McGraw-Hill Construction has released a study examining trends – including global growth trends – in green building. Historically, owners built green because they were environmental stewards; today, however, other business factors, including lower operating (e.g., energy) costs, are drivers. Green building, the study continues, is becoming an industry standard. ENR has more.
The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), the grant program for acquiring and constructing economic, cultural, civic, and historical improvement projects, is accepting submissions. The Office of the Budget recently announced that the submission window for Round 1 of 2013 will span from March 15, 2013 to April 15, 2013. The Governor’s Budget Office has established a website with extensive information regarding the RACP, including a link to a list of all projects awarded under the RACP.
The Corbett administration has committed $15 million for the construction of infrastructure improvement at the former 28-acre Civic Arena site, where work is expected to start this summer. $5 million is being released immediately, which will allow The Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to begin work on roads and utilities as early as July 2013 as part of an office and residential development proposed by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Read more here.
The Federal Government’s budget sequestration, which consists of automatic spending cuts enacted to address the on-going budget crisis, went into effect on March 1, 2013. The spending cuts will be made over the remaining months of fiscal year 2013. Although the exact effect on various industries and government programs is difficult to accurately forecast, in its report on sequestration the Associated General Contractors of America has estimated that cuts to federal construction spending will exceed $4 billion. As a result, direct government contractors should expect fewer federal project solicitations and more competitive bidding and pricing over the remainder of this fiscal year, and even into the next fiscal year. For the most part, sequestration should not significantly impact new project solicitations for transportation infrastructure because the Highway Trust Fund and Airport Improvement Program were excluded from the budget cuts. With respect to existing federal projects, contractors should be wary of federal agencies possibly seeking to reduce spending through terminating certain contracts for convenience or seeking to modify contracts to limit the scope and costs of a project. Until Congress and President Obama strike a deal that ends sequestration, government contractors should take time to prepare contingency plans and become familiar with their contractual rights to protect themselves, both financially and legally, in this precarious environment of restricted government spending.
According to the February jobs report, released today by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the United States economy added 236,000 jobs in the month of February, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.7%. The Construction industry was one of the largest contributors to job growth– adding 48,000 new jobs in the month of February alone. You can find the report at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf.
Read CNN’s discussion of the February jobs report and the construction industry at http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/08/news/economy/construction-jobs/index.html?iid=SF_E_Lead.
Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP recently announced that they would be forming a joint venture to develop a pipeline that would transport natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus and Utica to petrochemical and export facilities on the Gulf Coast and in the Northeast. The project, known as the Bluegrass Pipeline, would include constructing a new NGL pipeline in West Virginia and Ohio to interconnect with an existing gas transmission line in Kentucky; converting a portion of that gas transmission line to NGL service; and constructing new fractionation and additional pipeline and storage facilities in Louisiana. Williams and Boardwalk expect the Bluegrass Pipeline to be placed into service in the second half of 2015. Additional information on the project is available here.
An article on a significant Public Private Partnership highway construction project in Indiana appeared in the January 28, 2013 edition of the Engineering News Record (subscription required). Public Private Partnerships, also known as “P 3”, will likely deliver a significant portion of the large transportation projects in the United States in the next ten years. Babst Calland recently debuted a portion of its new construction law seminar on P 3 at is 2012 Construction Law Year in Review Seminar on February 27, 2013. For more information about P 3 or any of Babst Calland’s construction law seminars, please email Rick Kalson or call (412) 394-6557.
The Allegheny County Council issued a proclamation honoring the National Association of Women in Construction and naming the week of March 3-9, 2013 as “Women in Construction Week” in Allegheny County.
Rick Kalson, a shareholder in Babst Calland’s Construction Law Practice Group will present our popular construction law seminar on “Properly Documenting a Construction Project and Controlling Internal Documentation” to the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors Mid-Atlantic Chapter at its meeting in Linthicum Heights, Maryland on March 13, 2013. Please email Rick Kalson or call (412) 394-6557 for more information about this presentation.
Nearly 1,000 construction industry professionals attended the Western Pennsylvania Master Builders Association’s annual Evening of Excellence event on Thursday, February 28, 2013. All of the Building Excellence award winners are listed here.
On Thursday, February 28, 2013, the Master Builders’ Association (“MBA”) of Western Pennsylvania will host its annual “Evening of Excellence” event at Heinz Field. The MBA will be awarding Building Excellence Award Crystals in the eight categories, while attendees enjoy an evening of networking. Details regarding the event can be found at the LinkedIn page that the MBA has set up for the event.
For the past ten years, as a service to its clients and prospective clients, the law firm of Babst Calland has provided a complimentary “year in review” breakfast seminar which provides an overview of the prior year’s significant developments (both statutory and case-law) in the area of construction law. The seminar reviewing 2012 developments will be held on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at the Doubletree Hotel in Greentree, with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m., followed by the seminar at 8:00 a.m. To receive a copy of the materials from this seminar, please email Matt Jameson.
In Commerce Bank/Harrisburg v. Kessler, 46 A.3d 724 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2012), the Superior Court held that a bank’s mortgage is not entitled to “super-priority” under the Mechanics’ Lien law unless all of the proceeds from the mortgage “are used to pay all or part of the cost of completing erection, construction, alteration or repair of the mortgaged premises.” This means that if any proceeds from a mortgage are used for “soft costs” (e.g. – taxes, closing costs, advertising, etc.) of construction, the “super priority” for the entire mortgage will be lost and a contractor’s lien will have priority over a bank’s mortgage if construction started before the mortgage was recorded.
Currently pending before the Pennsylvania Senate Labor and Industry Committee, House Bill No. 1602 (the “Bill”), if and when enacted, would add new notice requirements to the Lien Law. The majority of the Bill focuses on the creation of a new lien notice system for project owners and subcontractors to follow. In order to manage and facilitate the new notice requirements, the Bill calls for the creation of a “State Construction Notices Directory” (“Directory”) website by July 1, 2013. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry will be responsible for the Directory. The Directory will serve as the database for owners to file a “Notice of Commencement” and subcontractors to file a “Notice of Furnishing.” These two types of notices are critical creations of the Bill, and appear to be modeled after the process that has been in place in Ohio for years.
These new notice requirements seek to address the longstanding problem in Pennsylvania of owners and contractors not knowing the identity of subcontractors or material suppliers furnishing labor or materials for a project. As a result, an owner or contractor often did not even have knowledge of the identity of a potential lien claimant, let alone the fact that they possessed a claim, until receiving a notice of intent to file a lien. The Bill provides the owner with the right to file a Notice of Commencement with the Directory before work on an improvement begins in order to identify all subcontractors and material suppliers that may have lien rights through their subsequent required filing of a Notice of Furnishing.
In Bricklayers of Western Pa. Comb. Funds, Inc. v. Scott’s Development Co., 41 A.3d 16 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2012), the Superior Court held that (1) the substantive provisions of the Lien Law (as opposed to its procedural provisions) must be liberally construed to effect the Lien Law’s remedial purpose and (2) labor unions fell within the definition of “subcontractor” under the Lien Law, and therefore had the right to file a mechanics’ lien claim. On November 28, 2012, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted Scott’s Development Company’s petition for allowance of appeal. Therefore, in 2013 the Supreme Court will address whether the Superior Court interpreted the Lien Law too liberally and whether a labor union has the right to file a mechanic’s lien claim under the Lien Law.