Published Nationally
$3.00
Midwest Edition
®
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.”
www.constructionequipmentguide.com
November 22, 2014 • Vol. IXX • No. 24 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
4
Inside
Industry Adds 12,000 Jobs in October 2014
Erb M arks 70 Years With Open House...8
Overview of the deep cut dug last April with two Cat excavators, two Bomag rollers and a Cat dozer operating during the removal and new placement of the sanitary sewer.
Kenworth T880 Heads to Capitol Wit h Tree...26
Campus Sports Complex Beats Rain to Finish Line By Dick Rohland CEG CORRESPONDENT
GIE+EXP O Draws 70 0 Exhi bit ors. ..10 0
Table of Contents ................4 Paving Section ..............45-55 Trailers Section ............59-77 Snow & Ice Section ......89-93 Parts Section ......................94 Business Calendar ............94 Auction Section..........98-109 Advertisers Index ............110
Last spring, students and teaching staff left the campus of the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minn., with a demolished sports complex and heavy equipment running 12 hours a day digging deep into the ground. When they returned in late August and in less than five months, what was then a deep cut where the original sports complex once stood was transformed into new and updated sports facilities. Named after a former football coach,
Construction employers added 12,000 jobs in October and the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent, the lowest rate for October since 2006, according to an analysis released Nov. 7 by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the construction employment gains, along with rising wages and weekly hours, are consistent with survey results showing more firms having a hard time finding enough qualified workers to fill available positions.
“For the past several months, the construction industry has added jobs at double the all-industry rate of 1.9 percent rate.”
Reynolds Field is now the home field for the school’s football, baseball, softball and tennis teams. Not changed but moved to the new gate into Reynolds Field is the school’s symbol and mascot, a 3 ft. (.9 m) golden hued statue of an eagle anchored in a half ton of rock and mortar. PCL Construction, based out of Denver, Colo., took on the $11 plus million project. The company specializes in heavy industrial and building projects throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.
Construction employment totaled 6 million in October, the highest total since May 2009, with a 12month gain of 231,000 jobs or 3.9 percent, Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist, noted. Residential building and specialty trade contractors
see NORTHWESTERN page 42
see AGC page 104
Ken Simonson Associated General Contractors of America
Illinois Contributes $10M More to I-74 Bridge Illinois officials have announced the state will contribute an additional $10 million for road improvements on an interstate bridge project. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos, both up for re-election shared the
plan Oct. 30 in Moline. The money will cover engineering and construction expenses along the south corridor of the new Interstate 74 bridge. A project engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation said the south corridor extension will cost $20 million.
Illinois and Iowa are sharing the cost of the $885 million bridge, which will include six lanes and accommodate vehicles, bikes and pedestrians. The Quad-City Times reported Illinois has already committed $421 million throughout the next seven years.
Quinn said the project will create about 5,000 construction jobs. The bridge is expected to be complete by 2021. (This story also can be found on Construction Equipment Guide’s Web site at www.constructionequipmentguide.com.)