OSHA is now enforcing the Severe Violators Enforcement Program that it announced in April. The program focuses enforcement efforts on employers who willfully and repeatedly endanger workers by exposing them to serious hazards. The directive establishes procedures and enforcement actions for the severe violator program, including increased inspections, such as mandatory follow-up inspections of a workplace found in violation and inspections of other worksites of the same company where similar hazards or deficiencies may be present.

AGC is concerned that the administration's efforts to emphasize fines and penalties over collaboration and results will undermine successful partnerships between industry and government that helped cut the construction fatality rate in half between 1998 and 2008.

For more information, contact Kevin Cannon at (703) 837-5410 or cannonk@agc.org.

According to a Reuters article many contractors find construction financing difficult to come by.  The Construction Industry Confidence Index, published by Engineering News-Record magazine, found that 39 percent of contractors and engineering companies say project financing is harder to obtain than in the first quarter of 2010, whereas only 13 percent found financing easier to obtain. 

Despite these credit woes, half of all industry firms surveyed believe the market will improve in the next twelve to eighteen months.  The Confidence Index increased by seven points overall in the second quarter, but is still below its indicator for an expanding market.  The Architecture Billings Index is also below its indicator for expansion, according to Reuters.  The Index fell two points in May, also citing tight credit problems as a reason why the Index has not yet stabilized.  According to the AIA's Chief Economist Kermit Baker, this dip comes as a surprise and is likely attributable to an "unusual caution on the part of lending institutions," echoing the concern found in the McGraw-Hill survey.  Though both indeces are below their indicators for market growth, it is important to note that both the Billings Index and the Confidence Index have been following upward trends since the beginning of the year.

According to Reed Construction Data, construction starts rose 10.2 percent in May, the highest level in almost one year.  Since May normally has a seasonal rise in starts, this increase can be interpreted as a stable continuation of three months of starts.  Commercial building starts largely contributed to the May increase, with a month-to-month increase of 52 percent, a large portion of which were small buildings or renovation projects. 

For more on May construction starts, please click here.

TODAY | 2:00 pm-3:30 pm ET

There are still a few spots left for this FREE informative webinar.  ConsensusDOCS has dozens of administrative forms to help you whether your project is large or small.  Discover the advantages of using ConsensusDOCS forms to help you manage the day-to-day administration of your construction projects. 

Using the ConsensusDOCS 700 Series as a baseline for examples, you will learn how to use these administrative documents to manage your projects more efficiently starting with the ConsensusDOCS 705 Invitation to Bid/Sub-Bid Proposal all the way through to the 782 Certificate of Final Completion.  Documents to be reviewed include:

• RFI's, Bidding and Qualifications Statements
• Bond Forms
• Materials Storage
• Change Orders
• Purchase and Payment Forms
• Certificates of Completion

Register Today - FREE.

For more information, contact Megan McGarvey at (703) 837-5369 or mcgarveym@agc.org.

AGC of America, together with the National Association of State Facilities Administrators (NASFA), Construction Owners Association of America (COAA), APPA: The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), just released Integrated Project Delivery for Public and Private Owners.

Integrated Project Delivery for Public and Private Owners explores the varying degrees of collaboration found in IPD, defining it as a philosophy and as a delivery method.  The publication explores why owners should consider adopting IPD principles, how IPD fits in to related industry trends, such as BIM and Lean, and offers suggestions on how to integrate IPD principles into construction projects.  Owners, general contractors and all project stakeholders will find Integrated Project Delivery for Public and Private Owners to be a useful resource regarding IPD. 

This publication is available for free at www.agc.org/projectdelivery or by clicking here.

PowerPoint presentations from the June 2010 AGC Building Contractors Conference in Midway, Utah are now available by clicking here.

Presentation topics include: lean construction case studies, EPA Effluent Limitations Guidelines rule, OSHA's agenda, material prices outlook, sustainable design return on investment, an update on surety issues, and a presentation on the future challenges of growth in construction.

Presentations from past Building Contractors Conferences can be found at www.agc.org/building.

AGC July 6 responded to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to expand the Agency's Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program (RRP) requirements to cover work performed in commercial and public buildings.

The ANPR includes no proposed language.  Rather, the public was invited to respond to over 100 detailed questions and data requests.  Currently there are no limits on the potential scope of regulated commercial and public buildings. Other unresolved questions include: What renovation and repair work should be covered? What activities create the most risk? Should exposure pathways be broadened to include nearby properties?  AGC invited members to help shape the future lead paint rule and solicited input on a variety of important industry-specific issues currently under consideration at EPA.

AGC Comments

As part of a coalition with 15 other organizations, AGC filed comments [insert PDF file] with EPA maintaining that the Agency lacks the legal authority to adopt requirements for Lead RRP activities in public and commercial buildings.  In the comments, the coalition pointed out that the statute under which EPA would issue the rule grants it the authority to issue guidelines for work practice standards, but not the authority to promulgate such regulations for RRP in public and commercial buildings.

For more detail on AGC's comments on the EPA's ANPR and background on the Lead Paint Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program, please click here.

July 22, 2010 | 2:00p.m. - 3:30p.m. ET
 

ConsensusDOCS has dozens of administrative forms to help you manage your construction projects, both large and small.

Learn about the ConsensusDOCS administrative forms using the 700 Series as a baseline for examples.  Learn how to use these administrative documents to manage your projects more efficiently starting with the ConsensusDOCS 705 Invitation to Bid/Sub-Bid Proposal all the way through to the 782 Certificate of Final Completion.  Documents to be reviewed include:

• Invitation to Bid, RFI's and Qualifications Statements
• Bond Forms
• Materials Storage
• Change Orders
• Purchase and Payment Forms
• Certificates of Completion

Register today! Registration is free but limited to the first 500 respondants.

For more information, contact Megan McGarvey at (703) 837-5369 or mcgarveym@agc.org.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized new stormwater requirements that will impact nearly every construction and development project in the United States.  Penalties for violating these "Construction and Development Effluent Limitations Guidelines" (C&D ELG) may reach $37,500 per day per violation.  Are you prepared?  Click here for an in-depth Q&A analysis, prepared by AGC.

The new federal C&D ELG requirements impose an enforceable numeric limit on stormwater discharges from sites disturbing 10 acres or more at any one time, require monitoring to ensure compliance with the numeric limit, and require nearly all construction sites to implement a range of prescriptive erosion and sediment controls and pollution prevention measures.  The new ELG requirements will directly apply to individual construction sites via incorporation in individual and general National Pollutant Discharges Elimination System (NPDES) construction stormwater permits.  EPA will include the ELG requirements in its federal Construction General Permit when it is reauthorized by July 2011.  States are required by EPA to include the new ELG requirements into their permits the next time they are renewed (or earlier if the states so choose). 

EPA was under a court ordered deadline to develop the new C&D ELG by December 1, 2009.  The rule took effect on Feb. 1, 2010, and will be phased in over four years.  EPA estimates that the new rule will reduce the amount of sediment discharged from construction sites by about 4 billion pounds each year (for a monetized benefit of $368.9 million), at an annual cost of about $953 million, once fully implemented.  See 74 Fed. Reg. 62,996 (Dec. 1, 2009).

AGC has prepared an in-depth Q&A analysis to explore what the new federal C&D ELG requirements mean to construction companies (and their workers).  AGC answers the following questions:

1. What Specifically Are the New Federal Requirements?
2. Are State Stormwater Programs Affected by This Rule?
3. Do Permitting Authorities Have Flexibility in Applying the ELG Rule to Construction Sites in Their State? 
4. What Technology Can Contractors Use To Meet The 280 NTU Limit?
5. What Are The Monitoring Requirements?
6. What Happens If My Average Discharge Exceeds 280 NTU?
7. What Can Contractors Do To Avoid The Numeric Limit?
8. What is the Impact to the Regulated Community?
9. Have There Been Any Legal Challenges to EPA's Rule?
10. How Can I Prepare?

The full text of the ELG rule, EPA's fact sheet and related materials are available online at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction.  See also an AGC's Environmental Observer article, posted Nov. 30, 2009.

For more information, contact Leah Pilconis at pilconisl@agc.org.

Recent upgrades to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new "Rulemaking Gateway" offers small businesses "an easy way" to track most rulemakings, according to the Agency.  This website provides an overview of EPA's priority rulemakings that are currently under development. It also serves as a portal to more in-depth information on other federal websites such as Regulations.gov.  AGC previously reported in the Observer on the launch of these websites, along with other tools to help contractors stay informed and involved with policymaking decisions at EPA and other federal government agencies.

The Rulemaking Gateway (www.epa.gov/rulemaking/) does not cover every rule, just EPA's "priority rulemakings."  (See a definition of "priority rulemaking" here.)  If a small business stakeholder doesn't have the time to visit the Gateway on a regular basis, he or she can now sign up for "RSS feeds" that send electronic notifications out when information is added or changed (e.g., a new rulemaking is added to the Gateway), according to EPA's Tracy Westfield, Regulatory Management Division, EPA's Office of Policy, Economics & Innovation. 

EPA recently added a Get Alerts page where users can sign up for regular notifications on priority rulemakings that are likely to affect small businesses.  An RSS feed is available for each of the effects displayed on the Sort by Effects page.  Another key feature is the "small entities filter" page that lists those rulemakings that are likely to have an adverse economic impact on small entities.  Other recent upgrades to the Rulemaking Gateway include hyperlinks to documents published in the Federal Register and users can see a list of rules added to the Rulemaking Gateway in the last 30 days on the Newly Added Rules page. Information on the Rulemaking Gateway is updated on a monthly basis.

As a general matter, every new rulemaking that EPA starts working on in a given month (whether it's a priority rulemaking or not) is announced on EPA's Action Initiation List (AIL) (www.epa.gov/lawsregs/search/ail.html).  After a rule appears in the AIL, a small business stakeholder can track it in 1) the Rulemaking Gateway (if it is a priority rulemaking), which is updated on a monthly basis or 2) the Regulatory Agenda, which is updated every six months.  

During July 2010, EPA is hosting a Discussion Forum (http://blog.epa.gov/rulegateway/) to gather your suggestions for ways to continue to improve the Rulemaking Gateway.

Final rules, EPA guidance and compliance assistance tools are also available on EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov.  In addition, AGC of America has worked extensively with EPA to provide online compliance information tailored to the construction industry, available at the Construction Industry Compliance Assistance Center, http://www.cicacenter.org.