AGC honored four construction companies and one training professional for providing the most innovative and collaborative training and development programs.

The Education Excellence Awards were given during the 4th Annual Training and Development Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.  Read more here.

For more information, contact Liz Elvin at (703) 837-5389 or elvinl@agc.org.

AGC announced California State Chico, Iowa State and Kansas State Universities are home to the recipients of this year's Outstanding Student Chapter Awards.

These three college organizations have worked to build a better quality of life in their communities. Read more about their efforts here.

For more information, contact Carrie Harper at (703) 837-5316 or harperc@agc.org.

In this week's member newsletter, AGC San Diego congratulated member company Randall Construction for their heroic actions at the Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad, Calif. Company president Gary Randall and five employees were working on a school cafeteria remodel when a gunman opened fire on the playground nearby.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the story on October 9, and included further details October 11, noting that Mario Contreras, Stephen Kane and Carlos Partida, all of Randall Construction, chased and disarmed the gunman immediately after Brendan Liam O'Rourke opened fire and wounded two children.

Both children survived their injuries, and many more lives were surely saved, as O'Rourke had additional bullets on him.

Jim Ryan, Chapter executive vice president, noted that Contreras and Partida are part of the AGC Apprenticeship & Training Program, and that all other Randall Construction employees involved are examples of what makes the construction industry great.

For more information, contact Jim Ryan at jryan@agcsd.org.

AGC responded to a new report from the Treasury Department detailing underinvestment in transportation, noting that failure to repair aging roads and bridges and expand transportation capacity is costing tens of thousands of jobs.

Read AGC's full statement here.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

The number of people working in construction is approaching a 14-year low now that the industry lost 21,000 jobs in September, while construction unemployment is at a September high of 17.2 percent, according to an analysis of federal employment figures released today by AGC.

The construction industry continues to suffer from declining investments in construction and broad uncertainty about the future of many federal infrastructure programs and tax rates, association officials noted.

Read the press release here. The news was covered by the Central Valley Business Times, Engineering News-Record and KGO-TV in Santa Clara, Calif., among others.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

AGC and the staff of the California Air Resources Board have reached an agreement on proposed changes to the state's off-road diesel rule designed to give the local construction industry time to recover from the recession while protecting air quality.

As part of the agreement, CARB will delay enforcement of the rule until 2014, ease annual compliance requirements and give contractors greatly flexibility in how they can comply. The proposed changes, which will need approval from the board in December, are the result of AGC's successful efforts to identify significant flaws in the Board's original diesel emissions estimates.

Read the press release here. Listen to the media conference call for details on the agreement.

The news was covered on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, and in Engineering News-Record, Bakersfield Californian, San Diego Daily Transcript and the Associated Press.

For more information, contact Mike Kennedy at kennedym@agc.org.

Total construction spending edged up 0.4 percent between July and August to $812 billion, driven by increases in public construction activity including stimulus and base realignment projects, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data released today by AGC.

Association officials cautioned, however, that private residential and nonresidential spending both continued to shrink as private-sector demand for construction remains extremely weak.

Read press release here. The news was covered by the Denver Post and the Oakland Press, among others.

September 28 marked the three-year anniversary of ConsensusDOCS, the only standard contracts written by a broad coalition of the construction industry. In just three years, the documents have been the clear leader in advancing best practices and fair contracts.

In 2007, ConsensusDOCS published the first standard integrated project delivery contract. In 2008, it wrote the first contract to address the legal risks associated with Building Information Modeling. In 2009, ConsensusDOCS published the first contract to comprehensively address green building construction.

To read more about ConsensusDOCS and its three-year anniversary, click here.

For more information, contact Carrie Ciliberto at (703) 837-5367 or cilibertoc@agc.org.

Construction employment expanded in 56 out of 337 metropolitan areas between August 2009 and August 2010, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released Monday by AGC.

More cities added construction jobs during the past year than at any point since September 2008, indicating that the worst of the industry's job losses may be over, AGC said.

Read the press release here. The news was covered by the Wall Street Journal, San Diego Union Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and the Chicago Tribune.

Construction jobs were added in half the states in August, while the number of states with year-over-year job gains rose to 10 from just six in July, AGC reported in an analysis of state employment data released Tuesday by the Labor Department. The number of states that increased construction employment over 12 months was the largest since October 2008.

Read AGC's press release here. The news was covered by the Chicago Sun-Times, Dayton Business Journal, Atlanta Business Chronicle and South Florida Business Journal, among others.

For more information, contact Ken Simonson at simonsonk@agc.org.