ACP Pubs

I’m surprised that the announcement by a French-backed company, Areva Inc., that it has chosen to build a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant outside Idaho Falls, Idaho, didn’t cause a bigger stir than it did.

Proponents estimate that the plant will boost the eastern Idaho economy by $5 billion in direct and indirect effects over a 30-year period, but the company’s announcement May 6 rated barely a mention in the media outside of the local area. I didn’t see anything about here in Washington, even though this was one of the four other states in the running to get the facility. Even in Boise, the Idaho Business Review ran its story on page 2.

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The draft Environmental Impact Statement issued this month for the Columbia River Crossing project is raising the hackles of people on both sides of the mighty river. The project, estimated to cost upwards of $4 billion, would enhance or replace the aging I-5 bridge and its approaches in Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore. Or maybe not.

Reporter Jeffrey Mize of The Columbian newspaper, which serves the Vancouver area, wrote a lively article last week that lays out the controversies surrounding the project, which has been in the works for the past 12 years. As the article points out, no one denies there is congestion in the corridor that needs to be relieved. But as Mize points out, few people agree on...Read More

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I’m a guy who loves cars and driving -- always have been. By the time I was learning to talk I could point out a 1947 Ford coupe, because that’s what my dad drove. A few years later, my cousin and I would sit in the front yard and scrunch up our faces to mimic the front-end styling of the cars that drove past us. I could go on, but you really don’t want that, believe me.

Just like everyone else, I’ve been wincing lately every time I gas up my car. Twelve gallons equals nearly 50 bucks. Ouch! But also just like most people, I haven’t changed my driving habits much yet. I’m not riding my bike to the store or walking to my friends’ houses. I can’t: I live ou...Read More

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The national slowdown in construction is beginning to reach areas of the Pacific Northwest.

The 2008 year-to-date total for publicly reported non-residential construction contracts awards in the region fell back in April, dropping to 7 percent behind the record-setting pace set last year. According to the Contract Awards Summary, to be published in the May 5 edition of Pacific Builder & Engineer, awards slowed in every state except Alaska compared to the previous month, with Idaho taking the biggest hit. Figures for the individual Northwest states are as follows:

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While we struggle to reduce congestion and create safer conditions on highways, efforts also are under way to find a more effective vehicle than the gas tax to pay for highway maintenance and construction. Once a viable source of highway funds, the gas tax has faltered in recent years due to a combination of rising fuel economy in our vehicles, flagging resolve in our political leaders and inflation.

Now, after a one-year pilot conducted in the Portland area with more than 280 volunteers, the Oregon Department of Transportation may have hit on a solution to this problem, and again technology is involved.

ODOT reports that a mileage fee could feasibly replace the gas tax a...Read More

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The debate about how to manage our overcrowded highway system continues. Speaking to a group of transportation and industry officials in Portland on Friday at a luncheon put on by the Oregon Environmental Council, Gov. Ted Kulongoski pledged to enact green transportation legislation.

The governor called the state’s current transportation infrastructure “woefully inadequate” and said he will propose the largest and greenest plan of his tenure next year. He called for people to drive less, to use cleaner fuels and for better technology devoted to alternative transportation, like electric cars.

Kulongoski said systemwide changes are needed in Oregon, but on...Read More

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I had the good fortune to serve as a judge in three construction excellence contests this winter: the joint AGC/Washington Department of Transportation Excellence in Contract Administration, the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and the Associated General Contractors of Washington.

Every time I judge a contest I’m reminded of how much terrific work is being done out there by contractors. I try to find interesting projects while they are being built to cover in the feature stories of PB&E, but invariably I’ll read a contest entry about a finished project and think to myself, “Damn, I wish I had know about that one.”

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I drove down to Puyallup, Wash., last month to check out the second annual Washington Landscapers & Contractors Expo. I missed the inaugural event in 2007, but with equipment shows so sparse in the Northwest compared to other parts of the country, I figured it would be worth a look this year.

I was right. The show, held at the Puyallup Fair & Events Center Showplex in Puyallup, Wash., featured the latest in construction and landscape supplies, compact to medium equipment, power products, technology -- and trucks, truck bodies and trailers. Suppliers also showcased caliper trees, shrubs, organic fertilizers, pond features and many other new products.

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I’m trying to make sense of the current economic conditions -- and in particular their effect on the heavy construction industry. I know the housing market is down; I own a house with a “For Sale” planted out front to remind me of that. But if we are in a recession, why are there so many indications that non-residential construction is booming here in the Pacific Northwest?

My last post discussed growth in the market in terms of hard numbers. Now let’s look at the visceral side of things. Cranes, for instance. You see them all over the place in the Seattle-Bellevue area, but they aren’t just working in the urban areas.

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Welcome to the first-ever PB&E blog. I’m not sure where this blog is going over the long haul, but the people who sign my paycheck assure me it’s going somewhere so I’ll try to make it as interesting and informative as I can.

I’ve noticed that most successful blogs are written by people who are knowledgeable about a topic and have something pithy to say about it. For me, that means sticking pretty close to the subject I’ve been covering for the last 14 years as editor of Pacific Builder & Engineer, which I describe in my elevator speech as “non-residential heavy construction in the Pacific Northwest.” But bear in mind that as a journalist I&rs...Read More

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