AGC Houston Chapter Office

The Junior League of Houston

Sheraton Downtown Phoenix

Registration for the CLC Leadership Development Conference, formerly known as Fall Working Weekend, is now open. This year’s event is co-hosted with the San Antonio Chapter of AGC and will take place October 23-25, 2014, at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk. Highlights of the program include keynote speaker George "The Iceman" Gervin, former San Antonio Spurs player; Chuck Greco, Linbeck Group, LLC, and Senior Vice President of AGC of America; and a roundtable session that will allow attendees to learn best practices from CLC groups from across the country.

Among numerous topics, this class will cover notice deadlines and requirements for filing lien and bond claims, how to obtain project information, and how to avoid common problems with lien and bond claims.

This session will build on the Liens and Bonds speech with an advanced discussion of liens and how they are enforced. The session will also cover a variety of payment topics.  

Learn to make your environmental management system (EMS) effective so that you can reduce liability, ensure compliance, and improve operating efficiency.

By popular demand, AGC Houston is excited to bring this new, hands-on course for supervisors and workers involved in rigging or hoisting operations while using cranes, heavy equipment, truck cranes, or other equipment in any industry.

By popular demand, AGC Houston is excited to bring this new, hands-on course for supervisors and workers involved in rigging or hoisting operations while using cranes, heavy equipment, truck cranes, or other equipment in any industry.

This course will provide participants an opportunity to design a management system for environmental, risk, safety and health programs.

This course is designed for individuals who respond to releases or potential releases for hazardous substances for the purpose of protecting nearby persons, property, or the environment.

The OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety Course is intended for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility. It provides a greater depth and variety of training on an expanded list of topics associated with workplace hazards than the 10-hour course.

The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication is an international standard for informing workers about health, physical, and environmental hazards in the workplace.

The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication is an international standard for informing workers about health, physical, and environmental hazards in the workplace.

This course covers OSHA General Industry Standards and other consensus and proprietary standards that relate to the use of hazardous materials.

This class addresses the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery or equipment, therefore preventing the release of hazardous energy while employees perform servicing or maintenance activities.

The AGC Education and Research Foundation Scholarship application for the 2015-16 academic year will be available online beginning July 1. The application period runs through midnight EST November 3, but students can get a jump on the process by starting now! Students in ABET or ACCE-accredited civil engineering or construction management programs are eligible for $2,500 scholarships, renewable for up to three years. 

The District of Columbia and 40 states added workers between May 2013 and May 2014, according to an analysis from the Associated General Contractors of America. "[M]any firms are slowly rebuilding their depleted payrolls," said Stephen Sandherr, AGC's CEO. "But if overall economic growth slows, construction employment could backslide in many states." Sandherr noted that a passage of a long-term surface transportation bill would "give many construction employers the security they need to begin adding to their payrolls." 

The Associated General Contractors of America has joined the Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Hiring Our Heroes program, launched in 2011, which aims to hire 100,000 veterans in the next five years. "The only thing keeping many of our members from hiring vets is figuring out how to find them," says Stephen Sandherr, AGC's CEO. "This new partnership will make it easier for construction firms to find, recruit and hire veterans."

The Construction State Law Matrix is the most comprehensive, definitive and concise publication available, covering all aspects of state laws that may affect your public or private construction project. This essential resource, for use before completing any construction contract in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, ensures compliance and enforceability under state law.

The National Labor Relations Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have entered into a program together for the referral of untimely whistleblower claims. The new program could result in a significant uptick in unfair labor practice charges in the construction industry, both in the union and open shop sectors.

ATTENTION AGC MEMBERS: AGC members can benefit from discounts on their Verizon phone plans. Benefits include up to 22% off corporate calling plans. Employees receive up to an 18% discount (15% plus an additional 3% discount if enrolled in online billing) on their plans. Pricing options are also available on data plans, accessories, and devices.

If you have any questions or would like to have a Verizon business sales representative reach out to you, please call NPP at 800-810-3909 or email customerservice@mynpp.com.

Congratulations to Andrew Myers for being recognized as one of Texas' top law firms in the 2014 edition of Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business. At a press conference on Monday, June 23, Chambers announced Andrews Myers as a top construction law firm in Texas, awarding it a "Band One" rating, and listing four AM lawyers as leading individuals in their fields. Bill Andrews, Tom Myers, Ben Westcott and Jason Walker were individually recognized by Chambers for their accomplishments as leading construction lawyers in the state.

Mayor Annise Parker  selected AGC Houston Board member and Preservation Houston member Bob Fretz, Jr., Fretz Construction Company to receive the Mayor’s Historic Preservationist of the Year Award. The award presentation took place on Tuesday, June 17, during City Council’s Public Session at City Hall. Bob Fretz, Jr. was chosen by Mayor Parker as the 2014 Recipient of the Mayor's Citizen Award for Historic Preservation and for his invaluable work to this city. Parker proclaimed June 17, 2014, as Robert R. Fretz, Jr. Day in the CIty of Houston. Numerous council members congratulated Bob Fretz on the impact he and his firm have had on the Houston community.

The Houston region is expected to have 296,000 job openings in the "middle-skills" occupations within the next three years, and a new effort is being launched to fill them. In conjunction with the Greater Houston Partnership and JPMorgan & Co., The UpSkill Houston program will create seven sector-specific councils to improve coordination among the stakeholders. The seven key sectors for the Houston region are advanced manufacturing, construction, health care, oil and gas, petrochemical, ports and maritime, and utilities.

On June 24, from 2-4 p.m. ASCE Texas Section, Houston Branch, and the Land/Water Sustainability Forum will present "Sustainable Infrastructure - How to Turn Dreams into Reality" led by Wayne Klotz, PE, D.WRE, ENV SP. Find out how the ENVISION sustainable infrastructure rating system may be integrated into Houston's permitting and regulation process.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AGC of America has reported that Texas' construction injury rate has come down by almost half in the past decade. Texas had a construction injury rate of 4.4 incidents per 100 workers in 2003. By 2012, the construction-injury rate was 2.3 incidents per 100 workers—a decrease of 48 percent. The new statistics regarding construction injury and fatality rates has bolstered new efforts by the AGC to make the industry even safer.

According to Toby Mack, president of the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance, the hiring of construction workers could increase 60 percent from the 2012 level by 2025. He predicts that five percent of those opportunities will occur within the energy-producing regions. However, he warns, "government action restricting shale energy production could undermine the viability of this sector."

ExxonMobil has broken ground on its new chemical plant in Baytown, Texas, and has awarded contracts to Bechtel, Linde, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The company is already at work on another plant in the state. Together the two projects will create 10,000 construction jobs.

Sempra Energy and Cameron LNG's $10 billion liquefied natural gas export facility project in Hackberry, La., has received final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The project is now a step closer to construction, and could break ground later this year, according to Sempra.

Trimont Real Estate Advisors has seen a 12.9% increase in construction loan administration assignments during the past year and a half. "As development continues to accelerate in urban and suburban clusters, we're seeing ample opportunities for major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta," said Greg Winchester, a company principal. "We expect this growth to continue trending strongly upward in the coming year."