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Midwest Edition
October 17 2009 Vol. XVI • No. 21
“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
MDOTRehabilitates Crucial Mich. Corridor By Lori Lovely CEG CORRESPONDENT
ICUEE Welcomes Large Turnout to Louisville…12
HCEA Preserves History at Annual Convention…14
Hall Industrial Thanks Customers in Ohio…58
Table of Contents ............4
A short 19-mi. (30.5 km) stretch of road just north of Detroit has been transformed into an improvement project with a rather complicated strategy. Extensive work on the I-96/I-696 corridor in Oakland and Macomb counties has been divided into four separate projects. Project 1 consists of rehabilitation of eight bridges and repair of 4 mi. (6.4 km) of pavement in Oakland County between Novi and Halsted roads, including the I-96/I-696/M-5 interchange in Novi and Farmington Hills. Project 2 picks up where the first project ends and involves pavement patching and rehabilitation of 42 bridges on I-696 in Oakland County between Halsted and Campbell-Hilton roads. Project 3 focuses on rehabilitating 22 bridges on I-696, 15 of which are located within the I696/Mound Road interchange. Project 4 includes rehabilitation of six bridges and extensive pavement repairs to I-696 between Hayes and Nieman roads in Macomb County. Also included are safety upgrades and lighting replacement on the median and ramps. Overlap For all practical purposes, the $67 million overall project has been divided into two contracts — east and west — with two prime contractors: Dan’s Excavating out of Grant, Mich., on the west contract and C.A. Hall on the east. But even that division is a little blurry. “There are overlapping facets,” says Bob Daavettila, construction director for Tetra Tech,
A total of 56 bridges will undergo rehabilitation. Because C.A. Hall is a subcontractor for all bridge work on both contracts and since there is a lot of bridge work in the west contract, Hall is doing considerable work on both.
particularly concerning the bridge work. A total of 56 bridges will undergo rehabilitation. Because C.A. Hall is a subcontractor for all bridge work on both contracts and since there’s a lot of bridge work in the west contract, Hall is doing considerable work on both. “Because they’re a major sub, it leads to a lot of coordination. Hall is at all the meetings for the Dan’s contract.” According to Daavettila, the two big contracts consist of a two-year project for $47 million to reconstruct pavement from Novi to Farmington Hills — the west project — and a
Business Calendar ........32 Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................35-42 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....55-62 Parts Section ................63 Auction Section ......68-74 Advertisers Index ..........75
$14 million contract to conduct bridge rehabilitation and concrete patching on I-696 — the east project. The west contract involves significant amounts of overlay, but there is none on the east contract. Instead, there is, as Daavettila says, “a lot of concrete patching.” Other Names for an Old-Time Trail Before being designated as a military highway in 1832, the corridor from Lake Michigan through Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids was see MICHIGAN page 44
Constructing a Healthy Look at Health Care Reform By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Health care reform in the United States has been beaten nearly to death this year by advocates and critics alike. Yet as the debate moves into October, the final shape of “reform” remains elusive and elastic with construction industry executives anxious about its impact on their companies. Any change in the system definitely will have impact on contractors and a sweeping change could upend smaller firms — and most construction companies are small-to-medium-sized. The truth of the matter is the
reform model in which government would provide most health care services would dramatically change the way every business operates, large or small. It is impractical to hope that health care reform will be tailored to the construction industry. Nevertheless, small businesses consistently favor certain reform initiatives over others. Were Washington to institute reform along the lines general contractors might lay down, the following features would be among the legislated changes: • New authority for associations to negotiate insurance packages see REFORM page 51