Construction Equipment Owner

Not many contractors hire pavement consultants (we hire them to speak at National Pavement Expo), but property managers and owners hire consultants such as Benchmark Inc., Chec Management Systems Inc., and Murphy Pavement Technology to develop bid specs, oversee, and double check the work contractors do. An article in the May newsletter of Benchmark Inc., which consults on roofing and pavement for commercial property owners, shows what can happen when a consultant isn’t used and why consultants can be worth well more than their fee.

According to the article, Construction Observation — A Valuable Service by Russell V. Timmerman, Benchmark Inc. was hired to design rehabilitation of a section of parking lot and private road pavement for a commercial property. Benchmark provided all the pre-job work but the client decided not to hire Benchmark to conduct site visits during the project. The client did, however, hire Benchmark to perform a final walk-through with the client and the contractor. Among the problems Benchmark discovered after the job was completed was that the contractor shorted the customer more than 365 tons of binder material and 149 tons of surface material — roughly $71,000 in hot mix asphalt not being placed amounting to 25% of the overall cost of construction.

Obviously the contractor in this case was the problem, but Benchmark discovered it and helped the property owner negotiate an extended warranty for the pavement as well as make sure the contractor did not receive payment for materials not placed.

Contractors increasingly report working with pavement consultants on more and more projects, but the relationship doesn’t have to be adversarial. The consultant is there to handle the technical aspects of the work that most property managers don’t understand — and don’t have the time or the inclination to learn. As long as the contractor does what he (or she) is expected to do, the consultant and contractor can form a team that provides the best job for the customer.

In today’s economy, business owners face tough challenges in the lending arena. Doug Staebler, CFO with Custom Concrete, will talk about some of these challenges and how contractors can overcome them at the 2009 CFA Summer Meeting. I talked with Doug about his upcoming seminar. Listen here!

 Doug Staebler to give talk on business financing at CFA Summer Meeting: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (161)

National Pavement Expo does work to bring in the best of the best pavement maintenance speakers each year, and we know we get the right folks because they work year ’round for us. It’s the rare speaker who doesn’t field phone calls throughout the year from contractors who attended an NPE session, and our speakers step up and help these folks out every time.

Mick Vinckier, one of NPE’s premier speakers on pavement marking, has always happily fielded these types of calls, but a couple weeks back he went above and beyond his normal effort. While visiting Yellowstone National Park he happened to drive by the Jackson Hole Airport, located right at the base of the Teton Mountains, where he noticed some striping going on. So he pulled over to take a look. Turns out the director of operations was out there pushing a striper trying to restripe, partly on a curve, with the gun on the front end of the machine.

So Mick ambled over and before you know it he was giving the operator a “shortened” version of his striping sessions. Before too long the director of operations called over two other employees and Mick took the three of them through the paces of how to properly and more efficiently restripe the airport, including showing them how and why to move the gun to the rear of the machine. Nearly two hours later Mick went back to vacation - but not without inviting these folks to National Pavement Expo and not without giving them a copy of Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction and urging them to subscribe.

Thanks, Mick!

Oh, by the way, the reason the airport director of operations was striping himself is because the only striping contactor he could find to do the work was in Cheyenne and he had priced himself out of the job.

The deadline isn’t until June 29, but every state has committed at least half its highway stimulus funds so none will lose any of its allocation, the Obama administration said Thursday. According to a CNNMoney.com article: only a month ago, some 14 states had yet to satisfy that goal. Hawaii was the last to meet the mark, hitting it on June 19.

You may recall the previous post where we highlighted the fact that some states had barely even begun to commit its stimulus funds. So it’s good to hear that every last one will receive their allocated allotment.

On a related topic, the website greenbuildings.com is featuring a website that tracks stimulus dollars on a state and local level.

I ran across an article at The Architects’ Journal web page on the architecture of Star Wars. Good stuff. Who wouldn’t want to live in the Ewok Village!?

I think the Sci-Fi world is a great place to look for futuristic design ideas and inspiration. I’ve always been intrigued and humored by the past’s vision of the future. (Do you remember that silly “war room/president’s office” in the original Dead Zone?) One of my favorite futurist illustrators is Arthur Radebaugh, a commercial artist and cartoonist from the mid-1900s. His stuff can be hard to find, but believe me, he had a great futurist mind and was a talented artist. His “Closer Than We Think” was comic strip Sci-Fi. I found this link on another blog, Paleo-Future, that shows a few frames from “Closer Than We Think.” Take a look at the bottom one, showing pre-fab, gravity-free homes. Looks like a design that could easily be made from concrete! And if Radebaugh would have imagined the benefits of insulated concrete homes, he wouldn’t have had to dream up the anti-gravity device that helps homeowners beat the heat. Save money on energy costs AND stay cool? That’s the Sci-Fi vision of concrete housing that is slowly but surely becoming a reality.

For those of you who are regular readers of the Construction Business Owner Blog you know that on Fridays we occasionally like to kick back and end the week on a lighter note. This is one of those weeks as we came across an article on MSNBC.com in which a student transformed orange and white traffic barrels into a “Barrel Monster.”

According to the article: The construction company has become a fan, and wants the 21-year-old to create a replica of the figure that led to his arrest on June 10.

Hamlin Associates, the construction company whose barrels were turned into a monster, doesn’t want to press charges and has said the monster has resulted in a lot of positive publicity.

So, more than a solid month into the season and what’s the industry look like? Here are some anecdotal insights:

* There’s a lot of potential sealcoating work in the bid pipeline. Contractor after contractor I talk with says they tried to jump start their season by offering aggressive bids early on. Most of those bids have not been awarded, so that work is sitting out there waiting…and contractors are waiting hopefully on it.

* Weather is playing a big role. Many Midwestern contractors, for example, stopped and started several times trying to get their season going but consistent rain forced late starts to the season. The obvious result is a backlog of work built up, which many contractors are just now starting to eat into.

* A southeastern contractor says his crews are paying much closer attention to the weather — not only each night and morning but at the end of each sealcoating job. If the weather looks threatening his crews shift to repair work.

* A Midwestern paving contractor expects paving sales to be down 5% from budgeted numbers, due primarily to large commercial properties holding off on overlays and new parking lots. The plus side is that many of those properties are still seeking pavement repair and maintenance, but the volume isn’t there from them.

* A western contractor sees just the opposite: Sealcoating work in his market is down but paving is going great guns, primarily, he guesses, because hot mix costs aren’t as high as last year and the customers are trying to take advantage of that.

* Most contractors I talk with are scheduled about eight weeks out — consistent with a typical year.

* Margins, not surprisingly, are tight. But contractors are not lamenting that fact - instead reacting as if the tight margins are current “fact of life” they have to get through until the economy picks up.

On the whole, contractors seem accepting of the current market and seem to be using the tight economy as an opportunity to re-evaluate how they are running their business, handling their jobs, and managing their crews. Many are also exploring adding additional services. That’s just some of what I’m hearing. What’s going on in your market?

One of the focuses for the 2009 Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) Summer Meeting, which will be held July 29 - August 1 at Amelia Island, Fla., is “Why Waste a Good Recession?” The CFA has assembled a great line-up of educational programs to assist commercial and residential foundation contractors through this time of economic hardship. The speakers will discuss topics that encourage contractors to take advantage of the downturn to kick-start their marketing, educate themselves on sustainable offerings and learn new skills.

My magazine, Concrete Contractor, is sponsoring our columnist Bob Harris of the Decorative Concrete Institute to speak to CFA members on the topic of decorative concrete. Hear Bob talk about what he’ll discuss at his seminar.

 Bob Harris to give decorative concrete seminar at the CFA Summer Meeting: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (126)

Guest Post: Greg Udelhofen

Bobcat Company has unveild its new M-Series compact excavators, skid-steer and compact track loaders this week at a media event in Bismarck, ND.

The new skid-steer and compact track loaders feature the most significant design changes undertaken by the company. This new design enables the operator to accomplish more work through performance and durability enhancements that provide more power and keep the loader worker longer, while increasing operator comfort through improved visibility and a more spacious and comfortable cab.

The first M-Series loader models include the S630 (wheel) and T630 (track). The S650 and T650 will be available in August.
Two new M-Series excavators, the E32 and E35, fill the popular 3-to-4-ton weight class, following Bobcat’s introduction of the M-Series E80, which is the larger 6-to-8-ton weight class. Bobcat completely re-engineered the design of the M-Series excavators, reducing the weight to create a lighter machine. A new load-sensing piston pump and closed center-valve system deliver exceptional metering for smooth control of machine functions.

Visit the ForConstructionPros.com Equipment Connection for product information on the new Bobcat M-Series line.

Sponsor:Asphalt Contractor E-newsletter

Jeffrey Solsby -Director of Public Affairs - Equipment Manufacturers Division Manager of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and Richard Juliano - Vice President for Federal and State Relations - Managing Director of the Contractors Division, also of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association join the Construction Business Podcast.

Jeff and Rich recently took part in the 2009 ARTBA Federal Issues Program & TCC Fly-In May 18-20 and share the discussions they took part in and what they learned over the course of this year’s annual event.

Jeff and Rich discuss:

• A general overview of the overall purpose of the fly-in
• Impact of Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act
• Forecasts for SAFETEA-LU and Aviation Bill
• Additional insights and briefs brought up during event

Website:www.artba.org
ARTBA Action Hotline: (888) 448-2782

 ARTBA Legislative Fly-in and TCC Recap [25:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (300)