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.
I hope this message finds you well and that things are beginning to feel more normal in your area. As the first half of 2020 comes to a close, we are living in a much different world compared to just 4 months ago. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to drastically change how we live and work. In the construction industry, we saw many job sites close down for weeks or months starting in early March, with re-openings varying on a state by state basis. As we enter the summer, many states have already given the green light for construction projects to restart. In some areas, construction never stopped (unless a project was directly affected by on-site personnel catching the virus). However, the pandemic continues to have a major impact on the industry...
Although Covid-19 has affected various parts of the country with different levels of severity, it's now critically important to have a Covid-19 action plan at many construction sites—at least until the pandemic subsides or a vaccine is developed. In addition to protecting on-site personnel, helping to stem the spread of the virus, and complying with local, state, and federal directives, it's necessary to have an appropriate Covid-19 policy and action plan for financial and liability reasons. Preventing an outbreak on the job site not only helps to keep workers safe, but can help prevent a construction project from being shutdown by local authorities. Beacon's team can help developers, contractors, Surety companies and other stakeholders by reviewing (and/or helping to develop) Covid-19 action / response plans. At a high level, a good Covid-19 policy and action plan consists of all of the following...
Like many industries, the construction industry has been significantly affected by the current pandemic. In some areas, construction projects were shutdown for weeks or months, leading to significant delays and the push-back of project milestones and completion dates. In addition, slowdowns in material deliveries, new job site procedures, and personnel exposure to the virus have further impacted schedules. All of these factors can put financial strains on developers, GCs, and subcontractors and can potentially lead to disputes with project owners who may seek liquidated damages or other contract-specified penalties for late completion of a construction project...
In late January of 2020, The Pestana Hotel Group opened its 100th hotel, Pestana Park Avenue. The 27-story, 96-room, 39,964-sf hotel is located on East 39th Street at the corner of Park Avenue in New York City. Pestana is Portugal's largest multi-national hotel chain, with properties located in 16 countries on four continents. Starting in late 2017, Beacon Consulting Group was retained by a leading international bank to provide construction loan monitoring services related to the project. For more than two years during the hotel's construction, Beacon's team helped the bank to keep a close eye on progress of the hotel's construction. Beacon project engineers visited the construction site on a regular basis, communicated closely with the team managing the project and provided regular "draw-down reports" to the bank...
To help our clients and partners keep up to date with the impacts Covid-19 is having on the construction industry, we are compiling links to new and recent news articles. Visit this news page regularly to see what is happening in various states...
Beacon has compiled a list of links to useful resources and sites related to the Coronavirus Pandemic / Covid-19. We will update this page periodically as new info and resources become available. Of course, it's important for us all to stay on top of what local recommendations and guidance is being issued.
Billionaire Elon Musk founded The Boring Company (TBC) in December of 2016 with the goal of greatly reducing the cost of building tunnels and tunnel-based transportation systems. Part of his inspiration for entering into the business was his frustration with gridlock traffic in Los Angeles and the general limitations of the world's current "2-dimensional, road-based" transportation networks. The company's focus has been on developing tunneling methods and designs with which will speed up the tunnel construction process while greatly reducing costs.
The Chuo Shinkansen project is a magnetic levitation ("maglev") railway project currently underway in Japan, being built by the Central Japan Railway Company. While Japan is famous for its high-speed bullet trains (which have been in operation since 1964), this new maglev train line will reportedly cut rail travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya by 50% when completed in 2027. With trains traveling faster than 265 mph, this will decrease the time for the 178-mile trip to just 40 minutes.
Just for fun, in celebration of Halloween, we compiled accounts of construction sites & other places across the U.S. which are (or were) rumored to be haunted or cursed.
