrical grid power fluctuations. LeChase Construction, Rochester NY, built the New York plant and hasn’t received final payment, making them the largest creditor. The photo below gives a sense of the facility. Beacon Power had also received a $24M Smart Grid stimulus grant to build another 20 MegaWatt flywheel storage facility in Hazle Twp, PA.

When I was in Haiti, some waterways would be so filled with trash that you could walk over the water. much less disgusting method to use trash to help cross the river was shown in 50 Tons of Plastic Recycled into a Footbridge. Students at Rutgers and Cardiff Universities worked together to design and build a 90′ bridge made from used water bottles and other plastic trash. The plastic beams don’t need painted and should have a long life span. The photo below shows the attractive bridge that spans the Tweed River in Wales. It’s another construction related business opportunity.

My buddy Jim Stuckey, P.E. shared this week’s Friday Fun video. Jim’s watched it dozens of times and laughs every time. It sure cracks me up. It’s a thing of beauty. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEQw0ztvgZY. AEQw0ztvgZY. got to know Jim when he left a VP job at a successful consulting engineer firm to become the Executive Director of Facilities and Technology at one of the fastest growing churches in the country. He took on a whole new set of work challenges because he believed it best invested his life. People Skills struggle and purpose

As I’ve been writing lately, now’s the time to be planning your new construction venture. When the economy looks too good to be true and news articles are about everyone making money easily, it’s time to start looking for the fire exits. That time was a few years ago. Now, on the other hand, when every news story predicts gloom, opportunities are on the horizon. believe this winter will have more US contractors go out of business than I’ve ever seen in my life. As those firms die (often from overzealous new banking regulations), times will be tumultuous. lrp3o4NFjhI.

Here’s a handy trick of the trade that allows long extension chords (or other types of long lines like rope or tubing) to be stored in a way that prevents tangles and allows one handed playing out of the stored line. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaEv9wm6gy0. eaEv9wm6gy0. Lex shot me this tip from BoingBoing and the comments noted that this was just a standard crochet knot. That quickly turned into a discussion on guys crocheting (like Rosie Grier) and this comment followed, which cracked me up. knit on the trolley down where I live. Electrical creative cord storage

Here’s a 30 second smile, just what you need on a Friday. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=-RdYY9aDPns. 1&v=-RdYY9aDPns. Don’t know why I can’t get the video to show up as a screen shot and not just a link. Plumbing plumbing fun

I’ve seen some time lapse photography videos over the years that impress and amaze. The group that gets together and completes a house in a weekend is fun to watch. The video below, though, of a hotel being built in Changsha, China shows a 6 day period that astounds. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0DSihggio. Ps0DSihggio. Notice the use of offsite built panels to speed the construction. Some of the other Chinese construction details for structural steel fascinated me as well. The Project Manager triumphed in this project, which was completed last year. Cool Projects fast construction

If you know you could perform your job much better, but aren’t going to for your (pick one) jackass boss, low wages or company that promotes idiots, then you shouldn’t start a construction company. Customers are harder than all the above annoyances. The folks that excelled for their previous bosses tend to do well in their own firm. The complainers, malcontents and brilliant guys that won’t waste their efforts without appropriate rewards go bankrupt. If you can’t manage your personal finances and are always on the verge of fiscal ruin, then you shouldn’t start a construction company.

The Construction business consists of three main items: Get Work. Do Work. Keep Score. Let’s start with the middle one. You need to have experience producing great results. If you achieve mid-level results for your current boss, don’t bother going into business for yourself. To succeed, you need to be that guy that already succeeds in your current job. That doesn’t mean you need to be a master craftsman or have the highest technical skills on the jobsite. You must be competent in your trade and your crew needs to exceed expectations in production, quality, safety and schedule.

I’ve mentioned several times that the Blackberry smart phone platform seems to be dying. As iPhones and Androids have soared, Blackberries did nothing. loved upgrading from a Blackberry to an Android over a year ago. In fact, with our new phone apps, we aren’t even developing for the Blackberry. This This week brought even worse news, as a three day Blackberry outage infuriated users. But it’s Friday, so take a few minutes and watch this hilarious clip. Trust me, you need a laugh today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI. kAG39jKi0lI.

I love innovation, but have learned to be careful with how I introduce it to my customers. Any construction project usually costs our customers big money. So our customers tend to be a bit anxious when dealing with us. Then the reality of how many projects over-run costs and schedules (and have quality or safety problems) and it makes sense that our customers should be cautious about construction spending. So we want to innovate, but we want to not scare our customers in the process. We need to think about the changes we plan to institute from our customer’s point of view.

The increase in scrap metal prices has changed behavior. Lex just shot me an article about a Western PA bridge that was stolen for scrap, titled How Does an Entire Bridge Go Mission? Since the 50′ long bridge was on an abandoned rail line and in a remote area, the theives (perhaps unemployed construction workers?) took what police estimated to be a month to demo and scrap the bridge. The photo above, not of the stolen bridge but a stock photo, gives a sense of how much steel could be recycled from the caper. Then the property can be sold later when the market rebounds.

Take the 15 minutes to watch this inspiring commencement speech from Steve Jobs. He rarely shared personal info, but shares three stories here which truly motivate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc. UF8uR6Z6KLc. As a quick recap: You can’t connect the dots forward: make decisions without too much fear, knowing it will only make sense looking back…you can only connect the dots backward. Embrace failures: lose the heaviness of success and do great work by loving what you do. On the back cover of the final Whole Earth Catalog , remember these words, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”

Five years ago, Charlie Roberts, a disturbed young man, stormed an Amish school here and took lots of kids hostage. You probably read about the Nickel Mines Amish school shooting. Roberts shot ten Amish schoolgirls, execution style. Five of those girls survived and five didn’t. few years before that, Charlie was working for a local overhead door firm, installing doors on a new factory we were building. As I walked the project and chatted with workers, I never considered the possibility that one of them would soon be a mass murderer. simply have no idea.

The construction company in the video below had less than a day to demolish a highway bridge, clean up the debris and get traffic moving under the phantom span. Watching the time lapse photography execution of the plan fills me with admiration for the planners. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNw2omYLK4. 7YNw2omYLK4. As you consider the challenges facing you this week, this month and next year, take some more time to plan, to contemplate better ways of accomplishing the task. It’s a wonderful thing to watch a plan come together. Become known as an effective planner.

If you ever do any site work in the field (backfilling pipe trenches with stone, converting stone or bitum areas to weights to make a purchase, etc) you will love this new app we are developing. Designed by the sharpest site work guy I’ve ever met, the tasks include: Soils calculator. Stone calculator. Bituminous calculator. Pipe trench stone calculator. Concrete structure weight calculator. Slope calculator. Area and volume calculator. With lots of practical options included in each of the calculators, you will be able to solve some common, yet complex, field problems with this app.

We’ve been working for months on the idea of helping small contractors become more profitable. We’re also interested in helping folks jump into new construction ventures. Lots of resources for big firms, but almost nothing for those of us who contemplate starting a new construction related firm. So our first offerings will be some phone apps that help solve the problem of keeping score. We see success in the construction business as follows: Get Work. Do Work. Keep Score. The Construction Knowledge Database provides great resources for the Do Work aspect. Please leave me comments.

The construction business employees a high percentage of funny folks willing to say what pops into their heads. It makes for fun job sites. The wide open nature of construction work tends to attract more colorful characters. So I love when I hear a perfect Smart Alec comment…and I read one this morning. death-row prisoner in Oregon decided he’s done with all the appeals and court nonsense. He’s asked the judge to just get his execution done, annoyed by all the (in his words), “Tree huggers trying to save me.” We all have a responsibility to keep this business fun.