Laborers Union Kicks Off Nation Wide Effort to Build America

Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) has started the Build America so America Works campaign. The effort, according to the union is an intensive and sustained effort to redirect America’s priorities and resources to taking care of America’s infrastructure and schools. This effort has the chance to not only raise clout of the Laborers Union and the Building Trades, but also the nation.

The president of the LIUNA, Terry O'Sullivan, references the American Society of Civil Engineers estimate that $1.6 trillion is needed for improvements to bridges, highways, schools, dams, waterways, drinking water.

The campaign includes many parts:

• A large media campaign with print online ads, bus wraps, mobile billboards as well as advertisements on radio and television.
• A massive member to member voter registration effort. The goal is to increase the number of registered voters in the union by 10 percent.
• The launching of www.liunabuildsamerica.org. This website is striving to be the most important and comprehensive source of information about building America and the people who build America.
• In-depth information for members and others which shows that working people rely most on the basic infrastructure.
• They are circulating the "Petition to Build America", with the goal of getting one million voices telling Congress and the next president to “Build America so America Works”. Sign the petition here.
  
• The most important and sustainable effort is the move to build coalitions around issues through out the nation.

One of the first coalitions that has formed is the Americans for Transportation Mobility. They launched its FasterBetterSafer campaign, a nationwide effort to invest in America’s roadways, bridges and public transportation systems that working people and the nation depend on every day.

One of their key messages is: "Instead of debating a so-called gas tax holiday that would gut investment in our country’s highways and bridges as we approach the one-year anniversary of that deadly tragedy, we should be signing into law a new vision to build America."

I think that going into November this is the kind of effort that can make a real difference in the direction of the country. I'll be watching this and reporting on how the campaign develops.

City of San Diego Is Revamping Contractor Outreach Program

The city of San Diego is overhauling its Subcontractor and Outreach Program (SCOPe). In the past the program has been criticized by its participants as ineffective and larger contractors as being a more bureaucracy. The proposed changes appear to be a boon to local small contractors and will require a larger effort by larger companies. According to the City's website, the SCOPe applies to City funded construction project valued over $250,000.

The major change that the city is recommending is the Mandatory submission of outreach documentation by prime contractors within 5 working days from the date of bid opening. This is a very ambitious step and I hope that it is resourced and staffed properly or it will fail. Hopefully it will get the contractors away from "Good Fake Efforts".

In the past the contractors could do the minimum or less when doing public works. This would include sending solicitations to bid to contractors that were not licensed to do the work or waiting until it was too late and too close to the bid opening for subcontractors to act.

I really hope this program can get results for the local contractors.

More information about SCOPe

The goals of the program are:

• To maximize subcontracting opportunities for all qualified and available firms
• To provide equal opportunity for all subcontractors to participate in performance of City contracts

The requirements of the program are:

• Mandatory use of subcontractors at a percentage level determined by a City engineer on a project-by-project basis
• Mandatory broad-based outreach in solicitation of sub-bids by prime contractor
• Mandatory submission of outreach documentation by prime contractors within 5 working days from the date of bid opening

Photo by Damek.

World Trade Center Over Budget and Behind Schedule

The new Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center is, according to Reuters, behind schedule and over budget, and major problems mean new cost estimates and timetable must be drawn up, officials said on Monday. According to those involved the cost of materials and issues with the scope and design of the project are holding it up.

There are about 15 "issues" with the project. According to the article these include: how many trees the memorial should have to demolishing the nearby Deutsche Bank building -- badly damaged in the attacks but still standing -- to salvaging the transit hub designed by Santiago Calatrava whose elaborate "butterfly wings" design could be too costly.

I think the ten year goal to get the building and the site was admirable, but with so much that needs to be integrated into one site, I do not believe that it is practical.

The article also indicated that Gov. Corazine of New Jersey is included in the new steering committee. Though New Jersey residents are large stakeholders in the Center's development, should they have such a large role to influence the project?

Photo by Steepways

Renewable Energy's Momentum and Growing Pains

The Engineering News Record(ENR) last week wrote an informative story about renewable energy. They focused on how the renewable energy generation has matured and some of the problems the industry has had as it has expanded. The three types of renewable energy that were investigated were wind, solar and geothermal. I was surprised to find out that wind energy has the most sustained momentum with regards to growth as well as operations, while solar represents a small fraction of the energy portfolio.

Here are some of the things I really found interesting.

• Wind: The steel towers have grown exponentially in size, with their fiberglass-reinforced rotors increasing from 10 to 120 meters in diameter since 1981. Safety is now an issue because the workers constructing the turbines are working in a more dangerous environment.
  
• Solar: Photo Voltaic efficiency ranges from 8% to 22%, depending on the cell’s architecture. SunPower last month announced it had produced a full-scale, 5-in. prototype cell that is 23.4% efficient, claiming a world record for a large-area solar cell.
• Geothermal has high start up costs but benefits from cheap generation costs. They are estimated to be 5¢ to 7.5¢ per kilowatt-hour. Estimates for the new nuclear plants can be more than $6,300 per installed kW.

One of the biggest problems with all of these forms of energy generation is that there needs to be transmission corridors to move the energy from the generation sites to the consumers. There are two big battles in southern California with regards to this issue. One is the "Green Path" project and the other is the "Sunrise Powerlink Project". The opponents of these movements are focused on eminent domain, natural habitat destroyed.

In California much of the renewable energy comes from the Mojave Desert. Grassroots coalitions formed to fight the projects. One group, the California Desert Coalition, opposes the Green Path project and points out the people who will be most directly affected by the project will benefit the least.

Photo by Brionv