AGC Constructor

On Thursday, June 18 at 12 p.m. EDT, AGC of America and Procore will release new state and national data showing the impacts of the coronavirus on the construction industry. The data will also track the location, and extent of the early recovery in demand for construction. Similar data from Procore identifying on-site worker hours for the Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle markets will also be released and discussed. The announcement will be made during a virtual media event on Zoom and feature the association’s chief economist and Procore’s senior director of business development.

 

The association’s chief economist, Ken Simonson, will release the results of a new survey of construction firms measuring the impacts of the coronavirus on the industry. Procore’s senior director of business development, Kristopher Lengieza, will present insights from Procore’s Construction Activity Index that highlight the near real-time construction activity levels by state, company size, and industry served. Simonson will also outline steps federal officials should take to help the industry recover, add jobs and support broader economic growth.

 

Click here or 301 715 8592, Webinar ID: 824 1493 8431. For additional information, contact Brian Turmail, 703-459-0238, or brian.turmail@agc.org.

Each year AGC of America surveys highway and transportation members about the state of highway work zone safety. Our intent is to measure the extent, and impact, of highway work zone crashes, their impacts on the safety of construction workers and motorists and their impacts on highway construction. Now that many states have begun to lift restrictions, and growing anecdotal reports of motorists taking advantage of less-crowded highway to operate at unsafe speeds, AGC of America and our survey partner HCSS are asking all highway and transportation members to complete the following online survey. Please complete the survey by Monday, June 22. AGC will then analyze the responses and release the results prior to the July 4th weekend to the media. This will allow us to share key safety messages with the motoring public prior to what is likely to be a busy period for holiday travel on our highways. Please contact AGC of America’s Brian Turmail at brian.turmail@agc.org or 703-459-0238 with any questions.

 

The chief executive officer of AGC of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in reaction to the passage of the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020: “This new law improves upon the original Paycheck Protection Program by extending the coverage period to 24 weeks, revising the ratio of percentage of expenses allowed to be forgiven up to 60 percent payroll costs and 40 percent non-payroll, extending the maturity period for the loans from two years to five, and allowing loan recipients to defer payroll taxes through the end of 2020. Its enactment will save many construction jobs and allow thousands of construction firms to remain in business.

 

“Having fixed several problems with a measure designed to helped firms survive, it is time for Congress and the President to put in place measures to rebuild our economy. These measures include providing liability protection for contractors and other businesses that are taking steps to protect workers from the coronavirus, new infrastructure funding and measures to stimulate broader, private-sector demand for construction and development.”

Last week AGC joined with construction employers and building trades union in support of multiemployer pension reform. The letter to congressional leaders urges Congress to include common sense pension reform for the nation’s troubled pension plans and to authorize a Composite Plan option for healthy plans. Reforms called for include a special partition program from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The COVID-19 crisis and the resulting investment losses and reduction in contributions has further worsened many plans and has made reform more urgent. Last week a report was released showing that Composite Plans would have fared better during the COVID-19 emergency than traditional multiemployer pension plans.

 

Construction spending plunged in April as governmental agencies and project owners shut down ongoing work and canceled projects that were about to break ground, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association officials warned that further steep declines are inevitable for public projects unless the federal government acts quickly to invest in needed infrastructure and shore up crumbling state and local budgets.

A successful construction company safety program goes beyond policies and procedures, training manuals, toolbox talks and incident monitoring. In fact, companies with strong safety records have a culture of safety versus a program for safety. That is the case with Faith Technologies, grand winner of the 2020 Willis Towers Watson Construction Safety Excellence Award presented by AGC of America at its annual convention in Las Vegas in March. Faith is an energy expert and electrical planning, engineering, design and installation firm based in Wisconsin, with 20 locations nationally.

BY SHERYL JACKSON

With coverage of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continuing to dominate the news, AGC of America has put together this resource page to share accurate, reliable and updated information to help members take a proactive approach and plan/prepare accordingly. The association will continue to monitor the situation and update the information accordingly.

 

AGC encourages its members and all contractors to implement the temporary tips below, if practical: First, educate your employees on how to protect themselves and others, including the importance of good hygiene practices and avoiding close contact (within 6 feet) with others.

In this episode of ConstructorCast, three “Lean” practitioners and advocates share their personal stories on how to increase Lean engagement on construction jobsites to reduce waste, improve workflow and add value for project stakeholders. Hear Henry Nutt of Southland Industries, Keyan Zandy of Skiles Group, and Joe Donarumo of Linbeck explain their unique approach to getting earlier and more Lean buy-in from the “boots on the ground” leaders in the field (superintendents and last planners), rather setting Lean performance goals by using a top-down approach. Discover how a “Builder’s Lean” model can produce immediate, positive change on your projects.

If you are like the thousands of BD folks in the A/E/C industry right now, you are struggling to find ways to stay relevant and connected to your clients and project management teams. Depending on the state you live in and the day of week, your situation varies

BY LISA FRISBIE, AGC OF MASSACHUSETTS

Along with all of our AGC partners, AGC NYS staff has been working around the clock to serve our members in this time of national crisis, one which so far is hitting New York much harder than any other state.