Happy May, fellow AGCVA members! Over the last few weeks as the weather has warmed, things are really moving in our districts. It's the season of golf tournaments, sporting clays, bourbon tastings, and plenty of outdoor networking events. Be sure to check the AGCVA calendar and find out what is happening in your area. I guarantee it will be worth your investment.

The Breeden Company, the nationally recognized Virginia Beach-based real estate development firm, announced this week that they have broken ground on Lake Taylor Pointe, a $43 million multifamily project in Norfolk, Virginia. Breeden Construction will serve as general contractor on the project. The Breeden Company’s Property Management division will manage the asset once construction is complete. The project is located off Kempsville Road and will consist of 198 one, two and three-bedroom apartments with home sizes ranging from 784 SF – 1,566 SF.

Construction has begun on the Heming, a new 28-story mixed-used building at 1800 Chain Bridge Rd. in Tysons that will include 410 apartments. Heming is part of the Scotts Run mixed-used development, a 6.5 million-square-foot development across from the McLean Metro station and between the Capital One and Mitre headquarters.
 
Heming, under development by Skanska USA, will include 38,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and a three-level outdoor public plaza called the Levels that will connect Chain Bridge Road, Platform Avenue, and the Metro station.

Clancy & Theys Construction Company is thrilled and ever so proud to announce the promotion of Chad Cowger from Senior Project Manager to Project Executive.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has released a whitepaper noting the ways in which construction companies are changing how they operate to meet ongoing trends and challenges.

According to the White House, $110 billion in infrastructure funds have been released from the $1 trillion promised in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act.

By James Harvey, Vandeventer Black LLP

This year, legislation was filed that would substantially undermine the freedom to contract and place the entire financial risk of a construction project on a general contractor.

AGCVA opposed the legislation as written while stressing its preference to work together with subcontractors on a solution to the issue of not being paid for work completed. AGCVA consistently maintained that any solution must 1) preserve the freedom to contract, 2) protect general contractors, and 3) protect subcontractors. AGCVA met with stakeholders advocating for the bill in an effort to reach a compromise on amended language that would benefit all parties. Unfortunately, despite weeks of negotiation via in-person meetings, phone, and email, a consensus could not be reached within the limited timeframe of the legislative session.

Since then, the bill has undergone several iterations including several amendments that were just approved by the General Assembly during the Reconvened Session. The revisions, which included several requests from AGCVA, included an extension of the payment timeline from 45 days to 60 days and a delayed enactment clause set for Jan. 1, 2023. Moreover, the legislation will only apply to contracts executed on or after that date.

While the bill’s language has moved in a positive direction, there is still much more work to be done in the interim. AGCVA looks forward to actively participating in the Department of General Services (DGS) workgroup that will be tasked with evaluating the pay-if-paid issue, crafting potential solutions, and reporting legislative recommendations to the General Assembly later this year. 

Click the button below for an in-depth analysis of the legislation and the real-world implications it will have on contractors in Virginia.  

The leadership of the commercial construction industry is reaching a moment of critical inflection as this business sector continues to grapple with a severe shortage of skilled workers. This is a problem that has only worsened since last year’s figures were released. As the commercial construction industry lurches through 2022, it’s dealing with supply chain disruption, material shortages and ever-increasing inflation rates—driving up costs and reducing profitability. But these issues can be mitigated with the right amount of planning, scheduling and estimating. However, the dramatic shortfall of skilled labor remains the most pressing issue—one that we have less capacity to “work around.”

Society is currently experiencing “The Great Resignation,” and it only continues to be exasperated by the pandemic. Yet, for many industries, building safety especially, this is not a new phenomenon. In fact, for the skilled trades like construction, the shortage of incoming talent has long been a challenge.

Contractors are using drones for site surveys, stockpile profiling, material measurement, inspections, client reporting and more.

The Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) and the U.S. Department of Labor held its annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction from May 2-6, 2022. This is the ninth year of the program, which encourages employers in the construction industry to raise awareness regarding fall prevention with their employees.