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December 14, 2013 • Vol. IX • No. 25 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910
Inside
Public Spending in Construction Sees Rare Spike
Contractor Benefits From GCSFlex... 6
By Lori Tobias CEG CORRESPONDENT
Once completed, the power plant will provide electricity for approximately 39,000 Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power customers and for 68,000 customers of Black Hills Power, both of which are subsidiaries of Black Hills Corp.
Ritchie Bros. Auction Attr act s Thousands...54
ConExpo Retro See page 28 for an ongoing series of highlights from past ConExpos as they were reported in the pages of CEG.
Table of Contents ................4 Attachments & Parts Section ......................................13-17 Truck & Trailer Section ........ ......................................19-21 Recycling Section ........35-47 Business Calendar ............49 Auction Section ..........51-57 Advertisers Index ..............58
Work Begins on Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station By Lori Lovely CEG CORRESPONDENT
Construction has begun on the Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station in Cheyenne, Wyo. Five miles southeast of downtown Cheyenne, within city limits, the new plant will contain three natural gas-fired combustion turbines with a capacity of 132-megawatts and will include a simple-cycle combustion turbine unit that will be wholly owned by Cheyenne Light, as well as a 95-MW combined-cycle unit that will be jointly owned by Cheyenne Light and Black Hills Power. Once completed, it will provide electricity for approximately 39,000 Cheyenne Light,
Fuel and Power customers and for 68,000 customers of Black Hills Power, both of which are subsidiaries of Black Hills Corp. The plant will take up only 40 acres of the 276-acre site, leaving a buffer zone around the facility. The location along Interstate 80 west of Campstool Road was chosen because land was available and because of the proximity of a water source that can support the plant, according to Donna Beaman, manager of energy services with Cheyenne Light. Most of the water used by the plant will be treated wastewater from the city-owned Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility next door.
At first glance, recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau on public construction spending offered some surprisingly good news, but a closer look revealed a picture that insiders said remains worrisome — albeit hopeful. A “rare spike” in public construction pushed spending in the third quarter of 2013 to its highest level since May 2009. Much of the increase was attributed to spending on highway and street construction and education construction, said Ken Simonson, chief economist of The Associated General Contractors of America. “Nearly every category of public construction increased in October,” Simonson said. But while public construction spending jumped 3.9 percent for the month of October, the overall spending for public construction still trails 2012 by 2.8 percent. Meanwhile, residential construction slipped 0.6 percent for the month, but still showed a 17 percent gain over 2012, while nonresidential construction spending was down 0.5 percent for the month, but up 0.8 percent for the year-todate. “The private residence construction is certainly a mixed bag,” Simonson said. “It’s down because of slow down in single family construction, but multi-family construction continues to race ahead.”
see PLANT page 18
see SPENDING page 52
ARTBA Forecasts Moderate Growth for 2014 The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) is forecasting that beyond a modest increase in construction costs nationwide, the overall U.S. transportation
infrastructure construction market will grow five percent from $129 billion this year to $135.8 billion in 2014. ARTBA Chief Economist Alison Premo Black said the mar-
ket would be led by expected double-digit growth in airport runway and terminal work, a six percent increase in bridge and tunnel construction, and five percent, or better, growth in total investment in
waterways and ports, and heavy and light rail. Uncertainty about the level of federal support for state highway see TRANSPORTATION page 24