Non-residential boom

Residential construction may be going down like a lead balloon, but non-residential is flying high. Reed Construction Data announced that the year-to-date value of construction starts through July 2007, excluding residential contracts, totaled $180.4 billion, 20 percent higher than during the same period in 2006. Declining year-to-date residential starts will fully offset the increase in non-residential starts. Non-residential starts in July, at $30.2 billion, were only 1.5 percent below June’s record high level, but 31 percent above last June. The largest gains in July contracts were for schools and colleges, public safety buildings, factories, military facilities, nursing homes and water and sewer lines and plants. Commercial building contracts grew 26 percent in June, but declined 30 percent in July. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that year-to-date non-residential construction spending through June accelerated to 15.3 percent above the same period a year earlier. Since this trails the starts trend, acceleration in the growth of job-site construction spending is expected in the next few months, even if the turmoil in financial markets causes a slowdown in new construction starts. Your comment?

World of Aggregates

While the aggregates and construction industries contemplate the immensity of next year's ConExpo-Con/Agg show, NSSGA is thinking WAY ahead to its own World of Aggregates show. The 2009 World of Aggregates Forum and Expo will be held on March 9-12, 2009 in Orlando. The event will include many educational sessions addressing subject areas that cover virtually the entire range of topics of interest to aggregate producers. NSSGA is seeking presentations for the event, and they are making it wasy for you to propose a topic. Just go to this special online survey, and let the magic of electronic media do its work. Based on the information you provide, NSSGA will consider your proposed presentation for inclusion in the event, according to Steve Lenker, the association's vice president, operations and engineering. Your comment?

Stickler under fire

MHSA chief Richard Stickler has come under fire lately. Newspaper articles from around the country are calling for an independent investigation into the Crandall Creek disaster in Utah, focusing on 1) why MSHA accepted a revised mining plan for the site that proposed the removal of support pillars; 2) his leadership of MSHA in general, and; 3) the fact that he has never received Senate confirmation. The call for an investigation is warranted, although it must be pointed out that Stickler's tenure has not been a total failure. It was under Stickler that the Sago/Darby/Aracoma reports and all of MSHA's failings were in fact made public, and a plan put in place to correct deficiencies, according to Ellen Smith of Mine Safety and Health News. The bottom line is, Stickler is caught in a no-win situation, and you couldn't pay me enough money to take his job right now. Your comment?

Mining safety: The truth

With the Utah coal-mining disaster still commanding major media attention, much has been made of how dangerous the mining industry is as a place to work. Of course, it is never pointed out that the mining industry consists of very different segments, each of which have different safety records. The aggregates industry’s total case injury incident rate differs from the metal and the coal sectors of mining. According to MSHA statistics, compiled by NSSGA, the aggregates industry’s total case incident rate from 2002 until 2006 is 3.58, 3.54, 3.47, 3.41, and 3.12, respectively. The total case incident rate of the Metal/Non-Metal sector as a whole from 2002 until 2006 is 4.57, 4.35, 4.18, 4.17, and 3.73, respectively. By contrast, the coal sector’s total case incident rate from 2002 until 2006 is 6.62, 6.04, 5.56, 5.1, and 4.82, respectively. While even one fatality is unacceptable, the aggregates industry’s fatality rate is also better than the other mining sectors. From 2002 until 2006, the aggregates industry’s total fatalities were 27, 20, 21, 21, and 20, respectively. Metal/Non-Metal’s total fatalities from 2002 until 2006 were 42, 26, 27, 35, and 25, respectively. Coal’s fatalities from 2002 until 2006 were 27, 30, 28, 22, and 47, respectively. And the aggregates industry has never experienced an accident similar to the recent tragedies in the coal sector. This data supports that the aggregates industry is a much better performer when it comes to safety. Your comment?

National Infrastructure Bank

According to NSSGA, in a strange coincidence, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) on Aug. 1, before news of the Minnesota bridge collapse, introduced The National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007 to create a national infrastructure bank. The bank would be an independent government agency charged with evaluating and financing capacity-building infrastructure projects of substantial regional and national significance. The bank would be modeled on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with a five-member bank board. Infrastructure projects that would come under the bank’s consideration would be publicly owned mass transit systems, housing properties, roads, bridges, drinking water systems and wastewater treatment systems. Funding options available under the legislation would be direct subsidies, direct loan guarantees, long-term tax-credit general purpose bonds and long-term tax-credit infrastructure project specific bonds. The initial ceiling to issue bonds is set at $60 billion. The bill has been referred to the Senate banking committee. NSSGA says it will continue to press for increased investment in the nation’s surface transportation system necessary to meet the maintenance and improvement needs of the system. Your comment?

Bush nixes higher gas taxes for infrastructure

President Bush, even in the face of a disaster such as the Minnesota bridge collapse, said he would not consider raising gasoline taxes to generate much-needed funds for road and bridge reconstruction. Specifically took issue with Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, a former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who said an increase in federal gasoline taxes may be warranted to upgrade hundreds of structurally deficient bridges around the nation. The federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon, a figure that has not changed since 1993. Young and James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., who succeeded him this year as chairman of the Transportation committee, battled Bush for two years over the last transportation reauthorization. That bill, enacted in 2005, totaled $286.5 billion, far below the $375 billion the two committee leaders had sought. The larger spending total would have been financed by indexing the gas tax to inflation, allowing it to rise over time. “My suggestion would be that they revisit the process by which they spend gasoline money in the first place,” Bush said. I personally consider his stubborness on this issue a dangerous abdication of responsibility to the all-important job of protecting America's citizens as they drive on our roads and bridges. Your comment?

Fatality #18

MSHA is reporting its 18th fatality in the metal/nonmental sector. On July 24, a 57 year-old superintendent with 27 years experience was fatally injured at a sand and gravel operation. The victim was driving a haul truck that struck a guard rail on a bridge and landed in a river below. Your comment?

Bridge collapse a tragedy that might have been avoided

For years experts have been warning of the dire condition of America's antiquated infrastructure. Now, CNN is reporting that seven people were killed when an interstate bridge in Minneapolis collapsed Wednesday evening, plunging cars and chunks of concrete into the Mississippi River below. There were "lots" of injuries, according to the the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department. The nearby University of Minnesota Medical Center received "just a handful" of injuries from the accident, spokesman Ryan Davenport said. One of our hospitals has five patients so far, and the other on the other side of the river has none," he said. The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET). There were 50 to 100 cars on the bridge at the time, according to early estimates. Witnesses described a "dust cloud" as the bridge collapsed. Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department told CNN affiliate KARE it was "not clear at this point what caused the collapse" of the Interstate 35W bridge near University Avenue. I once editorialized in the pages of Pit & Quarry that it would be a sad day when it took a bridge collapse and needless deaths to make our legislators aware of the need for investment in our roads and bridges. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened. Your comment?

Cement usage dips; to rebound by 2009

The serious cement shortages of the past few years really are yesterday's news. Burdened by the hard correction in the housing market, cement consumption has weakened in 2007, according to the most recent forecast from the Portland Cement Association (PCA). Cement consumption this year is expected to fall 4.4 percent lower than 2006 levels. According to PCA Chief Economist Ed Sullivan, however, the decline will be temporary, with a 2.2 percent cement consumption gain anticipated for 2008. "Sustained growth in cement consumption normally occurs when all three sectors of construction--residential, nonresidential, and public--are thriving," Sullivan said. "With the current gain trends in nonresidential and public and most regional residential markets expected to back to track by 2009, we anticipate the onset of a period of continued growth to start that year." Your comment?