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CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 14, 2012

A Game of Chicken on the High Speed Rail
Filed under: Industry outlook — Tags: — nedpelger

ENR reports that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, acting on behalf of the Obama Administration, has given an ultimatum to California: either vote in June to provide the matching state funding for the high speed rail from Bakersfield to Fresno or lose the $3.3B US federal grant. I struggle when I think of 3,300 million dollars. That’s a lot of scratch…to continue the chicken analogy.

The CA Legislature had planned to vote to authorize the funding, but moved toward more hearings in the summer and delay the decision till August.

“We need the Legislature to make the strongest commitment possible,” LaHood said in an interview. “The way to do that is to include the money for high-speed rail in the budget that is passed in June. August is too late for us.”

Of course the CA legislators respond that they want to follow their plan and not be pushed around. So it will be interesting to see who jumps aside in this game of chicken.

As I understand it, the first high speed rail section from Bakersfield to Fresno will cost about $6B, but the entire project cost from LA to San Francisco will run $68B.

While the construction industry certainly could use some stimulus, it’s amazing to me to see projects like this under consideration. Adding flights seems so much more efficient.

When President Eisenhower dreamed and financed the interstate highway system, that government investment made USA more efficient to do business than anywhere in the world. Why are we now jerking around with high speed rail to make for comfortable commuting (which already has several viable alternatives) and not high speed internet access for the entire country? Or a more bulletproof electrical grid?  Who is driving the dream?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 11, 2012

Friday Fun: Push to Add Drama
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

You are walking through a charming square in Belguim and you see a big red button with a sign hanging above that says, “Push to Add Drama.”

What do you do? If you work in construction, my guess is that you push the button. Click on the link and you’ll see what happens:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9OIJRMqYAA0

Hope you had a good week that didn’t have too much drama. As for me, I had more than my share this week. Oh well, I’ll just work harder next week.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 9, 2012

Bird Brain
Filed under: Industry outlook — Tags: — nedpelger

I read an article in ENR that opened with:

As California Department of Transportation Construction Manager Douglas Coe tells it, the key to success on a very complicated seismic retrofit of the Antioch Toll Bridge is the mastering of the three B’s – birds, bearings and bracing.

Now I understand that a seismic retrofit for a bridge would involve some work on the bridge bearings and the bracing structure, but why did birds top the challenge list?

Turns out that Caltrans knew that Barn Owls, House Finches, Cliff Swallows, Barn Swallows and Northern Mockingbirds all build nests on the bridge between February and September. If a nest is built and eggs laid, then all work has to stop for the 6 to 12 weeks till the eggs hatch and birdies fly away.

So a $35M US project halts, costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a barn swallow egg? I’m wondering who has the bird brain in this scenario. How have we gotten to the place where this behavior makes sense?

I’m in the process of awarding a large site package and talking to several older estimators (my age) about the project details. We easily track onto how things were in construction and how they are now. The increase in silly rules and paperwork dominates those conversations. Can our society ever move away from special interest initiatives and back toward common sense?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 7, 2012

Construction Unemployment Rate Falls, But 2,000 Jobs Lost
Filed under: Industry outlook — Tags: — nedpelger

So how can the Construction unemployment rate for April 2012 fall to 14.5% (from 17.2% in March) but the industry lose 2,000 jobs? As ENR reported, the laid off construction workers find jobs outside the construction industry. In fact, though the unemployment rate has steadily dropped, the construction industry employs less workers than in April 2010.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly report, though, the architectural and engineering services have added 7,400 jobs in the last month. That’s normally a harbinger of good news for construction.

As I’ve been writing for over a year, if Europe doesn’t melt down, we should be on our way to a reasonable recovery in construction. We certainly see it here.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 4, 2012

How to Use an Extra Elevator Shaft
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: — nedpelger

If you find yourself renovating a building with an extra elevator shaft, what are your options? Some quirky spiral stairs? Lots of floors with small rooms with off-set firemen’s poles? How about a toilet?

Found on Interior Design and Inspirational Homes, this toilet room located in an old elevator shaft would encourage bowel looseness. That is to say, a sit down would likely scare the crap right out of you.

Designed by Hernandez Silva Arquitectos and located in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, this penthouse on a 1970s 15 story building inspires.

The living room looks fantastic

and the balcony view works.

Oddly enough, we have some weirdly similar design challenges coming up in the next few months, so I’m motivated to see this design done so well. I love to see really good work.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 1, 2012

ShopBot: A Tool Looking for Opportunities
Filed under: Carpentry — Tags: — nedpelger

For $5,000 US, you can purchase a small CNC machine. This small Computer Numerically Controlled milling machine can do amazing work. The ShopBot cuts aluminum, plywood, plastic and lots of other materials. Google SketchUp can direct the cutter to make almost anything you can dream.

Here’s an excerpt from the Boing Boing article:

I work at Stanford’s design school — called the d.school. We designed and made much of the furniture we used in our new building space in Google’s Sketchup and machined the material using a 4′ x 8′ ShopBot owned and operated by Rob Bell. The process was very fast, and relatively cheap. ShopBot + Sketchup allowed us to do many cycles of design/build/test, which ultimately yielded some very refined artifacts.

This tool will create some great opportunities for some creative construction folks. If you think about the projects you do, then how a tool like this could change things. Then think about a way you could get paid to be the person that makes those changes happen. For someone, this will be a wonderful opportunity.

Do you have any ideas how this could be used in construction?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

April 30, 2012

Amazing Longhouse Volunteer Day
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: — nedpelger

We hoped for 100 volunteers to strip the bark off saplings for the Eastern Woodlands Longhouse we’re building. We got over 250 folks that came and worked.

I worried that volunteers would get frustrated with getting the bark off the hickory trees, particularly the many shagbark hickories. We were told every bit of bark would need to be cut off with a drawknife. We found a stripping secret that allowed the workers to peel the bark off in large sections. In fact, some of the folks managed to peel an entire tree and deliver only big piece of bark. These folks (see the man below in a blue hat) got inducted into the “Strippers Hall of Fame”.

We had a great time. Native Americas walked the site with a smudge pot burning cedar and sage, cleansing our spirits and bringing us peace. Dereck Hench and the Bottomline Contracting crew did a great job showing the volunteers how to get started stripping the various species of trees. Their expertise kept the volunteers from getting frustrated. In fact, most of the volunteers seemed to love the feeling of successfully peeling the bark off a sapling and going for another.

By the end of the day, we got all the main saplings stripped. We didn’t expect to get half of them done.

Tomorrow we start putting the steel pipes in the ground, concreted to prevent uplift and stoned to aid in drainage. It’s such a fun project.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

April 26, 2012

Construction Presentation Tips
Filed under: Construction — Tags: — nedpelger

Do you ever need to convince someone that your firm is the one to hire? Here’s a great video that will make you laugh and give you an example to avoid.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8IelPxzRFs&list=UUqbmk1LC5ki5DymG40Dkb7w&index=3&feature=plcp

Think hard about the work you do, who your best customers are and why they choose to work with you. Know where you add the most value and stick to that.

I got offered the chance to manage a $20M construction project today by one of my favorite customers. As soon as he told me about the project, though, I told him I wasn’t the guy to do it. It was a few hours further away then I normally work and was a type project I don’t typically do.

He’s worked with me on many projects and believes in my capabilities. He was amazed that I immediately told him I wasn’t a fit for the project and told him a good way to proceed. To be successful, we need to focus on what we do best and not be greedy. When we grab for work out of greed, nobody wins.

The video above reminded me of one that a cycling buddy sent me. If you happen to like riding a bicycle, take a few minutes and watch this video. I laugh out loud when I watch it. Cyclists truly are knuckleheads.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47cGzu6-q40

By the way, if you watched both videos, you noticed that they were produced on the XtraNormal.com site. That seems like a reasonable way to create some fun content.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

April 25, 2012

Blowing it Up Here, Boss
Filed under: Construction — Tags: — nedpelger

I never get tired of seeing buildings implode. I think about all the work it takes to plan, strategize and fight your way through a big construction project. Then I see it all turn to rubble in 25 seconds. It’s a metaphor, baby.

The Amway Arena in Orlando, FL was built a mere 23 years ago and cost $103M. I’m still wearing underwear bought 23 years ago and these folks can’t even make a huge building last that long. Watch the first 25 seconds below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OAgj2-EBIY

Watching this works as a de-stressor for me. I think I’ll watch it again.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

April 23, 2012

God Displays His Sense of Humor
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: — nedpelger

Last week I posted about the Eastern Woodlands Longhouse that we are designing and building. We’re working for the 1719 Hans Herr House and having a great time trying to figure out the construction details. I wrote about how busy I am and how this project didn’t come at an opportune time, but sometimes we just need to say yes to the fun things in life. So we’re building a longhouse.

My next post chastised a project owner for his arrogance. I hate arrogance. We all win when we struggle to control our arrogance and highlight our honor and humility. In this, I suppose, God saw an opportunity too good to pass  up.

A reporter called me the next day and wrote an article for their Newsmaker in the Spotlight series. Titled Builder recreates a bit of Native American past, I got a sick feeling when I read the article Saturday morning. I sounded completely arrogant, like I worked out the entire design, just getting a bit of help here and there from others. The quote below illustrates:

Not only did Pelger have to design the plans largely on his own, he had to figure out how to keep the structure historically and culturally accurate while assuring it stands up to years of visitors and whatever Mother Nature dishes out.

Aren’t I wonderful? The truth is that most of the longhouse details were worked out by the Committee before I was even involved. They spent years learning things. I’m just figuring out some construction details and how to get it built with my team and volunteers.

I obsessed about the arrogance depicted in the article on Saturday, when speaking with a good friend I work with. He listened to my whining, then said, “If that’s all I had to worry about, I’d move on.” As I thought of his wife fighting cancer, I had to agree.

Still, though, that was a good one, God. I owe you.

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