Oct 11, 2022

ABC of Western Washington

Three companies recently joined the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington: TNT Building Community of Seattle; Tony's New Life Construction of Longview; and PS Contractors & Construction Management of Auburn. TNT says it's “building community by educating and teaching trades/skills and working on projects to stimulate community and sustainability for all people.” Tony's is a design and build firm working on both commercial and residential projects. PS is a full service general contractor and construction management firm with an accumulated 30 years of experience in construction, engineering and project management.

Skyline Construction

San Francisco-based Skyline Construction acquired Prevost Construction of San Diego. Skyline says this is a major step in expanding its operations, which include nine offices in California, Washington and Illinois. Prevost is known for building complex and technical life science facilities throughout the greater San Diego area, and that falls into Skyline's desire to scale this service to customers in all its markets. Skyline operates locally as Unimark Construction.

Harbor Freight Tools

California-based Harbor Freight Tools awarded $1.25 million in cash prizes to 20 teachers and their schools, with two of the five grand prize winners from southwest Washington. The grand prize winners of the Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence each received $100,000 and 15 others got $50,000 each. Local grand prize winners were Cory Torppa of Kalama High School and Bill Culver of Evergreen High School in Vancouver. Also, Mark Simmons of Springfield High School in Oregon was named a winner of $50,000. Doug Merrill of Wenatchee High School and Adam Wood of Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School were finalists in the competition.

Washington River Protection Solutions

Washington River Protection Solutions earned its sixth DOE Voluntary Protection Program Innovation Award for an innovative system used to make digging trenches safer and faster at the Hanford Site. WRPS deployed the system during a recent transfer line replacement project that required hand excavation around old equipment buried in a tank farm. The system used a conveyor belt to lift soil from trenches, decreasing the potential for injuries while increasing efficiency by over 50%. The hand-dug trenches were more than 7 feet deep and workers removed over 800 tons of soil.

Oct 04, 2022

Compass Construction

Auld

Bell

Sosavanh

Kohatsu

Compass Construction promoted Jonathan Kohatsu from general accountant to assistant controller, Sidnie Sosavanh from project accountant to project accounting manager, Destini Bell from field laborer to field assistant, and Chris Auld to safety director. Kohatsu joined Compass in 2018 as a project accountant. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from Hawaii Pacific University. Sosavanh started her career at Compass in 2017 as an accounts payable lead. She obtained her bachelor's degree in accounting at Bellevue College. Bell is working at the company's Boston project in Seattle. Auld began his career at Compass in 2000 as a laborer/carpenter and retains the title of senior superintendent along with his new role as safety director.

Wayne's Roofing

Butler

Western States Roofing Contractors Association appointed Brian Butler of Wayne's Roofing as board vice president for 2022-2023. Butler is vice president and CSO at Sumner-based Wayne's Roofing.

ABC of Western Washington

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington elected its 2023 officers and board. Officers include Dawn Lanz of Sea Tac Electric, chair; Josh Griesse of Washington Commercial Painters, chair–elect/secretary; Glen Kuntz of Tekton, immediate past chair; Cindy Axthelm of Axthelm Construction, treasurer; Adam Kemly of Kemly Electric, vice chair of government affairs; Stephanie Carlin of Propel Insurance, vice chair of membership; America George of Haggard Electric, vice chair of safety; Don Koslowsky of Deacon, vice chair of professional development; and Ryan Brown of System Mechanical and Safety, vice chair of workforce development. Directors are Candi Pfluger of BDO; Shelley Bloom of All City Fence; Karen Say-Valadez of Saybr Contractors; Scott Garcia of Parker Smith and Feek; Mitch Neeley of Neeley Construction; Jason Wandler of Oles, Morrison, Rinker & Baker; Anita Robertson of Make Ready Services; and Eric Brock of HST Construction. Those leaving the board at the end of the year are Travis Hull of Mechanical Control Services and Doug Bolar of Accountable Custodial Maintenance.

AGC of America

The Associated General Contractors of America is launching a new effort to combat high suicide rates and improve mental health among the industry's workers. The trade group noted that there were 53.2 suicides per 100,000 workers in a year compared to a national construction workplace fatality rate of 10.2 per 100,000 workers — meaning a construction worker is five times as likely to die by suicide than workplace safety hazards. AGC is preparing a series of video public service announcements featuring construction workers who almost succumbed to their mental health challenges. These workers will urge members of the construction industry to not be afraid to seek help. The association is also assembling a comprehensive collection of resources for construction companies and their workers about mental health and suicide prevention.