My boss at my first engineering job told me that a PE license and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.
Now that’s one heck of a saying, and at 22 years old, I didn’t really get it. I eventually put two and two together and realized that since a cup of coffee […]
While we may not often talk about them, we all remember the dark ages. These are the years where work in the architecture, engineering, and construction field fell to levels not seen for, at a minimum, decades. I was not one of the lucky who lived in a castle with a moat, so I was […]
Everybody loves to get hung up in contract language. On construction projects, contractors, owners, and subs will fire contract language back and forth like missiles in what gets to be an arms race of legalities that negatively affects projects by creating panic and anxiety. When lawyers get involved, the language starts to get twisted and manipulated […]
I’ve spent the past four years starting a construction company through the public bidding process. While I have arguably been successful in doing this, it has not come without plenty of headache, heartache, and just plain unimaginable stress.
I’ve probably bid at least 100 public RFPs, but I’ve only been awarded less than 10. I’ve dealt […]
I will often get asked, “What is Constructonomics?”.
Actually, that’s a lie. I very rarely, if ever, get asked that question. I’m not sure why I lied about that, but most likely because that’s how a post like this would typically start.
Nevertheless, I do think about the question a lot […]
I was sent this email on Christmas Eve right after the Senate met for a vote on the health care bill. It was a mass email to several people in the construction industry.
I said yesterday’s Alert was probably the final version for 2009 – but I had to bring the attached to your attention. Senator […]
I have a new year’s resolution. I resolve to not rip on the authority of the business world and specifically construction organizations. And I will also lay-off the d-bag bankers and other greedy manipulators that have been spending the past decade hoarding money while screwing the….ok, ok, I’m done – seriously. It’s a new year, […]
I think about blogs kind of like that pain in the ass cousin that always wants to go out and throw the baseball, but while you’d rather sit inside and throw back a few stiff ones, you also don’t want to ignore the kid and look like a jerk. Blogs have gotten to the point where, […]
I went to the recovery.gov site today to get the latest news on the stimulus package and how much has been rolled out in an attempt to save the woefully unemployed from forming a long winding line outside every homeless shelter in the country. I had ambitious goals of giving a well organized description of how much money […]
Please submit nominations for what you think is the best construction project of the decade. The criteria as far as completion is concerned is that the superstructure of the building must be in place by the end of December. So if the steel or concrete is topped off, it’s good to go. […]
The Turner Construction Cost Index was released today for the fourth quarter of 2009. And to nobody’s surprise construction costs are down again. However, they are only down 2.07% this quarter versus 5.77% in the first quarter of 2009. This caps a horrifically dismal year and brings the total of construction cost decline to 12.62%.
Karl […]
I am a new company and I am trying to get work as a construction manager, owner’s representative, design/builder, or owner’s representative. I am looking to bring someone on that has experience in sales, marketing, and estimating in the construction and development industry. It would also be very beneficial if you have existing contacts in […]
There are probably few out there that haven’t heard the term “Climategate” over the last couple of weeks, but what I’m not sure people are aware of is what it is and what information these infamous emails contain. So….what the heck is Climategate?
Well, Climategate is another name for the Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident and it […]
