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May 13, 2015 • Vol. XXVII • No. 10 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
U.S. Govt. Liable for Flooding By Kevin McGill
RCS Construction Brings Site Up to Grade…8
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nick Linderman, project engineer, Earnhardt Grading Inc. photo
Construction is scheduled to finish December 2015. Customers Enjoy New Company Wrench Facility…12
Hospital Invests Big for U.S. Vets Envisioned to be one of the most advanced health care designs and patientcentered facilities on record, the six-story Charlotte Health Care Center (HCC) in North Carolina will serve thousands of area veterans for years to come. The state-of-the-art facility will be located at West Tyvola Road and Cascade Pointe Boulevard, and will treat veterans who currently receive care through the Charlotte community-based outpatient clinic. “I think this is a huge advancement in caring for veterans in the Charlotte area,” said Salisbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center Director Kaye Green, who praised the steps Salisbury VAMC is taking to care for the needs of local veterans. “This facility will be more than four times larger than the existing Charlotte facility.” Being built on a 35-acre site, Charlotte HCC will only provide outpatient services, but with an increased capacity for expansion of services in the future. Valued at more than $150 million upon completion, the project represents a major investment and job creator for the Charlotte area. Upon possession, VA will pay an annual rent of $11.3 million for the 20-year contract. The Charlotte Health Care Center will be one of two operated by the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center in Salisbury, N.C. The
By Cindy Riley
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Thompson Tractor Hosts Sale Event…24
Table of Contents ........4
see HCC page 70
Attachments Section...... ..............................53-69 Parts Section ........38-51 Auction Section ..96-105 Business Calendar ......92 Advertisers Index ....106
Confined Spaces Rule to Protect 800 Construction Workers Per Year The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a final rule to increase protections for construction workers in confined spaces. Manholes, crawl spaces, tanks and other confined spaces are not intended for continuous occupancy. They also are difficult to exit in an emer-
gency. People working in confined spaces face life-threatening hazards including toxic substances, electrocutions, explosions and asphyxiation. Last year, two workers were asphyxiated while see RULE page 72
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Ruling in a nearly decade-old lawsuit, a judge in Washington said May 1 that the federal government is responsible for some of the catastrophic flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina and other storms — flooding blamed on a now-closed navigation channel. Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington said the flooding was, in effect, a “taking’’ of property under the Fifth Amendment, for which the plaintiffs must be compensated. How much the government will have to pay in damages is unclear. Braden set a conference in New Orleans to determine whether an agreement can be reached to have damages assessed by a mediator. Also unclear is how many people will benefit. There are a handful of plaintiffs, but attorneys were seeking class-action status that could mean many people in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. The judge’s ruling did not address whether class-action status would be granted. The ruling came in an October 2005 lawsuit filed by the government of St. Bernard Parish — adjacent to New Orleans — and several property owners. It focuses on the now-closed Mississippi River Gulf Outlet — a navigation canal built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and blamed by many for flooding in St. Bernard and the Lower 9th after Katrina. “It’s great news for St. Bernard Parish,’’ Parish Council member George Cavignac said. He declined to speculate on possible monetary damages. “Now that this important decision regarding the government’s liability has see FLOODING page 84