Published Nationally ®
Southeast Edition
July 27 2011
$3.00
Vol. XXIV • No. 15
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Shale Drilling Creates Natural Gas Supply Boom By Giles Lambertson
Setting a ‘Benchmark’ in Automation Technology…16
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Synthetic cap installation on completed fill area.
Orlando Hospital Gets Utility, Infrastructure Upgrades…18
Airport Project Uses Smart Environmental Component By Mary Reed CEG CORRESPONDENT
Pot omac Landf ill Expa nds Opera tion s…33
Table of Contents ............4
North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport expansion project features an environmentally responsible component: the use of coal combustion products as fill material. A regional partnership composed of the
The New York town of Marcellus was named for a Roman general, not for the town’s outcropping of natural gas-bearing shale. These days, excited general contractors or construction equipment dealers don’t give a hang about the general. He never sparked a construction boom. The shale did. Running southwest from Marcellus, the thick layer of Devonian black shale takes the Marcellus name and dives deep under Pennsylvania and adjacent states. Oil companies using 21st-century technology have begun to plumb DRILLING see page 12
airport, Raleigh, N.C.-based utility company Progress Energy Carolinas Inc. and Charah Inc., of Louisville, Ky., cooperated on the project, which began in 2009 when the airport identified opportunities to develop a new taxiway and general aviation commercial parcel in the southwest portion of the airport property. see AIRPORT page 20
A retention pond takes shape at a well site.
Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................23-26
Construction Spending Declines in May
Attachments Section27-30
By Derek Kravitz AP REAL ESTATE WRITER
Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....33-43 Business Calendar ........56 Auction Section ......58-65 Advertisers Index ..........66
WASHINGTON (AP) Builders began work on fewer projects in May, led by steep declines in apartment construction and less spending by state and local governments. Construction spending declined 0.6 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $757.9 billion, the Commerce Department said July 1. That put overall spending barely above
an 11-year low hit in February. And it is roughly half the $1.5 trillion pace considered healthy by most economists. Analysts say it could be another four years before construction returns to healthier levels. The weak construction spending data showed Americans are reluctant to both build and buy. Home construction fell 2.1 percent. But much of the decline was because an equal decline in apartment building, which can be volatile from month to month. Construction of
single-family homes dropped 0.3 percent. Spending on government projects fell for the eighth consecutive month. The 0.8 percent in May dropped government construction spending to a seasonally adjusted $276 billion annual rate, the weakest pace since February 2007. State and local governments accounted for all of the declines in government spending. They have been cutting back on building projects as they deal with large budget deficits. see SPENDING page 48