The General Election is November 4 - www.VoteTexas.gov

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

4th Annual C3 Golf Tournament at Wildcat Golf Course

11:00 a.m. - Registration; 12 p.m. - Shotgun Start (Lunch Provided); 4:30 p.m. - Awards Reception and Dinner

Sign up for the Construction Career Collaborative Golf Tournament on Monday, October 20, at the Wildcat Golf Club. Click here to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

Participants will learn notice deadlines and requirements for filing lien and bond claims; How to obtain forms to use for claims; How to obtain project information; How to avoid project information; How to avoid common problems with lien and bond claims; How to document a claim and what is is not covered by a lien or bond claim.

AGC Houston - Frontline Leadership is a six-session training program designed to equip new, current, or aspiring supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage and develop their people and projects. The format consists of six half-day modules that can be taken as stand-alone courses or as part of the series.

BIM Technology explores the major applications and classes of BIM tools across all project phases; how BIM processes for QTO, shop drawing and fabrication, and construction scheduling can improve projects; and the impact models have for improving estimating, scheduling, and coordinating.

Gain an awareness of how pre-project planning affects the potential success of a project and understand the different areas of planning for the construction phase of a project. Broaden your understanding of the impact building codes, permits, reviews and inspections can have on a project. Learn how Building Information Modeling (BIM), LEED, environmental issues and lean construction are impacting the construction industry.

This session will build on the Liens and Bonds speech with an advanced discussion of liens and how they are enforced. The session will also cover a variety of payment topics such as spotting important issues in joint check agreements, the new law related to releases and the construction trust fund act.

Attendees will review best practices to better protect themselves and others from hazards. Topics include confined space awareness overview, hazard control, hazard recognition and entering a permit-required confined space. Click here for information about the Spanish session.

One of the many goals of this course is to help students make better risk-informed decisions by introducing more structured decision-making processes that focuses on five critical, yet interrelated, steps. These steps are as follows: identifying potential undesired outcomes, assigning an order-of-magnitude consequence severity to each outcome, assigning an order-of-magnitude occurrence likelihood to each outcome, assessing total risk magnitude, and making riskinformed decisions based on assessed risk magnitudes.

This free training class focuses on preventing frequently cited construction hazards. The Focus Four Hazards in Construction are conducted as four-hour awareness training focusing on the greatest dangers of working on a construction site. Click here to learn more about the Spanish session.

This class addresses the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery or equipment, to prevent the release of hazardous energy while employees perform servicing or maintenance activities. Click here for information about the Spanish session.

This course covers the OSHA Standards, policies, and procedures in the construction industry. Topics include scope and application of the OSHA Construction Standards, construction safety and health principles, and special emphasis on those areas in construction that are most hazardous.

Please consider using the following members for your business needs:

Vote for your favorite APEX 11 construction projects! The judges cast their votes to select the 2014 APEX 11 Awards, and now it's your turn. We want you to vote for your favorite construction projects too.

In commercial construction, fabric panels systems seldom hit the radar when Fire Code compliance is considered. They usually come to light after an incident. Typically, Plan Review Departments within some major metropolitan areas focus primarily on the obvious considerations of occupancy, egress, exits, stairwells, sprinkler heads and strobes long before wall finishes and then, sometimes they are not considered or reviewed at all. The continual non-enforcement of fire ratings and testing on textiles or fabric panel systems contributes to the complacency about fire code compliance for those systems. The lack of enforcement may actually make it appear to some contractors and designers that the code is non-existent, but the code does exist.

October 29, 2014

Benefit from financial strength and superior loss control program. It is managed by a board comprised of CompGroup AGC members—general contractors and subcontractors from all parts of Texas are represented. It is a TDI-approved Workers' Compensation Purchasing Group.

Learn more about membership benefits in the CompGroup AGC, Inc. today! Contact your insurance agent or call Program Administrator Roberts & Crow at 800-406-9614 - ask for Julie Schatz.

The construction industry has been booming with the completion of some outstanding projects and it's time to show them off! Apply today for the 2015 Alliant Build America competition or the 2015 AGC in the Community competition. All member companies in good standing who meet the competition requirements are encouraged to apply and receive some well-deserved recognition for the hard work and dedication that goes into each project.

We're excited to announce new AGC Houston emblem stickers available to all members! Show your AGC pride. Contact AGC Houston today at (713) 843-3700 and get hard hat stickers while they last. They're free for members!

 

"The AGC Alternative," the first of its kind, nationwide private insurance exchange to serve the commercial construction industry, begins offering firms belonging to the Associated General Contractors of America quotes today.

A final rule announced September 11, 2014, requires employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.

Under the revised rule, employers will be required to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released its final rule implementing Executive Order 13658 (EO), which establishes a minimum wage of $10.10 per hour for direct federal prime contractors and subcontractors at all tiers. That $10.10 minimum wage must be adjusted annually for inflation. The new minimum wage will take effect on direct federal agency contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1, 2015.

AGC's Construction HR and Training Professionals Conference provides two days of education and networking for HR, training and workforce development professionals in the construction industry. Educational sessions cover the most cutting-edge techniques in training and development currently in use and envisioned for the future in the industry.

San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk
San Antonio, Texas

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Cooper Guest Lodge

Caesar's Palace

Congratulations to Charlene Anthony, Senior Director - Construction Futures, Education, who recently celebrated a 10-year anniversary at AGC Houston.

The ACE Mentor Program of Houston invites you to join in The Third Annual Build It Forward Event. This event brings together students involved in the ACE Mentor Program and industry-wide professionals. For more information and to learn how you can get involved, please click here.

Industry experts say two of the biggest challenges facing Houston’s construction industry are the rising cost of building materials and a strained labor market, where builders are reporting that their competitors are poaching workers from their job sites, and the challenges are predicted to continue. While costs have steadily increased since 2012, they went up significantly in Houston during the past year with high demand, labor shortages, concrete shortages, long lead times for critical components, and subcontractor fees and unavailability among the drivers of the cost surges, according to Houston-based Kirksey Architecture’s 2014 Construction Cost report.

Two Houston school districts and a college system are putting new construction bonds to the vote next month, and, if passed, could collectively add $1.47 billion of construction projects to a busy market already fiercely competing for labor and materials. In November, voters served by Katy ISD and Lamar CISD as well as the Lone Start College System will consider multimillion-dollar bonds.

Office space under construction in Houston has increased by about 54 percent during the past 12 months. More than half of that space is leased or committed, with large tenants that are moving or expanding taking the bulk of the space. About 5.4 million square feet of new space is expected to deliver by the end of the year, which will bring the yearly delivery total to 10.8 million square feet — far exceeding last year’s delivery total of 3.2 million square feet. In response to the construction boom, Houston added more construction jobs to its market than any other major metro in the country from August 2013 to August 2014, according to a survey conducted by The Associated General Contractors of America.

The RSA/RDA lecture series, Near Future, brings to Houston five visionaries from a mix of professions whose creative work attempts to forecast the future. AGC is proud to have been a Corporate Supporter of the Rice Design Alliance for the past 24 years.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced the results of a study of job postings from across the United States, revealing that demand for the LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) and LEED Green Associate credentials grew 46 percent during a 12-month period. Top fields being advertised included available positions in mechanical, electrical and civil engineering; construction management; architecture; software development; sales management; property management; and interior design, among others.

The increased coverage around Obamacare and the state’s strong economy has led to more people being covered under employer insurance, which has played a role in bringing the number of uninsured down. However, due to Texas' lack of a comprehensive Medicaid program, the state has seen a much larger drop in the percentage of uninsured. This will begin to affect employers, especially those who hire low-income, uninsured workers. Employer penalties for uninsured employees will start in 2015. Dr. Vivian Ho of the Baker Institute states, "If these workers aren't insured, it’s more people these employers will have to take a penalty for because it’s expected the employers should provide insurance for uninsured people."

The Texas Supreme Court recently issued a blockbuster opinion affirming the limited scope of no-damages for delay clauses. The Court recognized the traditional exceptions to the enforcement of no-damages-for-delay clauses. These include an owner’s "active interference" with a contractor "or other wrongful conduct," including "arbitrary and capricious acts." The Court reasoned that the purpose of such exceptions is to "preclude a party from insulating himself from liability for his own deliberate, wrongful conduct." No longer is there uncertainty about the applicability of the traditionally recognized exceptions to no damages clauses. Texas now falls in line with the majority of states.