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December 21, 2013 • Vol. IXX • No. 26 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
N.D. Airport Undergoes Much-Needed Expansion
AGC Hosts 94th Annual Meeting...24
More Than 3,000 A ttend Ritchie. Bros Sale...67
ConExpo Retro See page 44 for an ongoing series of highlights from past ConExpos as they were reported in the pages of CEG.
Table of Contents ................4 Underground Utility, Trenchers & Trench Boxes Section ..........................55-59 Snow & Ice Section......71-75 Paving Section..............77-89 Auction Section ........94-101 Business Calendar ............95 Advertisers Index ............102
The combination of Minot International’s current numbers and the growth forecast over the next 20 years led to the decision to build a new terminal directly east of the existing one.
By Lori Lovely CEG CORRESPONDENT
The Minot, N.D., International Airport is undergoing a muchneeded expansion, with construction of a $40 million terminal which was scheduled to begin this past October. As the fourth-largest city in the state, Minot is experiencing a population growth and an upswing in its economy as a result of the oil boom in western North Dakota. That has led to increased air traffic, making Minot the state’s third-busiest city. “Of cities under 50,000 people, Minot is the fifth-fastest growing community in the country,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told the Minot Daily News. “The economy is growing. The population is growing. Airport boardings are growing dramatically and there’s more and more flights coming in here all the time.” According to Gov. Jack Dalrymple, airports across the state have seen a significant increase in the number of travellers over see AIRPORT page 76
U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of ASA Brief In a victory for construction subcontractors, the U.S. Supreme Court preserved the 24 state laws limiting the validity of forum-selection clauses in construction contracts in its ruling on Dec. 3 in Atlantic Marine Construction Co. Inc. v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, et al. The American Subcontractors Association filed an amicus brief in the case in August, telling the Supreme Court that a poor decision
“… would compel federal courts to disregard: (1) the law of the state where the project was located, and (2) the legitimate policy concerns those laws were designed to address.” The Supreme Court said that when a federal court considers the forum for a case, “the court should not consider the parties’ private interests aside from those embodied in the forum-selection clause; it may consider only public interests.” see ASA page 96
Volvo Group Agrees to Sell Volvo Rents for $1.1B As part of efforts to focus on its core business, the Volvo Group has agreed to sell Volvo Rents to the U.S. private equity firm Platinum Equity for $1.1 billion. Volvo Construction Equipment will con-
tinue to sell products to Volvo Rents under the new ownership. Volvo Rents offers rental of a range of machines intended for the construction and engineering industry, including Volvo
Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) products. Volvo Rents has operations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and 2,100 employees. Platinum Equity is a California-based investment firm
with experience of investing in the equipment rental market. “We looked at different alternatives to grow Volvo Rents’ business and concluded that the best alternasee VOLVO page 96