From Channel 13 NBC (IN):

Four Indiana construction firms cited in worker’s June death

Four Indiana construction companies face fines and citations in connection with the death of a worker in June.

Stanley Roberts died in a June 17th accident at the convention center expansion project in downtown Indianapolis….

Ermco Electric was cited for two serious violations for not adequately marking or covering the excavation area Roberts’ lift fell into. Ermco was fined $9,000.

FA Wilhelm was fined $9,000 for the same two safety violations.

Far West Construction Inc. was also fined $3,000 for not adequately marking or covering the 24-inch wide by 24-inch long by 12-inch deep hole.

Harmon Steel was fined $10,000 for failing to provide any warning system, such as a barricade, hand signals or stop logs, to prevent the lift in which Roberts was working to be allowed in the dangerous area….

From Atlanta Business Journal (GA):

Duke Realty takes $50M hit on 3630 Peachtree

Duke Realty Corp. has taken a $50 million write-down on the value of its 3630 Peachtree project in Buckhead, another sign of the worsening commercial real estate mess.

Duke is co-developing the 425,000- square-foot office tower with Pope & Land Enterprises Inc. The 34-story building also includes 17 floors of luxury condos developed by Novare Group Holdings LLC and Post Properties Inc. It’s one of four new office towers that will be added to the Buckhead market between 2009 and early 2010. Two of them, including 3630 Peachtree, are empty. The other two have one tenant each.

From Atlanta business journal (GA):

Credit problems rising for Georgia banks

Credit problems for banks in metro Atlanta and statewide increased for the sixth straight quarter, as the state’s banking crisis shows no signs of letting up.

An analysis of third-quarter results for the state’s more than 300 banks, filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., shows the rate of increase in credit problems slowing slightly, but it does not indicate wholesale improvements for a battered industry.

Atlanta banks are reporting, on average, that 13.9 percent of loans are in some stage of delinquency, default or have been foreclosed, according to an analysis of third-quarter data by Atlanta-based FIG Partners LLC. That number is nearly double the statewide figure of almost 8.5 percent…

From NY Daily News (NY):

Engineer admits faking construction tests

An engineer dodged a jail term after admitting he helped fake concrete testing results at 100 of the city’s biggest construction projects – including Yankee Stadium.

Prosecutors said Monday Edward Porter, 74, got a conditional discharge for pleading guilty to felony conspiracy charges related to a probe of practices at Testwell Laboratories Inc., where he worked…

AG’s office: Hanover High contractor misled the town

The state Attorney General’s Office has ruled that the contractor in charge of building a new Hanover High School misled the town in a questionnaire as part of its bidding for the job…

Deborah Anderson, an assistant attorney general, on Friday approved a protest filed by the Laborers’ New England Region Organizing Fund and N.B. Kenney Co., a plumbing and HVAC contractor based in Devens.

Anderson ruled that Callahan Inc., the Bridgewater firm that was awarded the job by Hanover’s school building committee in September for a base bid of $37 million, exaggerated the experience it had in public school construction on the questionnaire it submitted to the town…..

Man killed in Duluth construction accident

The Duluth Police Department has released the name of the man fatally injured in a construction accident Saturday.

Robert B. Gotschall, 31, of Mentor, Ohio, died after falling at the Texas Roadhouse construction site. He was employed by Roth Painting of Bellaire, Ohio….

…The Louisville, Ky.-based firm Buffalo Construction is the general contractor on the project….

From St. Paul Ledger (MN):

Stimulus bill’s had ‘negligible’ effect on construction industry

A new report claims that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — which promised to pump $131 billion into the American construction industry — has done little to help an industry that is “hemorrhaging jobs.”

“So far, the ARRA has sent money to all corners of the construction industry, from residential building construction to highway projects to water and sewer line maintenance,” writes the report’s author, Chris Thormanof Software Advice (a company that offers free advice on selecting the right software for different industries).

Thorman, who writes a blog about construction estimating software, used information from Recovery.gov’s quarterly report on stimulus funds to write the report, which compares the number of jobs lost in the construction industry to the number of stimulus construction jobs created.

From Marketwire (CO):

Ur-Energy Selects General Contractor for Plant Construction

Ur-Energy Inc. is pleased to announce the selection of a firm to serve as the General Contractor in the construction of the process plant facilities at its Lost Creek uranium project in Wyoming….

..Fagen Inc., headquartered in Granite Falls, Minnesota, has been awarded the contract to provide the General Contracting services to Lost Creek…

We really hope those checks won’t bounce.

From Reuters (NV):

City Center’s impact on the Strip

CityCenter’s glittering high rises have forever altered the Las Vegas skyline, but there is concern about the project’s impact on already-discounted hotel room rates along the world’s most famous gambling corridor…

The nearly 6,000-room, $8.5 billion signature project for MGM Mirage opens in December with rates up and down the Strip slashed during a recession that has forced consumers and businesses to cut spending and hold out for bargains.

A night at one of CityCenter’s luxury towers can be had for as little as $129 in mid-December. The average daily room rate in Las Vegas had fallen 25 percent through August…

From HGTVPro.com(US):

20 Ways to Cut Your Construction Costs

With housing starts in the doldrums in some markets, home builders need to make every dollar count to remain cost-competitive while still providing top value. Builders can cut their construction costs in myriad ways, says Charles C. Shinn Jr., president of the Lee Evans Group/Shinn Consulting in Littleton, Colo., and all will pay off.

1. Create target construction-cost budgets.

2. Improve your working drawings.

3. Design and specify homes for your customers.

4. Analyze standard specifications.

5. Don’t overdo standard specifications.

6. Change the level of specification between floors.

7. Analyze low gross-profit plans.

8. Create a true purchase-order system to control all charges.

9. Issue complete construction-start packages prior to start.

10. Improve estimating and purchasing.

Click on the link to see the rest…