Midwest #4,2013

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“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.”

Published 4 Nationally

Midwest Edition

www.constructionequipmentguide.com

February 16, 2013 • Vol. IXX • No. 4 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910

Inside

Decades Long Minn. Road Employment Rises Upgrade Nears Completion in 139 Out of 337 Metropolitan Areas

MITA Hosts Conference, Trade Show...10

Leading Edge Stars on ‘Gold Rush’...14

CEG CORRESPONDENT

Table of Contents ............4 Paving Section ........29-39 Parts Section ............46-47 Excavators & Attachments Section ......................51-77 Business Calendar ........81 Auction Section ......83-93 Advertisers Index ..........94

see MNDOT page 28

see EMPLOYMENT page 89

A Cat dozer, grader and Mack truck with side dump trailer occupy limited space together on the Hwy 60 work near Interstate 90 at Worthington, Minn.

Dick Rohland

Scharb er Hosts Annual Open House. ..18

13 ft. (21 km) traffic lanes, 9 ft. (14 km) bituminous shoulders on the outside lanes and a 3.5 ft. (6 km) unpaved shoulders on the inside lanes. Mathiowetz Construction, a familyrun, early 20th century founded company based in Sleepy Eye, Minn., and R & G

Construction employment increased in 139 out of 337 metropolitan areas between December 2011 and December 2012, declined in 131 and was stagnant in 65, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released Jan. 28 by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that growing private sector demand for new construction projects boosted employment in a slight plurality of metro areas. “Private sector demand for energy, health care, higher education and residential construction is having a positive impact in a growing number of metro areas,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Unfortunately, construction employment in almost as many metro areas appears to be suffering from declining public sector demand and a private sector market that is still well-below peak levels.” Pascagoula, Miss., added the highest percentage of new construction jobs (42 percent, 1,900 jobs) followed by Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, Mass.-N.H. (22 percent, 800 jobs); Lafayette, La. (17 percent, 1,100 jobs) and Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb.-Iowa (16 percent, 3,000 jobs). Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas (17,600

After six years of road construction, crews are closing in on the final year of work rebuilding a 15 mi (24 km) stretch of Minnesota highway from two to four lanes and expressway standards in the far, southwestern part of the state near the Iowa border. This road work on Hwy 60 in southwestern Minnesota will be completed in the fall of 2013. It is coming in at the tail end of a Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) decades long program to expand the entire, two lane highway to four lanes between Mankato, Minn., and the Iowa border, a distance of 100 mi. (160 km) and stretching across mostly agricultural and prairie landscape. By years’ end, only two gaps 18 mi. (29 km) long of two lane highway will remain to widen to four lanes and bring MnDOT into the final stretch of road improvements after nearly 40 years of construction. When the entire road is completed, the original, narrow two lane highway will more than double in width to carry four,

Subcontractors Celebrate Court Ruling on Risk-Shifting in Minn. In a major victory sought by the American Subcontractors Association on behalf of Minnesota’s subcontractors, the state’s Supreme Court has affirmed limits on risk-shifting based on the state’s anti-indemnity law (Minn. Stat. §337.02). On Jan. 23, the Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed an appeals court’s decision that allowed a general contractor to shift liability to a subcontractor for damage caused by a general contractor’s own direction of the subcontractor’s work. “Because we conclude that ECI did not qualify

as an additional insured with respect to the pipe damage and that Bolduc cannot be required to indemnify ECI without violating Minn. Stat. §337.02, we reverse,” the high court wrote in its opinion, reversing the appeals court’s decision in Engineering & Construction Innovations, Inc., v. L.H. Bolduc Co., Inc. In an amicus curiae brief filed on Jan. 13, 2012, ASA urged the Minnesota Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s decision and protect construction firms from being forced to pay for see SUBCONTRACTORS page 46


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