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| Our "blog," short for Web log, is an ongoing mix of facts, snippets, observations, opinions and analysis. Comments are welcome and, in fact, encouraged!
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April 2005
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| Aileen
Cho |
Hop on the Bus, Gus. Make a New Plan,
Stan
By Aileen Cho
[April 26, 2005]
Designers and architects looking for
future contracts with the Metropolitan Transportation Administration’s
New York City Transit Authority should pay more attention
to bus depots. Cosema Crawford, chief engineer for the NYCTA,
said at a mid-April transportation breakfast forum that "we
receive 40 to 50 design proposals for every station redesign;
we get three or four for a bus depot." The subway station
rehabilitation program is restrained by a limited capital
budget. The subway core maintenance budget will get about
$15 billion over the next five years; Crawford says the needs
equal $17 billion. Consultants and contractors should look
at work relating to “hidden infrastructure”—some $3.3 billion
in fan plants, substations and maintenance facilities. While
most construction management and about 60 percent of design
tends to be in-house, Crawford notes that the agency is looking
for consultants to help achieve a "formal commissioning" approach,
with the goal of maintaining a system for a life cycle.
The agency will also be spending some
security-related money—$500 million for the next capital program
plus the remainder of $500 million in the last— and will seek
consultants on various security-related jobs, Crawford said.
Another panelist, Douglas Curry, regional
director for the New York State Dept. of Transportation, emphasized
the importance of a $2.9-billion bond issue to be voted on
this November. The money would divid funds between the state
DOT and the MTA. He noted that the NYSDOT is reorganizing
internally, creating different departments for design and
construction, operations and planning and policy. Creating
key freight centers throughout the state will be key, he said.
As for design-build legislation, "we’re optimistic it will
come," he said. "We’re ready to go with design-build."
Donald Framm, the chief architect for
the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, says the agency
is planning, among other projects, a 1,900-space new parking
garage at John F. Kennedy Airport and expansion of LaGuardia’s
terminals to handle 30 million passengers by 2020. Just as
the NYSDOT envisions key spots for moving freight throughout
the state, so the port authority envisioned more transit-based
growth centers to handle an anticipated 2.4 million new New
York City residents by 2025. The redevelopment of Jamaica,
Queens around the Airtrain terminal there is one example.
Another port authority project, still
in the environmental and planning stages, involves the Goethals
Bridge replacement. The agency will say little officially,
but the bridge design team working on steel and cable-stayed
options is a formidable one: It’s led by Figg Engineering
Group, Tallahassee, and HNTB, Kansas City.
On a recent visit to Los Angeles, I
attended a Women’s Transportation Seminar meeting that featured
new Caltrans engineer Richard Land. Afterwards, I got to visit
the new Caltrans district headquarters—an architectural icon
of a building that features solar panels, a central glass-walled
empty box that allows views of the floors on every side, and
a surreal conference room with opaque colored blocks of glowing
light. (One random observation from a 10-year New Yorker—they’re
not afraid of having a 13th floor button in the elevator).
In one way it reminded me of the “Taj
Majal” that the Connecticut Dept. of Transportation built
for itself back in the early 90s amidst the bleak nothingless
of Hartford. One might debate the issue of splendid buildings
being built for agencies struggling with capital budgets.
But the Caltrans building demonstrated a marvelous efficiency
in use of light, space and layout. And it’s part of downtown
Los Angeles’ evolving renaissance from a bleak after-5 p.m.
ghost town into something resembling a true downtown core.
The point, here, is not so much the
building but the truly 21st-century American generation of
engineers, planners and managers inhabiting it. Los Angeles
Dept. of Transportation District 7 assistant general manager
James Okazaki took me under his wing and through the building
(all the while reminding Caltrans folks that LADOT could make
great use of some of those spare floors), stopping constantly
to do quick business with his colleagues. Ozakazi is in charge
of a bus rapid transit project expansion from the city’s original
2 lines and 38 miles to 28 lines and 450 miles, an approximately
$80-million endeavor. Black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern
and women engineers in high-level positions were everywhere.
It was like being at a Minorities in Construction/Women In
Construction meeting, but the beauty of it was that this was
just another day at the engineering office.
Breaking The Language Barrier
By Janice L. Tuchman
ENR Editor-in-Chief from China
[April 8, 2005]
I woke up in Beijing Monday morning
and threw open the curtains. We had arrived late the night
before. Two instant impressions: The city was thick with smog,
and there were cranes everywhere dotting the horizon. I would
learn the next day that one patch of cranes nearby was the
10-acre compound of the new U.S. Embassy under construction.
First one-year, low-security phase is by Chinese contractor
Beijing Urban Engineering Group. Next two-year top secret
phase is by American contractor joint venture Zachry Caddell
using all American workers and all American materials.
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| Editor
Tuchman on the Great Wall in a 2004 trip. |
Talking to sources at the embassy site
was easy, but….
Later the first day, I become separated
from colleagues at a local Beijing company's office. "Did
my friends go to another floor," I asked the receptionist?
"Chinese,Chinese, Chinese," she answered me. "English,
English, English," I replied. I tried hand signals. She
smiled and laughed. I smiled and laughed. No good. I doubled
my resolve to study the phrase book and learn more Chinese.
On my first trip to China in 1998, I left with three words
of Chinese. Next trip, I doubled my vocabulary: six words.
Next trip, 12 words. Will I make it to 24? I'm learning to
count, which is coming in handy, and trying to figure out
pronunciation.
We had lunch (actually a major noontime
feast) with representatives of the Chinese International Contractors
Association. Conversation there was easy. In addition to McGraw-Hill
Construction's China business development manager's excellent
translations and CHINCA's English speaking associate, one
of the group's senior representatives Mr. Pang speaks French
(better than I do). Mais, nous parlons en Francais, et c'est
tres bien. Top of the agenda: our next Global Summit. MHC
and CHINCA drew about 450 attendees (roughly one-third international
and two-thirds Chinese) to a global summit in Beijing in April
2004. We are planning a similar but larger event also in Beijing
for spring 2006. We discussed expanding program content to
international project finance, real estate development, urban
planning, and international joint ventures. We plan to have
the agenda developed and panelists invited by this summer.
On to Shanghai. The main event for this
trip to China was an April 6 banquet to celebrate the first-ever
ranking of the Top Contractors in China and the Top Design
Firms in China.
(Click
here for Top Chinese Contractors List) It was the first
time ENR had worked on a ranking of top firms in a single
country outside the U.S. and the first time we had partnered
on a ranking with another publication. Our Shanghai-based
alliance partner Construction Times teamed with us on hosting
the sold-out event that drew 250 industry leaders. I met execs
from firms such as China State, Shanghai Construction and
many of the major design institutes. I sat next to Sun Jian
Ping, vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal People’s
Government Construction & Management Commission and wished
we could discuss industry issues.
Top firms came up to the stage to get
certificates recognizing the occasion. I read off the names
in English as my colleague Warner Ding from Construction Times
read them in Chinese. That may sound easy, but try pronouncing
Zhejiang Zhongcheng Construction Group Co., Ltd. and 100 other
twisters to the American tongue. My Chinese "study"
paid off when I collected compliments on navigating that minefield!
Short takes:
- A source close to the Beijing Olympics
construction program said Beijing 2008 Engineering Command
Center is now leading design and construction efforts for
the 37 venues, 32 in Beijing and five in other cities. The
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games is turning its
attention to planning for the event itself. The biggest
single Olympics-related project, he said, is the $1-billion-plus
upgrade to Beijing airport including a new terminal and
new runway. A light rail line is also planned to the central
city. Three new subway lines will start construction this
year by the Beijing Municipal Government Transportation
Committee with an additional two lines built before the
games begin.
- Lin Jinfeng, vice dean of the graduate
school of the China Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing,
presented a paper examining the trend toward privatization
of Chinese construction industry firms. He estimates that
industry firms now have 14% state ownership compared to
2% state ownership of U.S. firms and 10% state ownership
of French firms. He calculates a 0.6% profitability of state-owned
businesses compared to 3.2% profitability of private-invested
and foreign-invested construction businesses in China.
- The Shanghai office of Halcrow China
Ltd. reports it is working on both sides of the Chongming
Crossing of the Yangtze River–a 15-meter-diameter,
8.5 kilometer-long tunnel to Changjian Island and a bridge
from the island to the other side. Halcrow is working with
Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering
Design Institute and the team is the "apparent winner"
of the feasibility study for the job. Halcrow is also working
with COWI and the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design
Institute on the bridge project.
For now, things in Shanghai look, "hun
hao" (very good).
"Zai Jian" (Good bye).
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