(As seen at www.colorado.construction.com)
When an existing airport needs new carpeting, there is a lot to consider. Not only do the contractors need government security clearance but materials need to be delivered to areas that are designed to be inaccessible; work periods are limited to between flights and during overnight hours; and the tools of the trade must be examined, approved and turned in to the TSA at the end of every shift.
These are the challenges that Denver-based ReSource Colorado Inc. is encountering as it replaces the carpeting in concourses A and C and parts of the main terminal building at Denver International Airport.
Installation and tear-out, conducted concurrently because of the nature of the job and airport passenger safety concerns, has completed in Concourse C, the main terminal and the mezzanine in Concourse A.
“This gets everything done that needed to be done before the convention,” said John Stanfield, president of ReSource Colorado. The project will undergo a planned installation hiatus during August for the Democratic National Convention but is expected to be complete in November. “The convention couldn’t come at a better time,” added Stanfield. “My guys have been working nights and long shifts, so this will give them a chance to catch up on rest and restore their bodies.”
The old carpet, approximately 70,000 sq yd, consists of two types that will all be reclaimed in some manner, according to the company. The material from Concourse C was manufactured by C&A, a Dalton, Ga.-based flooring company, which has engineered a reclamation program specifically for its product.
The carpet is collected in semi-trailers and shipped to the company’s Georgia facility. The material is processed and begins a second life as backing for new carpet. “C&A’s process has been an easy one to work with, they really do all the work once tear-out is complete,” said Stanfield.
The carpet from Concourse A and the terminal is a rubber-backed product. ReSource Colorado has contracted with a cement plant in Sugar Creek, Mo., where materials will be shipped and burned for fuel. Built in 2007, the $7-million facility was constructed specifically for this purpose and operates under specific guidelines.
“I was required to send samples of the carpet to the plant so that it could be cleared for acceptance,” said Stanfield. “The material was thoroughly tested according to their specification to be certain it would burn clean and not emit any potentially harmful pollutants.”
The flooring contractor has a crew of 30 for the DIA project, including supply truck drivers, measuring specialists, project managers and 24 full-time installers working two shifts around the clock to complete the project by November. Along with the schedule, the company has faced a number of added considerations not typical of everyday flooring projects.
“From an installer’s perspective, things like fingerprinting for security clearance and the logistics of working in a facility that is always very busy aren’t normal concerns,” said Stanfield. “None of my guys were certified to drive on an airport runway, but they are now.”
Each of the crew had to be formally fingerprinted and cleared by the Transportation Security Administration and issued a photo ID badge in order to work the airport. But TSA involvement did not stop there. The government agency conducts daily checks on installation tools like carpet knives and razors brought into the airport building. The number of sharp objects checked out by TSA is recorded onto a log, and tools must be checked back in at the end of each shift. The check-in and check-out numbers are required to match every day.
“I think the biggest thing we have learned during this process is the value of coordination, patience and sound project management skills,” said Tanner DeJonge, project manager for ReSource Colorado. “Coordination with airport management, government security, the mill and reclamation facility are key to this project’s timely success.”
Another challenge the ReSource crew has faced is the lack of freight elevators in parts of the airport facility. “We had to get creative in transporting 650- to 900-lb rolls of carpet up and down airport escalators,” said DeJonge. The entire project consists of 70,000 sq yd of Bentley broadloom carpet that will be installed from 12-ft rolls.
According to Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership, a national alliance of commercial flooring contractors, this is one of the largest carpet recovery projects performed by a member to date.
www.colorado.construction.com
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Skyrocketing Asphalt Costs Mean Uneven Lanes
(as appeared in Talk of the Rockies at www.colorado.construction.com)
With construction costs increasing and transportation funds in decline, news of a nationwide shortage of asphalt and its ingredients is that last thing the Colorado asphalt paving industry needed. As the price for oil continues to reach record highs, asphalt prices have skyrocketed in recent months and a shortage of liquid asphalt is aggravating the situation.
“Surging prices for diesel fuel, asphalt, steel and other materials are clobbering construction budgets,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “In the first two weeks of July, asphalt prices have jumped by 40% in several parts of the country.”
In Colorado, the asphalt shortage is affecting 34 Colorado Department of Transportation projects, said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.Metro Denver alone has six projects at risk of delays, having their completion times extended or being partially paved. They include the resurfacing of Interstate 25 between Santa Fe Drive and West 6th Avenue, the repaving of Colorado Boulevard between Mexico and Alameda avenues and two major paving projects on East Colfax Avenue.
Scarcity of Ingredients
Asphalt has two ingredients—stone or gravel, and liquid asphalt, a tar-like binder made from petroleum. The binder is scraped from the bottom of the barrel after other petroleum-based products have been processed. The ingredients are mixed together to make hot-mix asphalt for paving roads.CDOT requires a chemical polymer be added to strengthen the pavement, especially in areas where traffic volumes are high.
A higher global demand for the polymer, especially from China and India, has decreased its availability, according to Oklahoma-based SemMaterials, one of the largest asphalt producers in the United States. The closing of two polymer facilities in Europe hasn’t helped the situation either.
The shortage of liquid asphalt can be attributed, in part, to oil refiners concentrating on producing more profitable finished products from crude oil, such as diesel fuel, said Tom Peterson, executive director of the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association.
Refiners also are processing lighter crude petroleum, which produces less asphalt than heavy crude, he added.CAPA believes that supplies should begin to improve in the fall or winter. But summer paving projects may already be impacted. “(The industry) believes refiners will begin to run heavier crude streams, which will increase asphalt supply,” said Peterson. “Once the shift to heavier crude streams has been made, it will take 30 to 45 days before additional asphalt barrels reach the market.
“Supply of asphalt for the 2008 paving season is going to be short,” Peterson said.
Priorities
Currently, CDOT is considering four options for its summer paving projects: delay work until next year; extend some projects’ completion times until later this year; use a different paving material, including one without a polymer; or partially pave some roads until more asphalt can be purchased, said Stegman.
“Priority will be given to projects on more heavily traveled routes, areas with the most significant pavement damage or those in the middle of construction,” she said.The rising cost of asphalt has also forced CDOT to agree to use higher percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement and allow its use in the top lift of paving. The joint decision was made by CDOT and the Colorado Contractors Association in a June 5 meeting. CDOT has previously allowed only 15% RAP in the top lift.“The RAP Task Force felt that there were enough controls in place, enough study data and enough experience with RAP that CDOT could increase the use to 20% in the top lift,” Stegman said.
www.colorado.construction.com
With construction costs increasing and transportation funds in decline, news of a nationwide shortage of asphalt and its ingredients is that last thing the Colorado asphalt paving industry needed. As the price for oil continues to reach record highs, asphalt prices have skyrocketed in recent months and a shortage of liquid asphalt is aggravating the situation.
“Surging prices for diesel fuel, asphalt, steel and other materials are clobbering construction budgets,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “In the first two weeks of July, asphalt prices have jumped by 40% in several parts of the country.”
In Colorado, the asphalt shortage is affecting 34 Colorado Department of Transportation projects, said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.Metro Denver alone has six projects at risk of delays, having their completion times extended or being partially paved. They include the resurfacing of Interstate 25 between Santa Fe Drive and West 6th Avenue, the repaving of Colorado Boulevard between Mexico and Alameda avenues and two major paving projects on East Colfax Avenue.
Scarcity of Ingredients
Asphalt has two ingredients—stone or gravel, and liquid asphalt, a tar-like binder made from petroleum. The binder is scraped from the bottom of the barrel after other petroleum-based products have been processed. The ingredients are mixed together to make hot-mix asphalt for paving roads.CDOT requires a chemical polymer be added to strengthen the pavement, especially in areas where traffic volumes are high.
A higher global demand for the polymer, especially from China and India, has decreased its availability, according to Oklahoma-based SemMaterials, one of the largest asphalt producers in the United States. The closing of two polymer facilities in Europe hasn’t helped the situation either.
The shortage of liquid asphalt can be attributed, in part, to oil refiners concentrating on producing more profitable finished products from crude oil, such as diesel fuel, said Tom Peterson, executive director of the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association.
Refiners also are processing lighter crude petroleum, which produces less asphalt than heavy crude, he added.CAPA believes that supplies should begin to improve in the fall or winter. But summer paving projects may already be impacted. “(The industry) believes refiners will begin to run heavier crude streams, which will increase asphalt supply,” said Peterson. “Once the shift to heavier crude streams has been made, it will take 30 to 45 days before additional asphalt barrels reach the market.
“Supply of asphalt for the 2008 paving season is going to be short,” Peterson said.
Priorities
Currently, CDOT is considering four options for its summer paving projects: delay work until next year; extend some projects’ completion times until later this year; use a different paving material, including one without a polymer; or partially pave some roads until more asphalt can be purchased, said Stegman.
“Priority will be given to projects on more heavily traveled routes, areas with the most significant pavement damage or those in the middle of construction,” she said.The rising cost of asphalt has also forced CDOT to agree to use higher percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement and allow its use in the top lift of paving. The joint decision was made by CDOT and the Colorado Contractors Association in a June 5 meeting. CDOT has previously allowed only 15% RAP in the top lift.“The RAP Task Force felt that there were enough controls in place, enough study data and enough experience with RAP that CDOT could increase the use to 20% in the top lift,” Stegman said.
www.colorado.construction.com
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Cost Confusion
(As printed in the July issue of Colorado Construction magazine)
Volatile materials costs challenge Colorado’s preconstruction experts
A collapse in the housing market and the subprime crisis, along with reports of a weakening dollar, all directly correlate to a rise in construction materials costs, both locally and nationally. But overshadowing all of these events is a seemingly daily increase in the cost of crude oil that impacts every segment of the construction industry, especially preconstruction.
These global and national events are leaving materials costs difficult to gauge and will continue to do so through 2008, according to several economic indicators.
Although Colorado’s economy has not yet shown the same signs of recession as other regions, the rising cost of oil must be factored into nearly all project planning, according to James Vigesaa, owner of BleekerVigesaa General Contractors in Brighton.
“Construction costs being volatile certainly makes preconstruction more difficult,” he says. “And in that process we must focus on the cost of oil based on the current cost per barrel. However, projections like the possibility of oil reaching $150 per barrel by mid-summer has made it increasingly difficult to create accurate formulas for upcoming projects.
“Colorado seems to be on the complete opposite spectrum when it comes to economic recession than the rest of the nation,” Vigesaa adds. “And, if we want to see a leveling out of materials costs in relation to oil costs, we just better cross our fingers that oil has peaked.”
Although construction costs remain volatile globally, Colorado’s materials costs have seemingly leveled out-for now. In Denver, research from industry consultant Rider Levett Bucknall shows the first quarter experienced cost escalation of 1.2%, almost identical to that for the same period in 2007.
“Though our research does provide evidence of the continued trend towards lower quarterly escalation rates in many U.S. markets, record high crude oil prices in the first quarter of 2008 have somewhat lessened the effect of the falling cost of many construction materials associated with residential projects,” says Peter Knowles, executive vice president of RLB.
As residential construction spending slows due to a collapsing housing market, the demand for materials for products like concrete and drywall should cause costs to decrease, he says.
In Colorado, highway construction costs are greatly affected by higher crude oil prices, worsening the Colorado Department of Transportation’s 20% planned cut in its construction program for fiscal year 2009-a problem shared by many state DOTs across the country.
“Colorado is being impacted by two issues converging as part of a growing crisis: skyrocketing fuel prices resulting in higher transportation construction costs and declining funding for roadway improvements,” says Tom Peterson, executive director of the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association.
RBL predicted that a gradual decrease in 2008 construction volumes from the historically high levels of previous years is anticipated to offer some relief on materials prices; however, it forecasts that 2008 construction spending will be subject to continued increases in cost escalation in the coming quarters, despite the current lower rates compared to previous years.
www.colorado.construction.com
Volatile materials costs challenge Colorado’s preconstruction experts
A collapse in the housing market and the subprime crisis, along with reports of a weakening dollar, all directly correlate to a rise in construction materials costs, both locally and nationally. But overshadowing all of these events is a seemingly daily increase in the cost of crude oil that impacts every segment of the construction industry, especially preconstruction.
These global and national events are leaving materials costs difficult to gauge and will continue to do so through 2008, according to several economic indicators.
Although Colorado’s economy has not yet shown the same signs of recession as other regions, the rising cost of oil must be factored into nearly all project planning, according to James Vigesaa, owner of BleekerVigesaa General Contractors in Brighton.
“Construction costs being volatile certainly makes preconstruction more difficult,” he says. “And in that process we must focus on the cost of oil based on the current cost per barrel. However, projections like the possibility of oil reaching $150 per barrel by mid-summer has made it increasingly difficult to create accurate formulas for upcoming projects.
“Colorado seems to be on the complete opposite spectrum when it comes to economic recession than the rest of the nation,” Vigesaa adds. “And, if we want to see a leveling out of materials costs in relation to oil costs, we just better cross our fingers that oil has peaked.”
Although construction costs remain volatile globally, Colorado’s materials costs have seemingly leveled out-for now. In Denver, research from industry consultant Rider Levett Bucknall shows the first quarter experienced cost escalation of 1.2%, almost identical to that for the same period in 2007.
“Though our research does provide evidence of the continued trend towards lower quarterly escalation rates in many U.S. markets, record high crude oil prices in the first quarter of 2008 have somewhat lessened the effect of the falling cost of many construction materials associated with residential projects,” says Peter Knowles, executive vice president of RLB.
As residential construction spending slows due to a collapsing housing market, the demand for materials for products like concrete and drywall should cause costs to decrease, he says.
In Colorado, highway construction costs are greatly affected by higher crude oil prices, worsening the Colorado Department of Transportation’s 20% planned cut in its construction program for fiscal year 2009-a problem shared by many state DOTs across the country.
“Colorado is being impacted by two issues converging as part of a growing crisis: skyrocketing fuel prices resulting in higher transportation construction costs and declining funding for roadway improvements,” says Tom Peterson, executive director of the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association.
RBL predicted that a gradual decrease in 2008 construction volumes from the historically high levels of previous years is anticipated to offer some relief on materials prices; however, it forecasts that 2008 construction spending will be subject to continued increases in cost escalation in the coming quarters, despite the current lower rates compared to previous years.
www.colorado.construction.com
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