| People
Mover Wins PCA Honor In another sign of a warming economy, exports of American
construction equipment increased significantly in the first quarter of 2004.
Gains of 10 percent compared with the previous quarter and 18 percent compared
with first-quarter 2003 were recorded, said the Milwaukee-based Association of
Equipment Manufacturers.
More than $1.94 billion worth of machinery was
shipped. Shipments break down the following way:
Europe, $337 million,
a 3 percent increase over the previous quarter and 2 percent increase over first-quarter
2003
South America, $267 million, a 30 percent increase over the
previous quarter and 89 percent increase over first-quarter 2003
Australia/Oceania,
$175 million, an 11 percent increase over the previous quarter and 37 percent
increase over first-quarter 2003
Asia was the only region recording a
drop, with purchases of $236 million, a 5.5 percent decline compared with the
previous quarter and 4 percent falloff compared with first-quarter 2003.
The top-three importers were Canada ($662 million), Australia ($168 million) and
Mexico ($136 million).
In other news, Moline, Ill.-based Deere &
Co. won the AEM's Dick Harris Data Integrity Award for the seventh consecutive
year.
The award is given annually in honor of Harris, who helped develop
the AEM's statistics program in the 1970s and 1980s while employed by International
Harvester and Komatsu America International.
Estimating Manual Updated The
Wheaton, Md.-based American Society of Professional Estimators has announced the
Sixth Edition of its Standard Estimating Practice is available.
The reference
includes basic information on estimating and specifics on specialty estimates.
The price is $69 for ASPE members and members of affiliate associations and
$89 for nonmembers.
For information, call 301-929-8848, e-mail
info@aspenational.org or visit http://ssl-001.9netave.com/~ux201148/1form-sep.htm
on the Internet.
Future
Engineers Get Honors Adam Farhan, a seventh grader at Winston Park Junior
High School in Palatine, Ill., won the top award in structural engineering at
the recent Illinois State Science Fair.
His winning project was titled,
"Which Building Shape Performs Better in Earthquakes."
Farhan
built four structures - square, hexagon, T and L - with popsicle sticks connected
with modeling clay. Each was subjected to an "earthquake," and damage
was assessed.
The experiment showed that the square shape suffered the
least amount of damage.
Honorable mentions went to three other seventh-graders,
David Sufranski of St. Michael School in Wheaton; Brett Ruckman of Good Shepherd
Lutheran School in Collinsville; and Ashley Coughlin, also a Good Shepherd student.
Overall, 25 projects were entered in structural engineering. Judging took
place at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
AISC Guide Updated The Second Edition of the American
Institute of Steel Construction Inc.'s Design Guide 4 is available.
The
reference covers extended end-plate moment connections, the Chicago-based group
said. The authors are Tom Murray of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
and Emmett Sumner of North Carolina State University.
The guide is available
as an electronic download or in book form. Visit www.aisc.org/bookstore
on the Internet for information.
Safety
Lauded in Lake, McHenry Four members of the Lake and McHenry (Ill.) Plumbing,
Heating & Cooling Contractors Association have won safety awards.
One contractor has won the award twice, Antioch-based Colette & Ano Plumbing
Co. Inc.
The other winners were McHenry-based Dankris Industries Inc.,
Waukegan-based Ernie Peterson Plumbing and Cary-based Sherman Mechanical Inc.
The award recognizes improvements in safety over the last three years in
six categories, such as lost workdays and workers' compensation resolutions | 
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