Pete Sigmund

Jun 5, 2002

TRIP Report Names Worst Bridges in U.S.

A report from The Road Information Program (TRIP) that approximately one in four of the country’s major heavily-traveled bridges is deficient and needs to be repaired or replaced is attracting widespread interest, and some controversy. Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) told Construction Equipment Guide (CEG) that they need more funding for bridge maintenance, are worried about proposed cuts and generally support TRIP’s findings....

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May 23, 2002

EPA: Nation’s Water Bill to Reach $650B

A leak from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft report warns of a critical “gap” in the nation’s water infrastructure. The leak revealed the contents of an EPA 2002 draft report of water systems needs that the agency must present in its periodic report to Congress. The last assessment, in 1996, indicated at least $139.5 billion in water-related work was eligible for assistance through federal loans to Clean Water State Revolving Funds. This year’s draft report, however, leaked to the press shortly before a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Environmental and Hazardous Material on April 11, warned of a much greater need: a funding shortfall of more than $650 billion for drinking water and sewer system needs over the next 20 years. The report, originally scheduled to be released in August after review by the Office of Management and Budget, said more than half of the nation’s sewer pipes (which total 500,000 mi....

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May 8, 2002

EPA Eyes Tougher Air Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has won the legal battle to implement tougher clean air standards — a victory that could affect many areas of the construction industry, which will have to control emissions under future state implementation plans for complying with the standards. The U.S....

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Apr 23, 2002

AFL/CIO Responds to ABC’s Attack on Unions

Editor’s Note: In the most recent issue of “Construction Equipment Guide” [April 10, 2002; No. 8] we interviewed Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) National Chairman Ken Adams....

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Apr 8, 2002

ABC’s Chair Maps Out Strategy to ’Take Back Senate’

(Ken Adams, national chairman of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), Washington, D.C., for 2002, began his construction career while still in his teens, and is now President of Pace Electric Inc., an electrical contracting firm in New Castle, DE....

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Mar 18, 2002

Industry Draws Battle Lines for Bush Budget

The Bush Administration’s $2.13-trillion budget proposal for the 2003 fiscal year includes a drastic $8.6-billion cut in federal highway funding, causing serious concern in the construction industry about possible delay of projects and potential loss of thousands of jobs. The 27 percent reduction in funding — from this year’s $31.8 billion to $23.2 billion — is part of a proposal that observers said would launch “a new era of deficit spending” (including an $80-billion deficit for the FY beginning Oct....

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Mar 5, 2002

ConExpo-Con/AGG Trade Show Echoes Industry’s Evolution

Old-timers among us remember steamrollers, associated with the smell of hot asphalt, and steam shovels, whose operator sat in a wooden “house” on a flat chassis as he pulled levers to work the cables that swung, opened, and closed the jaws at the end of the machine’s arm. These were the types of equipment which were displayed at the “Road Shows” in the early 1900s....

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Jan 29, 2002

State DOTs Dispute Failing Grades Revealed in TRIP Highway Analysis

With highway funding at record levels, a study reveals that pavements on many of the nation’s roads and bridges are still in bad shape. What’s up? The Road Information Program (TRIP), a non-profit transportation research group in Washington, D.C., primarily supported by the highway industry, says that reliable data indicates that “approximately three out of 10 miles of major highways and streets nationally have significant deterioration and are in need of resurfacing or reconstruction.” TRIP says “11 percent of the nation’s major roads are in poor condition and 21 percent are in mediocre condition; thus, 32 percent of the mileage on the nation’s major roads need significant improvement.” TRIP also named the states with the highest percentage of major road mileage in poor or mediocre condition, drawing sharp rebuttals from many of those named....

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Jan 17, 2002

ARTBA Rings in 2002 By Celebrating Its Centennial Birthday

One hundred years ago, Horatio “By Gum” Earle, president of a bicyclists’ association called the League of American Wheelmen, met with three other men in the Cadillac Hotel in New York City....

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Jan 15, 2002

Pros Predict Upswing in 2002 Despite Slow Start

The construction industry will continue to be one of the strongest sectors of the economy during 2002, according to leading economists and industry sources interviewed by Construction Equipment Guide (CEG). “There’s a sense that the construction industry has been hurt by the weak economy but that’s really only true if you’re talking about commercial building,” said Robert A....

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Dec 3, 2001

Asphalt vs. Concrete: Pros Debate Options

Construction Equipment Guide recently asked two experts--one from the National Asphalt Association and one from the Portland Cement Association--what are the pros and cons today when using either concrete or asphalt....

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Nov 12, 2001

Experts Assess Ways to ’Terror-Proof’ Facilities

At the height of anxiety over local anthrax dispersal, leading engineers from throughout the United States met in Washington, D.C. Oct. 23-24, in an atmosphere of controlled urgency, to identify ways to lessen vulnerability of the nations infrastructure to terrorist attack. The meeting showed that the “911” events — the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept....

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Sep 26, 2001

Crews Assist Rescuers in Massive WTC Search

When I first saw the towers of the World Trade Center collapse in smoke and flame, I was somehow emotionally detached, as if I were covering a story rather than feeling the tragedy of people dying....

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Sep 4, 2001

Light at End of Tunnel: Boston’s $14B Big Dig Nears Final Phase

Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel (CA/T) Project (The “Big Dig”) the most complex and technologically challenging highway project in U.S. history, can now see light at the end of the tunnel....

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Feb 10, 2001

Unseen Killer: Industry Looks Into Alternate Methods to Prevent Silicosis

An unseen killer still stalks the construction industry. Day after day, this assailant slowly stifles his victims as they jackhammer concrete, sandblast steel rebar, saw through or demolish masonry, and perform many other tasks. The killer’s name is silicosis, which permanently scars and hardens lung tissue over time as the victim breathes dust containing extremely fine — less than 10 micrometers in diameter — particles of crystalline silica....

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Feb 2, 2001

California Power Crisis Could Cripple Country

The impact of the California power crisis could have nationwide ramifications since the state is a linchpin in the nation’s economy. The state’s power crisis, including rolling blackouts, and possible financial meltdown of utility companies, has been caused in large part by the failure to speed construction of new generating plants, according to industry experts interviewed by Construction Equipment Guide....

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Sep 13, 2000

Industry Earns Green Thumbs Up for Efforts

What may seem like an oxymoron to some — the highway construction and the U.S. transportation industry steadily revitalizing the environment — is actually a fact, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)....

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