Reactions Mixed to Wicks Law Reform

Public officials hailed – and some construction industry leaders frowned upon – a long-awaited change to New York’s 86-year-old Wicks Law unveiled last week in a bid to reduce the cost of construction on most public projects. The proposed change will not affect larger-scale projects, however.

New York State’s top lawmakers agreed to revamp the law, which for years has been a heated topic of debate in Albany. The change is in the form of bills in the Assembly and Senate that leaders of both houses pledged to pass. The Senate bill was introduced as S. 6146.

The agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and leaders of the two chambers sets a higher monetary threshold for projects to fall under Wicks Law requirements, which mandates the issuing of four separate contracts for the major trades on publicly funded construction projects - typically general contracting, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing.

Originally enacted in 1921, the Wicks Law covers any public project costing more than $50,000 - a benchmark that was set in 1961 for state contracts and 1964 for local government contracts. With nearly all public projects coming in over that amount, many in the industry have blamed the law for driving up construction costs because it creates coordination difficulties among the major trades.

The new agreement will raise the cost threshold to $3 million downstate, $1.5 million in major suburban areas, and $500,000 upstate.

The changes will exempt about 70% of public projects from Wicks Law requirements and help save money for schools, local governments, and other public agencies, according to a statement from Spitzer. It also will allow contracting entities to avoid Wicks Law requirements through use of project labor agreements, unless the project is receiving federal dollars.

“This is a positive step forward in addressing the underlying structural problems that have negatively impacted our state’s competitiveness,” Spitzer says in the statement.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also issued a statement hailing the change, calling the older law “antiquated.”

“These important and long overdue changes…will make city construction faster, cheaper, and more efficient,” Bloomberg adds. “We will continue to support a full repeal of Wicks law, but I applaud state leaders for making major progress.”

But the General Building Contractors of New York State, an AGC chapter that represents 180 union and nonunion contractors in the state, stopped well short of praise for the agreement. The GBC released a legislative alert to its members contending that the changes would have a “significant negative impact” on the construction market.

N.J. Unveils Greener Design Manual

Public school design in New Jersey recently got a jolt of green thinking when the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation unveiled its revised 21st Century Schools Design Manual.

State school construction officials say they are aiming to encourage design of schools that will be more sustainable and durable, while fostering an efficient environment for classroom learning.

Another primary focus of the new manual is to shift to a performance-driven model from a prescriptive one. The revised version focuses on the end results of new schools, rather than on rigid criteria for design professionals to meet, says Dan Millen, director of architecture and engineering in the agency’s project management department.

After several years of using the agency’s original design manual, drafted in 2004, the latest version was “largely brought on by a community effort” with input from the industry, Millen says.

The new manual’s sustainable design focus may initially in more costly designs but aim to tap long-term efficiencies. It will also help the state’s design community become more versed in green design.

The new manual calls for designs that will be 14% more efficient than standards set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. It will encourage integrated design and efficiency measures, such as daylighting to reduce electric light, and thus energy, use.

“Integrated systems are more sustainable, comfortable and durable,” Millen says. 

While the schools construction agency is not requiring that new buildings officially certify new buildings under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, the updated manual follows its tenets and would result in LEED-certified structures.

NYPD to Build Two New Facilities

A new complex in the College Point section of Queens will consolidate multiple facilities now serving the New York Police Academy onto one campus.

Meanwhile, the city is also selecting designers for a new 9-1-1 call center in the Bronx to act as a mirror image and backup of its current center in Brooklyn.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office and the New York Police Department narrowed eight possible locations for the new academy down to a 30-acre NYPD tow pound at 129-05 31st Ave. in Queens. The new complex will include facilities for civilians, recruits, and active officers, which are currently spread across the city.

The new campus, for which the city plans to allocate $1 billion under the mayor’s capital plan, will include instructional space, administrative offices, indoor shooting ranges, a tactical village, driving training grounds, vehicle maintenance facilities, K-9 environments, and housing. The city expects to select a designer for the campus this year.

The city’s Department of Design and Construction will oversee construction of the project once the site goes through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, currently under way, and the city’s Environmental Quality Review. The agency will select a construction manager, with work slated to break ground in late 2009.

The current police academy’s main building in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan was constructed 43 years ago for a police force half the size of the current department, according to Bloomberg’s office. The department’s firearms training facility is in the Bronx, while the emergency vehicle operations course is in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, the design and construction agency has also issued a Request for Proposals for the design of a new Public Safety Answering Center in the Bronx. The proposed 400,000-sq-ft building at the intersection of Pelham Parkway and Hutchinson River Parkway, estimated to cost $700 million, will house a redundant 9-1-1 call center for the NYPD and city fire department.

The new facility will be a mirror image of and act as a backup for PSAC I in Brooklyn, which receives 10 million calls a year. DDC expected to select a design consultant for the core and shell of the building this summer and start design work in the fall.

New Jersey Transit has announced plans to construct a new passenger rail link between downtown Hackensack and the Main Line Station in Hawthorne, N.J.

Construction on the $156 million Passaic-Bergen rail service will begin in 2008, and transit officials say they hope to have the line open for business in 2010. The line will include a park-and-ride facility and up to nine stations to allow for convenient transfers between Main Line and Passaic-Bergen trains in Hawthorne, as well as connections to the Bergen County and Pascack Valley lines.

The new rail service is being designed by Transit Link Consultants, a joint venture of the Newark office of PB and the Bloomfield, N.J., office of SYSTRA Consulting. The new facilities are expected to alleviate traffic congestion along Route 4, Interstate 80, and the Garden State Parkway near the line. The proposed alignment of the system begins in Hawthorne and travels south and southeast through Paterson, Elmwood Park, Saddle Brook, Rochelle Park, Maywood, and Hackensack. N.J. Transit officials are projecting that about 1,800 riders per day will use the new line.

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