| Economist:
Highway Work to Break Record
The value of construction work on American
highways in 2005 should break a record, an economist has predicted.
However,
rising construction costs will absorb much of the growth because of price increases
in steel, cement and petroleum prices.
Construction work on highways and
bridges should be a record $69 billion in 2005, up 4.5 percent from the $66 billion
expected to close 2004, said William Buechner, vice president of economics and
research for the Washington, D.C.-based American Road & Transportation Builders
Association.
A number of factors are driving the trend.
General
state tax revenues are rebounding. Also, Congress in September reduced 2004 funding
to $31.7 billion and increased the 2005 funding to $36.5 billion.
A dilemma
for the industry is that the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, the
law that funds highway and transit programs, is set to expire in May after being
temporarily extended.
Also, the value of construction work on airport runways,
taxiways and related projects should end 2004 up 7 percent, ARTBA announced.
But
transit and light rail construction were expected to drop 1 percent. Those areas
will likely experience little new growth for the "next several years,"
Buechner added.
In other news, ARTBA announced the Illinois Road &
Transportation Builders Association, Illinois Department of Transportation and
the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority won an award in the annual Roadway Work
Zone Safety Awareness Awards.
The three were recognized for its "Keep
Us Alive - Drive 45" campaign to heighten awareness about the safety risks
of roadway construction.
Madison Firm Gets Top ALA Honors Douglas Kozel, principal
with Madison-based KEE Architecture Inc., won the Presidential Award from the
Barrington-based Association of Licensed Architects.
He was recognized
for the Madison Investment Advisors Office Building, a project that also received
a Gold Medal.
The other Gold winners were Paul Harding, principal with
Chicago-based Harding Partners, for the Adams Central Elementary School in Monroe,
Ind., and John Burcher, design principal with Chicago-based DeStefano+ Partners
Ltd., for the James McHugh Construction Co. headquarters in Chicago.
Silver
Medals and Awards of Merit were also given. In total, 12 Illinois architects,
six Wisconsin architects, one New York architect and 13 architecture firms were
recognized in the group's 2004 Design Award Program.
Three Landscape Fellows
from Midwest Three Midwesterners were recently inducted to the Council of
Fellows of the Washington, D.C.-based American Society of Landscape Architects:
Gary Brown, director of planning and landscape architects with the University
of Wisconsin at Madison
Robert Owen Brush, retired professor of forestry
at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point
Malcolm Cairns, chairman
of the Department of Landscape Architecture and professor of landscape architecture
at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.
Keeping Troops Cool in Iraq Some American troops in
Iraq are staying cool, thanks to the Hillside-based Chicagoland Sheet Metal Contractors
Association.
The group recently sent a shipment of 20 air conditioners
to Bravo Battery, a unit based in Macomb, Ill. The association had also sent 20
air conditioners early in the war.
Reaction from the troops has been "overwhelming,"
with a number of servicemen sending letters of regards to Tony Adolfs, CSMCA executive
vice president.
D'Arcy
to Head PCI Thomas D'Arcy was elected the 2005 chairman of the Chicago-based
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute. He is the founder and president of San
Antonio-based The Consulting Engineers Group.
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