By John Yeung, Vice President, Beacon Consulting Group. Beacon's New York City office is a short walk from Penn Station, the busiest railway station in North America. More than 640,000 subway, commuter rail, and Amtrak passengers pass through the station on an average weekday. The station is a terminal for trains run by Amtrak (which owns the station), Long Island Railroad, NJ Transit, and the New York City Transit Authority (MTA), with more than 1300 arrivals and departures on weekdays. Because the station is nearly 60 years old and serves twice the number of daily trains (and passengers) as it did in 1970, Penn Station's underground areas can often feel over-crowded, dark/dreary, and very out-dated...
Bio concrete is a self-healing concrete designed to repair its own cracks. It was invented by a Dutch researcher, Hendrik Jonkers, at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Bio concrete is concrete with the addition of limestone producing bacteria utilizing a biochemical process called Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). This article, written by Beacon Project Manager Myat Cyn, provides a great overview and introduction to this new technology...
Earlier this year, Mutual of Omaha and the Mayor of Omaha announced plans for a new $433-million skyscraper to be built in downtown Omaha. Although the project must still be formally approved by the Omaha City Council, many details about the project have been released by the city and Mutual of Omaha. The proposed tower (known as "Project Beacon") would be between 40 and 50 stories tall, up to 650 feet in height, with 800,000 square feet of office space and 2200 parking spaces. Depending on the final approved design, the tower could end up being the city's tallest building...
Beacon's team has consulted on some of the largest and most complex construction projects in the U.S. in recent years. However, our team also keeps abreast of other notable construction projects announced or underway. Beacon's Jim Bruno has compiled this summary of several interesting, large-scale projects planned and/or started in the U.S.
Happy Veterans Day! Today is one of those National Holidays which really doesn't get the attention it deserves. Even though many of us are working today, it's important to stop, reflect and thank all of the Military Veterans out there (as well as our active duty members of the armed forces) who have fought for the freedom we all enjoy in the U.S...
Beacon's President Dennis O'Neill was recently the featured speaker on the podcast "Surety Today" hosted by Michael Stover, a partner at the law firm of Wright, Constable & Skeen LLP. The episode, which lasts about 45 minutes, focuses on various new technologies and software used in the construction industry. Dennis started off the interview by providing some interesting facts and figures about the current state of the construction industry in the U.S. He then transitioned into the how the construction industry is now using advanced project management software, remote site monitoring, drones, and other technologies. In the podcast, Dennis also talks about some of the impacts of Covid-19 on the industry and how technology is being used in response...
Well, the World Series is over (congratulations Dodger fans), Covid-19 is boomeranging, and the Presidential Election is upon us. What a year...it seems to be lasting forever! On the bright side, in the construction industry we are seeing some positive news in recent weeks as some large construction projects continue to make progress and plans for some very large new projects are being announced. Let’s hope we will see a good resurgence in the economy and many new project announcements over the next year. This month, we profile a very interesting assignment which Beacon has been consulting on: The Catskill Aqueduct Repair & Rehabilitation Project. We have been providing construction consulting services to a leading Surety related to part of this project, which is a major rehabilitation project of a 104-year-old, 74-mile-long, water-supply aqueduct running from the Catskill Mountains to just north of New York City. Our team has consulted on many critical infrastructure projects over the years, but this is an important one because the aqueduct provides almost half of New York City’s water (more than 8.3 million people count on that aqueduct working right)...
Although the Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted the U.S. economy (and the construction industry), some forward-looking developers are moving ahead with major multi-year projects. It's comforting to think that things will eventually be back to normal. Looking at some of the following projects reminds us that there is light at the end of the tunnel and things will return to normal in the not-too-distant future...
Happy Fall! I hope this message finds you well. As we enter the last quarter of this challenging year, there is some positive news in the construction industry. Recent reports show the U.S. construction industry bouncing back faster than most other sectors of the economy. For example, there have been solid gains in new construction starts, hiring, and project backlog (source: ConstructionDrive.com). In addition, a 2nd Quarter report by Marcum LLP indicates that the U.S. construction industry unemployment rate dropped down to 8.9%, a big improvement compared to the bleak situation back in the late Spring.
As we cautiously return to more normal conditions (at work and at home), Beacon's growing team continues to work hard on a diverse range of construction consulting projects for our clients. In this month's E-News we profile Elizabeth Paquet, one of our Construction Consultants working out of Beacons' New York office. Elizabeth has been working hard for our clients on a number of different high-profile Surety Consulting assignments over the past year. With more than two decades of industry experience, she is a great addition to our team. In other exciting news, Beacon has established a physical presence in Florida, as well as a European presence based in Ireland....
I hope your summer is going well. We are keeping busy here at Beacon, assisting our clients on a wide range of projects, including consulting on a number of construction projects delayed by Covid-19 and finding ways to help get them back on schedule asap. The construction industry is adjusting to the "new normal," which includes dealing with many postponed / delayed projects, managing construction sites differently to protect workers, and, for some GCs and Subcontractors, finding ways to survive through a period of economic uncertainty. In this month's E-News, we highlight some of the consulting services Beacon provides which help sureties, insurers, and construction companies during this challenging period. In particular, we have been very active in recent months working on Subcontractor Default Insurance (SDI) consulting assignments.
