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News you can Use

 

Rep. Cyrier, second from left on first row, with AGC Houston members during the 2017 Legislative Day in Austin.

Texas House Rep. John Cyrier (R-Lockhart) has been appointed to sit on the state Sunset Advisory Commission for the next four years and will chair the 12-member board for the next two years as it reviews and decides the fate of more than 130 state agencies.

AGC member Rep. Cyrier is the former chairman of AGC Austin and current owner and founder of Austin-based commercial general contracting company Sabre Commercial, Inc.

House Speaker Dennis Bonnen called Rep. Cyrier a "champion for Texas' rich natural and recreational resources," specifically citing Rep. Cyrier's role in helping pass a constitutional amendment last year that ensures money from sales taxes at sporting goods stores goes to funding the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Read more.

The Inflation Adjustment Act requires the Department of Labor to annually adjust its civil monetary penalties to adjust for inflation no later than January 15 of each year. This final rule increases civil penalties the Department of Labor assesses, including those issued by OSHA based on workplace inspections and potential violations of safety and health standards. 
 
Employers who have open and ongoing OSHA inspections can expect that any citations issued by OSHA after today will reflect the increased penalties.
The new 2020 maximum OSHA penalties are as follows:
Other-than-Serious: $13,494 (increased from $13,260)
Serious: $13,494 (increased from $13,260)
Repeat : $134,937 (increased from $132,589)
Willful: $134,937 (increased from $132,589)

AGC Houston Is Proud to Support the 2020 Census to Ensure that People in the Houston Community Are Accurately Counted and Represented.

For the first time, in 2020 the U.S. Census Bureau will accept responses online. The process will be quick and secure. You can respond to the census in less time than it takes to finish your morning coffee. You’ll still be able to respond by mail. To learn more about what to expect, visit 2020census.gov

Investors injected $3.1 billion into technology startups last year as a way to solve construction industry problems, Jennifer Alsever writes. That investment in technology from scheduling software to robots leads to difficulty in getting construction crews from foremen to frontline workers on board, she notes.
Slack & Co. Contracting, Inc.
Andrews Myers, PC
Education/Training

Just One Week Left to Submit Scholarship Applications!

No fees required.

Application Requirements Include:

Applicant must be employed by an AGC Houston member firm; or
Applicant is a dependent of an individual employed by an AGC Houston member firm; or
Applicant is an active AGC Student Chapter member.

Click here for full details.

AGC News
  

LAS VEGAS - MARCH 9-12 - The Bellagio Resort & Casino

The largest convention dedicated to the construction industry!

The AGC Annual Convention provides contractors of all sizes with the opportunity to gain business-critical insights into the issues affecting their operations.

Check out all the details.

Attention AGC Houston members! Applications for the Patrick J. Kiley Excellence in Leadership Scholarship are now open! The AGC Houston scholarship program has awarded over 168 scholarships totaling $512,000 to students pursuing construction-related careers.
The deadline to submit your application is January 31. 
Although the 2020 primary season does not officially kick off until March, three seats in the Texas House will be filled this month, as candidates from both parties square off to fill positions vacated by Democrats. Early voting for the January 28 elections began on January 21.
 
AGC Texas Building Branch highlights the state's political landscape here.
AGC of America's Chief Economist Ken Simonson released  a full report on the construction industry's year-end outlook and projections for 2020.
 
According to the Data Digest newsletter, construction employment rose by 20,000 for the month and 145,000 (2.0%) year-over-year (y/y) to 7,551,000, the most since October 2007. Average hourly earnings in construction rose 2.3% y/y to $31.11, 9.9% above the average for all private-sector employees ($28.32, a 3.1% y/y increase). The unemployment rate in construction, not seasonally adjusted, dipped from 5.1% in December 2018 to 5.0%, and the number of unemployed jobseekers with construction experience inched down from 493,000 to 489,000 — the lowest December levels in the 20-year history of both series.
Knight Security
Mustang Cat
Events

Feb. 11 - AGC Advocacy Sporting Clays Tournament

Keep AGC In Your Sight and Register Today!

Greater Houston Gun Club - 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Whether you are a novice or a seasoned enthusiast, enjoy a morning of shooting fun and your chance to win some great prizes! Sponsorship, raffle and registration details here

 

29th Annual Barbecue Cook-Off & Fair March 27-28

Constellation Field, Sugar Land

Sigining up cook teams and sponsors! Grab your aprons and fire up the barbecue pits as we take over Constellation Field's parking lot for two days! View the full details here.

PLEASE NOTE: We do NOT sell tickets to this event. You must be invited by a cook team or sponsor to attend.

This year's charity: Paws for Heroes

Member News
  

 
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. recently completed construction of the Southwest Airlines Technical Operations Maintenance Hangar project at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. The new hangar houses up to six 737 aircraft and has paved aircraft parking areas, aircraft wash facilities, taxiway connections, parking and loading docks.
 
The overall construction program consisted of six projects including the construction of a new duct bank for Houston Airport System and Federal Aviation Administration communications; site demolition of several existing structures; relocation of the airport’s Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS); relocation of two navigation aids; construction of a 20-acre stormwater management facility for flood control; and ultimately the construction of the hangar. McCarthy self-performed the earth work, utilities and concrete on the project. Preconstruction began in October 2017 and work on the hangar began in spring 2018.
 
Approximately 140,000 square feet of the facility is hangar space to accommodate six Boeing 737 aircraft for simultaneous maintenance; the remaining 100,000 square feet of facility space encompasses offices, parts storage and other support areas including a seat shop, parts fabrication area and paint booth. Outside the hangar is 450,000 square feet of apron paving, two wash stations as well as locations for four future wash stations.

Aggregate Technologies recounts bridge damage and column repair.
Torrential rain over Texas from Tropical Storm Imelda flooded the San Jacinto River. Between 11 and 14 barges came unmoored, and some collided with the Interstate 10 bridge. The highway was closed while inspectors surveyed the damage, finding at least one column destroyed and another column severely damaged.

On the damaged 66-inch diameter column, five feet of the column above the water and 10 feet below needed to have the damaged concrete removed while preserving the rebar. 

Read More

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts
Cadence McShane Construction Company LLC
Membership Benefits

Redeeming this private offer is simple!

  1. Provide proof of AGC membership: print your membership information from the online AGC Membership Directory, or call AGC Houston to verify.
  2. Visit your Chevrolet, Buick or GMC dealer and mention this Private Offer (Incentive Code: FCP).
Safety
  

Join Us Friday, Jan. 31 for the First Safety Committee Meeting of the Year!

Breakfast sponsored by Enrique Garza, Compliance Safety Consulting

We will hear from a Houston Fire Dept. Arson Investigator about fire prevention and lessons learned from the Houston Arson Bureau, and CompGroup's Julie Shatz will talk about how recordable injuries impact your bottom line. Plus, new safety devices, OSHA updates and more!


7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Contact Kim Mason for details.

Here's Looking at You

Pictured from left are Steven Swinson, President & CEO, Thermal Energy Corporation; John Barnes, Rogers-O’Brien Construction; Paul Wilhelms, Senior Associate, Gensler; and Manoj Adwaney, PE, Principal, Walter P Moore. At right, Leadership AGC participants tour the facility.

Early this morning, Leadership AGC Class of 2020 participants headed to the Thermal Energy Corporation headquarters in the heart of the Texas Medical Center and spent a memorable time discovering this unique facility. They also heard from panelists Steven Swinson, President & CEO, Thermal Energy Corporation; John Barnes, Rogers-O’Brien Construction; Paul Wilhelms, Senior Associate, Gensler; Manoj Adwaney, PE, Principal, Walter P Moore; Patrick Kiley, FMI Corp.; and Abbey Roberson, VP of Planning, Texas Medical Center.

"The people of TECO take their mission seriously as it is aligned with all the missions of the medical institutions in the Texas Medical Center: to save lives," stated Charlene Anthony, AGC Houston. This is the fourth year in which Leadership AGC class participants have taken part in touring this exceptional facility and it continuously receives top marks as one of the program's best modules.

"AGC Houston is grateful to TECO for opening their doors to us," stated Anthony. "This facility shows the  impact  great contractors like Paul Bell and George Bellows still have on the largest medical center in the world.They were the masterminds behind TECO."

The plant was originally built and operated by Houston Natural Gas in 1969 to serve St. Luke’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital. In 1975, the Texas Medical Center helped bring many of the institutions together to create TECO.

The TECO plant produces thermal energy — chilled water and steam — in a closed loop system for 50 buildings and 16 different institutions in the Texas Medical Center, reusing and recycling everything it pushes out. This energy-efficient system means that individual institutions do not have to house and operate their own cooling and heating equipment. With approximately 36 miles of pipe, TECO is the largest district energy chilled water system in North America.

In his annual economic outlook address to the Houston chapter members of the Society for Marketing Professional Services on January 14, 2020, Patrick Kiley, FMI, delivered a positive economic picture for the city and Texas. In spite of being in an election year, and one he described as fraught with VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), Kiley’s upbeat message was based on data and research gathered from various resources including FMI, the Greater Houston Partnership, The Perryman Group, and the Texas Medical Center, to name a few.

Read the full article

“Strokes are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of disability,” stated Dr. James Grotta, Director of Stroke Research and Mobile Stroke Unit Memorial Hermann Hospital. Dr. Grotta delivered an eye-opening presentation to AGC Houston members at the Patrick J. Kiley Distinguished Speakers series on January 15, 2020.

In 2014, Dr. Grotta  helped to launch the first Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU)  in the nation — an ambulance that contains a CT scanner and trained personnel that can diagnose and deliver acute stroke treatment directly to a victim. The idea to bring an ambulance to stroke victims was an innovative approach to quickly treating patients in the first hour after an onset of stroke symptoms.

Learning to detect the signs of a stroke victim can help identify the onset of an attack.

Dr. Grotta urged the attendees to “remember the acronym FAST:"

Face drooping: If the person tries to smile, does one side of the face droop?
Arm weakness: If the person tries to raise both their arms, does one arm drift downward?
Speech difficulty: If the person tries to repeat a simple phrase, is their speech slurred or strange?
Time to call 911: If any of these signs are observed, contact the emergency services.

To help keep the brain-saving and life-saving MSU in operation while Dr. Grotta’s team works to make a case to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers, please contact him at: James.C.Grotta@uth.tmc.edu or contact Kirsten Schachter at Memorial Hermann Foundation at: Kirsten.Schachter@MemorialHermann.org, or call 713-242-4414. 

Click here to read the full article.

 

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