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N.Y. Building Congress Urges Better Power Planning
The organization’s energy committee releases a new statement regarding New York’s vulnerability to power failures. Also, the GBC recognizes New York’s safest contractors.
Building Congress Calls for Smarter Power Plan
New York City is increasingly vulnerable to potentially devastating power failures as use of the Internet continues to grow along with businesses and consumer technology needs, according to a report released by the energy committee of the New York Building Congress.
The committee’s document calls for both New York City and state government officials to pursue a series of interdependent steps, such as increasing the electricity supply, ensuring reliable distribution, and enhancing conservation measures.
It also suggests that N.Y.C. Mayor Michael Bloomberg convene a CEO-level public-private leadership group to provide him with an ongoing and comprehensive energy agenda for the city. The group would be tasked with developing an immediate game plan to address projected power shortages in the coming years, as well as provide a road map for accommodating future demand.
The committee’s additional recommendations include: adopting new state legislation to speed the siting and approval process for new power plants; increasing the availability of financial capital for power projects; promoting access to cleaner fuels and creating better incentives for energy efficiency; improving “intelligence” on the grid by using technology to track infrastructure performance in real time; and assisting with the improvement of transmission and distribution networks. It noted that many Queens residents who lost power for up to a week during a summer heat wave lived “across the street” from functioning power plants.
GBC Issues Safety Honors
Eleven construction companies from across the state have been named the 2006 winners of the General Building Contractors of New York State’s annual Hard Hat Awards, which honor construction safety excellence.
The program recognizes firms that, among other requirements, have a workers’ compensation experience modification rate of 1.0 or less. The GBC awards go beyond statistics to also judge each company’s written safety program, review safety efforts in the workplace, compare the five-year OSHA 200 history, and conduct unannounced job site inspections of candidates for the award.
The winners this year are:
• BBL Construction Services of Albany
• Darlind Construction of LaGrangeville
• Charles A. Gaetano Construction of Utica
• E.W. Howell of Woodbury
• LECESSE Construction of West Henrietta
• LeChase Construction Services of Rochester
• Lehigh Construction Group of Orchard Park
• Northeast Construction Services of Syracuse
• Pike Co. of Rochester
• Sano-Rubin Construction of Albany, and
• Turner Construction of New York.
NYMTC Earns Excellence Award
The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration honored the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, an association of government agencies and transportation providers in New York City and surrounding counties, with the 2006 Transportation Planning Excellence award for its work in modeling traveling patterns.
The biennial awards program that the two federal agencies sponsor recognizes outstanding initiatives from across the country to develop, plan, and implement innovative transportation planning practices. An independent panel of judges selects the award winners.
Another award went to the New Jersey Department of Transportation for its Smart Transportation program, which incorporates integrated land use and transportation planning studies and develops “transit villages” that help to mitigate growth and traffic demand.
The agencies also gave an honorable mention to the Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study agency in Broome County, N.Y., for its “Transportation Tomorrow 2030 - Placemaking for Prosperity” initiative, which looks at how transportation development can help economically challenged communities with declining populations.
ORT Bestows Community Awards
American ORT’s Engineering & Construction Industry Chapter presented its Community Achievement Awards to several leaders in the regional building sector at its annual Tribute Luncheon held recently at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York.
The community achievement award recognizes individuals who have substantially improved the quality of life for fellow citizens as role models or as innovators.
The award winners included Thomas Iovino, founder and CEO of Judlau Contracting; Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection; and Raymond Pocino, vice president and eastern regional manager of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
ASA Honors New Jersey Leaders
The American Subcontractor’s Association of New Jersey recently hosted its 35th Annual Black Tie Awards Dinner at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany, N.J., honoring several companies and individuals whose contributions have bettered the construction industry by achieving higher levels of professionalism.
Among this year’s honorees are LN Rothberg & Son of Middlesex, N.J., which was named Subcontractor of the Year, and VRH Construction of Englewood, N.J., which was named General Contractor of the Year. In addition, the association named Anheuser Busch of St. Louis as Construction User of the Year and Mack-Cali Realty of Cranford, N.J., as Developer of the Year.
The association also honored Joseph Natoli of Joseph A. Natoli Construction of Pine Brook, N.J., with a Lifetime Achievement Award; named John Malcolm, business manager of Ironworkers 480 of Union County, N.J., its Labor Leader of the Year; and gave GAR Equipment of South Plainfield, N.J., its Distinguished Service Award.
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