(A release from Associated Builders and Contractors.) Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) 2011 National Chairman Michael J. Uremovich, president of Great Lakes Energy Consultants, LLC, Manhattan, Ill., says President Obama’s jobs plan “won’t pass inspection” with the construction industry when it comes to creating jobs and getting Americans back to work. “We ...

Construction materials prices are 8.9 percent higher than they were one year ago, according to the Aug. 17 Producer Price Index (PPI) report by the Department of Labor. Prices rose a modest 0.3 percent in July. Two segments of construction inputs were associated with particularly large changes in prices for the ...

(From a release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.) U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced $417.3 million in grants to fund a range of projects ranging from interstate maintenance to research into innovative bridge materials and construction methods. "Transportation investments like these will create jobs, increase mobility, improve quality of life ...

The amount contractors pay for construction materials and charge for completed projects both increased in July, as firms were finally able to charge more for work, according to an analysis of producer price index figures by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said, however, that it was too early ...

The industry group Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reports that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI), which measures the amount of construction work under contract to be completed in the future, increased 10 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to an average of 8.1 months, up from 7.3 months the previous ...

Going to bat for the construction industry, Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman appeared on CNBC and called for U.S. policymakers to create and fund a strong program to maintain and improve the nation's transportation infrastructure. Caterpillar is based in Peoria, Ill., and has many of its key factories in that ...

(From appeal-democrat.com) The California Transportation Commission has allocated $2.2 billion in new funding, including $41.5 million for a long-awaited, long-term road rehabilitation project planned for Yuba County. Drainage and electrical work is expected to begin in the spring, with primary road construction to start a year later. Proposition 1B, a 2006 voter-approved transportation ...

The idea of creating an infrastructure bank to leverage federal funds and funnel private investments into U.S. roads, bridges, transit and railways, has gained support from an influential private organization. The group Building America’s Future recently release a report: “Falling Apart and Falling Behind,” and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, one of ...

(A release from Purdue University) A civil engineer at Purdue University is taking advantage of the demolition of a bridge spanning the Ohio River to learn more about how bridges collapse in efforts to reduce the annual cost of inspecting large spans. "There is a whole family of bridges called fracture-critical," said ...

A new report from U.S. DOT Inspector General, “Financial Analysis of Transportation-Related Public-Private Partnerships,” says Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) rarely generate “new” money. PPPs “change the timing with which funds become available, but generally do not increase overall funding levels," the report says, because investors who provide funds up front assume risk and ...

A study by the American Society for Civil Engineers found that the cost of failing to invest more in the U.S. transportation infrastructure would total $3.1 trillion in lost Gross Domestic Product growth by 2020. The study also said investing only at current levels would cause 877,000 jobs to be lost. ...

(From a release by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.) An Obama Administration proposal to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to an average 54.5 miles per gallon between 2017 and 2025 would result in the loss of more than $65 billion in federal gas tax revenue ...