AGCVA eBulletin

ECS celebrated its thirty-first anniversary on February 15,2019. 

They want to take this opportunity to thank its clients and business associates for helping us realize another successful year.

 

Virginia McMahan, CPA has earned the designation of Certified  Construction  Industry  Financial  Professional  (CCIFP)  through  the  Institute  of  Certified  Construction Industry Financial Professionals, Inc. which is associated with the Construction Financial Management  Association.  This  distinguished  certification  is  earned  through  competency  testing  administered by the Institute in the areas of construction accounting and reporting, income recognition  methods,  budgeting  and  planning,  risk  management,  taxes,  human  resource,  legal,  information technology, and joint ventures. Ms. McMahan becomes the eighth member of the firm’s Construction Services Group with this designation.

Autodesk recently announced its intent to acquire PlanGrid, and the transaction is now complete. This event is an important milestone, as it accelerates PlanGrid and Autodesk’s joint vision of helping close the construction labor productivity gap with technology.

Construction companies have been busy transforming Virginia’s skylines.  Late last year, Capital One opened a 31-story tower at its Tysons headquarters. The structure is the tallest office building in the Washington, D.C., area.

 

In Hampton Roads, work continues on Ferguson Enterprises Inc.’s third headquarters building in Newport News. The eight-story building is located at City Center at Oyster Point, a district that includes residential, retail and business space. Ferguson, the largest plumbing wholesaler in the U.S., is spending $86 million on the project.

March 2019 eBulletin 

For the first time in its nearly 100 years, a Specialty Contractor has been installed as Chairman of the Associated General Contractors of Virginia.  Richmond based EMC Mechanical Services President, Bruce Tibbetts, was installed as the Chairman of the AGC-Virginia Chapter at their annual convention held at the Greenbrier resort with over 580 in attendance.  

 

The 2019 Board Officers include:  Bruce Tibbetts with EMC Mechanical Services– Chairman (Richmond), Kirk Adams with Riddleberger Brothers – Vice Chairman (Harrisonburg), Trip Smith with MEB General Contractors – 1st Vice Chairman (Virginia Beach), Robert Lee with English Construction – Past Chairman (Lynchburg).

 

Virginia’s economy finally caught some breaks this past year, as tax reform and the bipartisan spending deal significantly lessened the headwinds facing the large portion of the Commonwealth’s economy tied to the federal government. Real GDP growth ramped up to a 2.6% pace from the middle of 2017 to the middle of 2018, which is the latest data available. Lower tax rates helped fuel growth in consumer spending and the leisure & hospitality sector. Capital spending and job growth also received a boost, befitting from both lower tax rates and increased government spending, particularly on defense. Chart on p. 2 shows construction had the second-highest percentage growth in employment of any sector in the state from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018. The report also contains these comments about construction (p. 5):

GaugeConstruction is a new cloud-based subscription service that uses custom risk scoring and 40 years of historical weather data to deliver short-term, long-term and post-event weather insights during every phase of construction.

On Feb. 7, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a temporary enforcement policy for the crane operator evaluation requirements in the cranes and derricks in construction standard.  The effective date for the standard’s evaluation and documentation requirements was Feb. 7, 2019.  OSHA intends to offer compliance assistance, in lieu of enforcement, during the first 60 days of enforcement for employers who have evaluated operators in accordance with the final rule and are making good faith efforts to comply with the documentation requirement. Beginning April 15, 2019, OSHA will fully enforce all applicable requirements of the final rule. To help AGC members understand and comply with these new requirements, please click here for educational resources. 

AGCVA makes it possible with a wide range of training programs to help members. Recent training programs include: STP Supervisory Training, PMDP Project Manager, Young Construction Leaders Program, CQM Construction Quality Management, LEAN Construction Education Program & LEAN/BIM Exams.