The Seattle Council recently approved changes to the city’s solid waste system, including a prohibition on recyclable materials from construction and demolition going to the landfill. The new rules also require a waste diversion report for most sites and the certification of all construction waste recycling facilities. Seattle Public Utilities and the Department of Planning & Development are in the planning process of how to administer the changes and more specific details will follow.
Spectrum is developing 12th & Yesler, the first private mixed-use development at Yesler Terrace.
Thanks partly to an ambitious expansion by Amazon.com, apartment projects in Seattle are going up at a dizzying pace: According to a recent CBRE study, 18,500 apartment units will be added over the next three years.
Harbor Freight Tools has recalled its DrillMaster model No. 96526 cordless drills due to overheating.
The recall affects about 108,000 units imported from China by Camarillo, Calif.-based Harbor Freight Tools. If the black trigger switch on the 19.2-volt drills overheats it can pose a fire and burn hazard to users. There has been one minor injury reported.
The drills sold for $27-$30 at Harbor Freight stores nationwide and online between April 2008 and May 2012. Models with a gray trigger are not included in the recall.
Drill owners should remove the battery, stop using the tool and contact the company for a free replacement. Here’s where to do that: toll-free at (800) 444-3353 (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday); by email at recalls@harborfreight.com; or online at www.harborfreight.com.
How do you top that? You build the world’s tallest building in 90 days — duh.
In early 2013, Broad will start building Sky City in the city of Changsha in the Hunan province. At 2,749 feet tall, it will be nearly 33 feet taller than the Burj Khalifa, the current height champion.
Sky City is a fitting name: The building will have apartments for more than 30,000 people, schools, a hospital and more than a dozen helipads.
But, what will be sacrificed by using pre-fab components to construct the world’s tallest building in record time? In a word: style.
Sky City looks like a massive block built from Legos. In contrast, the Burj Khalifa resembles a giant stalagmite reaching for the stratosphere.
More interesting architecture can be found in some of China’s other skyscrapers: the 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower (under construction), the 1,667-foot-tall Taipei 101 and the 1,476-foot-tall Nanjing Greenland Financial Complex.
Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance workers will be in the pits this Sunday when they perform an annual cleanup ritual deep inside Seattle’s Montlake Bridge.
Leaves and garbage collect in the bridge pits where the counterweights sit, threatening to jam-up operations. Crews will be using a vactor truck to suck up the debris.
The left lanes in both directions will be closed from 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for the work.
In its quest to crack down on unlicensed contractors, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries says it made surprise visits to 63 work sites in Chelan and Douglas counties this past weekend.
The result? Eleven contractors were cited for either lacking a state registration or for not being registered for the work they were doing. Each first-time offense carries a $1,000 fine.
“An unregistered contractor typically has no liability insurance, no bond, and pays no taxes or workers’ comp,” said Dean Simpson, manager of L&I’s construction compliance program, in a release. “That means they’re leaving consumers unprotected and are unfairly competing with reputable contractors who do great work and meet the requirements.”
Simpson said his program has stepped up staffing and focus, inspecting more than 10,000 jobsites in the last fiscal year — 56 percent more visits and 39 percent more violations uncovered than in the previous year.
Mark Straub, executive officer for the North Central Home Builders Association, said his group supports L&I’s crackdown.
“We continue to receive numerous calls from consumers who thought they were getting ‘a great deal,’ only to discover that they have little or no recourse when they’re ultimately left in a lurch by these bad actors,” Straub said in the release.
L&I has carried out surprise inspections at 257 work sites, issuing 41 citations, since the agency began sweeps in August. The agency also found a number of other violations relating to uncertified plumbers, underage workers and unpermitted work on manufactured homes.
“We want to show people we’re out there, even on the weekends,” Simpson said. “We want unregistered contractors to know we will find them and for honest contractors to know we’re not ignoring this problem.”
L&I’s contractor compliance program has 21 inspectors around the state that make random site visits and respond to tips. Contractors can register at www.ContractorRenew.Lni.wa.gov.
Recently, I had occasion to be a part of two free-ranging discussions of generals and subs about what they are experiencing now that work is picking up. The consistent theme was risk: risk assessment, risk management, risk assignment, risk shifting – you get the idea. Owners are hiring more owner’s reps and construction managers to have better control and watch over their projects more closely. Bank inspectors are more present and thorough. Owners and generals are more concerned about bonding. Not necessarily that there is a bond in place (which costs money!) but that they know the contractor or sub downstream from them is bondable. Contracts are more customized and lengthy, mostly addressing risk issues. No one, it seems, uses a “standard” contract any more – good news for attorneys on both sides of the paperwork. More subs are asking for the Owner-GC contract. Generals are astonished that all subs aren’t asking to see it. Generals and subs should both do whatever they have to do to satisfy themselves that the money is really there to pay them – or risk a nasty surprise. In a complicated, multi-layered, relationship-rich industry like construction, risk is an ever-present concern. It seems like, while it has always been a concern, there is even more emphasis on it now. Understandable, given the last few years and the current environment, but its kind of sad when one contractor related, “I don’t see myself as a contractor any more. Now I am a risk manager.” Bet he was having more fun building stuff!
“39.10″. That’s the parlance for the state’s alternative public works contracting procedures, reflecting the pertinent chapter in the Revised Code of Washington. But unless the Legislature reauthorizes it, 39.10 goes away next year. 39.10 is set to sunset at the end of June 2013 and were it to do so, most state and local government entities would no longer be able to use GC/CM, Design-Build or Job Order Contracting (JOC) as alternatives to Design-Bid-Build.
That is not expected to happen, as most if not all stakeholders, including AGC, support the alternative methods and the general parameters that regulate their use. Plus, the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) issued a report recommending that the Legislature reauthorize 39.10.
But reauthorization is still a big deal, because it allows the Legislature, and the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) that advises the Legislature on public works matters, to step back and consider how 39.10 might be improved.
CPARB established a Reauthorization Task Force to gather input and make recommendations on any changes to 39.10. Its chairman, Ed Kommers of MCA, discussed the issue at a recent AGC Seattle District meeting.
“The overriding thing is reauthorization,” Kommers said, “and contentiousness works against reauthorization.” He believes the one thing that could doom reauthorization would be for it to become a “Christmas tree” of sweeping changes that don’t have broad support. The Reauthorization Task Force, therefore, will be looking for more incremental changes with agreement from stakeholders.
“Our goal is to have strong consensus within CPARB regarding any changes recommended to the Legislature,” he said. “We are looking at GC/CM, Design-Build and JOC one at a time, and asking what and the issues are and where are the areas of agreement.”
Kommers noted that some of the areas for which changes have been discussed are:
CPARB membership: Some may want to address the make-up of CPARB and who’s represented on it. (Click here to see the current list of CPARB members.)
Design-Build: It’s little used and considered burdensome for owners and contractors alike. Changes are likely.
Subcontractors: There currently are allowances for MC/CM and EC/CM, but what about other trades or subcontracts?
Sunset or not: Kommers supports expiration of 39.10 at some new date in the future in order to force a review every few years, but others have suggested making the statute permanent.
In its report recommending reauthorization, JLARC suggested a couple tweaks regarding CPARB’s data gathering and JOC reporting periods. JLARC also noted, without recommendations, that GC/CM contracts are concentrated among fewer companies than traditional D-B-B contacts.
Did the Great Recession slow down sustainable projects? Not so, according to Jim Kleppe of Golder Associates. Kleppe was one of the authors in the DJC’s A&E Perspectives special section, which hit the newsstand today.
Read Kleppe’s article by clicking here.
But, don’t stop there. Brian Runberg wrote about how sustainable living doesn’t have to be expensive. Then there’s the TAF building, a really cool project built in Lakewood Park in White Center.
Finally, to get a good pulse on what designers are thinking, check out the DJC’s A&E Surveys. For example, Baylis talks about its stellar year here.
Skanska is in the midst of its eighth annual Safety Week, which it bills as the world’s largest workplace safety initiative. That means all of Skanska’s 53,000 employees around the world, including its 9,400 U.S. employees, are putting an extra focus on workplace safety and wellness. Subcontractors, suppliers and business partners are also included.
The program has thousands of activities held at Skanska jobsites and offices that educate employees on how to better avoid workplace risks and evade injuries. Examples are rescue techniques and fire training, flex routines, health and first-aid training, and ladder safety.
Speaking of ladder safety, Skanska is hosting a ladder safety presentation at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday at its UW Medical Center jobsite. Doug Wing from Little Giant Ladders will give a demonstration.
Skanska has developed some best practices for ladder safety:
• Always inspect the ladder prior to use.
• Choose the right ladder for the job based on if you are working at low, medium or high heights.
• Move slowly and deliberately while on a ladder. Over-reaching or leaning can lead to a loss of balance.
• Most importantly, always maintain three points of contact while ascending and descending a ladder. The user should keep either two hands and a foot or two feet and a hand on the ladder at all times.
Over the past six years, Skanska’s lost-time accident rate for employees has been reduced by 50 percent. By 2015, the company aims to eliminate three out of four lost-time accidents.
Welcome to the Daily Journal of Commerce's Nuts and Bolts blog, a comprehensive look into the construction industry and its role in the local economy. We will talk about what’s being built, who’s building it, and the myriad of issues facing those in the industry.
Opinions expressed by bloggers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
Kathleen Garrity has served as president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington since the chapter was founded in 1983. She sits on the state Prevailing Wage Advisory Committee and served on the committee that rewrote the state’s apprenticeship laws. She is also active on the NAIOP Community Enhancement Committee, is a guest lecturer at the University of Washington School of Construction Management and represents the chapter presidents on the National Diversity Committee.
DJC construction editor Benjamin Minnick was born and raised in the Seattle area. He knows how to swing a hammer without smashing his thumb and can even perform some mediocre carpentry. His goal is to have this blog become the go-to point for construction workers in both the field and office.
Jerry VanderWood is communications director for the Associated General Contractors of Washington, where he gets to learn about construction issues from the best in the business. He's originally from South Carolina, then Washington, D.C., and moved to the Seattle area in 1989. He resides with his wife and kids in the suburbs of Issaquah.
Todd Henry is a partner at Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker, one of the Northwest's oldest law firms. He represents general contractors, subcontractors, project owners and design professionals in all aspects of construction law, from contract preparation to litigation. Prior to his legal career, Todd had a 20-year career in construction management. He is a frequent speaker on construction law topics and remains involved with Seattle University School of Law as a guest lecturer.
Tonia Sorrell-Neal, LEED AP, is the Executive Director of the Washington State Conference of Mason Contractors, representing contractors and manufacturers working with brick, block, stone, marble, restoration, PCC and tile since 2008. She began her construction career focusing on construction defect litigation in Kentucky in 1994 and later transitioned to association government affairs where she has had the opportunity to lobby for the general contractors, subcontractors and homebuilders on issues including licensing, workers compensation and unemployment insurance.
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