O’Hare Funds to Help Create Wetlands in Calumet Region

Chicago officials have announced that the O’Hare Modernization Program will provide more than $2 million dollars to create 15 acres of wetlands at Heron Pond or Hyde Lake Wetlands in the Calumet region on the far South Side of the city.

The sites are parts of the Calumet Open Space Reserve that will ultimately restore and preserve the more than 30,000 acres of wetlands and natural areas, Mayor Richard Daley said at a news conference.

The restoration is being financed by the O’Hare Modernization Program, the city’s program to expand O’Hare International Airport. The project is part of OMP’s efforts to ensure that the airport modernization respects the environment.

Environmental sampling and site plans will be developed over the next six months to determine whether Heron Pond or Hyde Lake Wetlands will be chosen for restoration. Work on the selected wetlands will begin in fall 2008.

Thirty-six acre Heron Pond is home to one of the state’s largest rookeries of state-endangered black-crowned night heron and is located along the Calumet River. Hyde Lake Wetlands at 126th Street and Carondolet Avenue is a 28-acre wetland next to Indian Creek just across from Ford’s Chicago Manufacturing Campus.

The wetlands restoration is part of Calumet Initiative that designated 3,900 acres as an open space reserve and 3,000 acres for economic development. “This area contains some of the few remaining wetlands in Illinois, and it serves as habitat for more than 40 percent of our state’s endangered species,” Daley said.

Sub-Prime Crisis Results in Revised Cement Forecast

Rapidly deteriorating economic conditions, caused primarily by the sub-prime crisis, have prompted the Skokie-based Portland Cement Association to adjust downward its forecast for 2007 and 2008 cement consumption.

PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan says that the organization expects 2007 cement consumption to decline 6.8%, followed by a 1.8% decline in 2008.

“We believe that it will spill over into commercial lending, hindering nonresidential construction activity,” he said.

The sub-prime crisis will also bleed into consumer spending, Sullivan said. Consumer spending generates more than two out of every three dollars of the U.S. economy.

“When the growth rate of consumer spending is impaired, it adversely impacts job growth and overall economic performance,” he added.

Although year-to-date nonresidential construction spending is 17% above 2006 levels, PCA forecasts a decline for 2008. And, as job growth slows, so will public construction spending.

ARTBA Schedules ‘M.B.A.’ Program

Building transportation infrastructure—particularly projects financed by public agencies—demands complex leadership, management, specialized safety training, business and negotiation skills not required by general construction managers.

As a result, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association has scheduled the Transportation Builder Institute: The Management Crucible or “The Transportation Construction MBA Program” for Dec. 3-7 in Washington, D.C.

The Management Crucible will be a week-long program teaching fundamental management principles. It will focus on management and leadership, finance and accounting, business operations, economics and strategy and planning.

The program is designed to strengthen the professional abilities of executives and managers working in the transportation construction field who do not have a formal business education. It is ideal for professional construction managers and engineers.

To register or request more information, visit www.htransportationbuilderinstitute.org on the Internet or contact ARTBA’s Laura Spitz at 202-289-4434 or at lspitz@artba.org.