Free Republic

<p>Giant projects such as the reconstruction of 1 World Trade Center, or Freedom Tower (pictured), always end up costing more than the original estimates because “that’s just part of the way the world works,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.</p> <p>“It would be really naive on any big project to say it’s never going to come in for more,” Bloomberg said.</p>

Single-family originations will likely dip in 2012 because of fewer refinances, according to Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac. The market will see a refinance burnout, Nothaft said, with a dwindling pool of eligible borrowers and higher mortgage rates by the second half of 2012. Nothaft projects $1.3 trillion in single-family mortgage originations in 2011, compared to $1.14 trillion in 2012 and $1.07 trillion in 2013. The Freddie Mac projections for 2012 come as a Pew Research Center study showed a record-low number of adults married in the U.S. About 51% of all adults were married as of 2010,...

Made In America (Video of home built entirely of American made products)

Pyongyang's construction drive said to kill hundreds of college students 2011-11-29 14:26 North Korean college students have reportedly died in a spate of accidents at construction sites amid intense efforts by Pyongyang to prepare for a milestone political event next year, a source familiar with the issue said Tuesday. The alleged accidents sparked rumors that an estimated 200 college students have died at various construction sites in the North's showcase capital city of Pyongyang, the source said. He did not elaborate on the alleged deaths and asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity. The development comes as the...

This is not some set left over from The Lord of the Rings. This hobbit house is an honest-to-goodness man-sized home. Not only does it fit a family of four, but it cost just over $4,650 to build.

White House reporters have tried all their sneakiest reporter tricks to find out what is really going on behind the green construction wall on the North Lawn. The 44 blog recently witnessed one journalist trying to extract details from a utility worker, to no avail. Trucks come and go from the White House construction site, their company logos covered for security. There is jackhammering, and digging. The cement truck tires get washed off before they leave the site -- no one wants a messy White House driveway.

Outlays for U.S. construction projects rose 1.4% in August on public and private spending gains...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected overall construction spending to decline 0.3%

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Builders started construction on fewer new homes in August, government data showed Tuesday, underscoring how the depressed U.S. real estate market shows little sign of recovering. Housing starts fell 5% to an annual rate of 571,000 last month, compared with a downwardly revised 601,000 in July, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected housing starts to fall to 590,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes dipped slightly in September to remain in very low territory, according to an index released Monday. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell by a point to 14, on a seasonally adjusted index where readings above 50 are considered good. The index, which correlates closely with single-family housing starts, has held between 13 and 16 for the last six months.

Vladivostok Teeming with N.Korean Laborers In the scorching afternoon heat last Thursday, two Asian laborers sat in front of a grocery store near a building site in Vladivostok, Russia, cooling themselves with mugs of draft beer. When asked if they were North Koreans, the men asked, "Are you from South Korea?" One of the laborers, who was in his 40s, then said there were around 50 workers from all over North Korea, including Pyongyang and Nampo, at this particular site alone, and they can be seen at practically every construction site in Vladivostok. The entire Siberian city has turned into...

/begin my excerpts N. Korean Colleges in 'Shutdown,' and Did Not Even Admit Freshman Class Yang Hee-jung, Washington 2011-08-03 Last week, after returning from his visit to N. Korean colleges, a Russian expert on Korean affairs criticized the extended shutdown of colleges in Pyongyang from June this year to April next year in an attempt to build 'Strong and Powerful Nation,' calling it a waste of human resources unheard of even in socialist Russia(Soviet Union?.) Yang Hee-jung reports: Georgy Toloraya, Director of Korean Programs at Russian Academy of Sciences, said that it does not help producing N. Korea's professional talents...

N.Korean Students Forced into Construction Labor Some 100,000 North Korean college students have been press-ganged into construction work. "The regime is trying to finish redevelopment of the Mansudae District in Pyongyang by April next year," a source familiar with North Korean internal affairs said on Monday. "Because it couldn't finish construction before the deadline, the regime ordered colleges in Pyongyang and other major cities last month to close for 10 months and drafted students to construction sites." The regime twice before changed the academic calendar for a "200-day struggle" in 1988 and an "Arirang" mass calisthenics performance in 2008. But...

Arizona lawmakers want to erect a fence along the border with Mexico - whether the federal government thinks it's necessary or not. They've got a plan that could get a project started using online donations and prison labour. If they get enough money, all they would have to do is get cooperation from landowners and construction could begin as soon as this year. Governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill that sets the state on a course to building a permanent barrier along its borders, and a website is being launched to raise money for the work.

The federal government is stepping up efforts to relieve overcrowding in public schools, and it is merging those efforts with a concomitant infusion of educational technology and equipment—on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MOE), that is, in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

~ EXCERPT ~ Both short and long-term confidence in the U.S. housing market continue to fall, with homeowners now expressing the highest level of pessimism in two years. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 15% of homeowners expect the value of their home to go up in the next year while 33% expect the opposite and think the value of their home will decline. The current figures reflect more pessimism than a month ago when 19% were optimistic and 30% pessimistic about the value of their home over the next year. Looking longer term, only 39%...

Sam Zell: Obamacare And Dodd-Frank Are Economy-Killing Monstrosities, And There Won't Be New Construction For Years Joe Weisenthal Mar. 3, 2011, 7:39 AM Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell is on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning. Like many guests, he's furious at the Obama administration over Dodd-Frank and Obamacare, both of which he regards as economy-killing, uncertainty-creating monstrosities that ought to be repealed. He considers the odds of repeal to be 0%. As for commercial real estate, his wheelhouse, he doesn't see any significant construction for the next 2-3 years, at least. Update: He continues to slam US policy, saying...

SIERRA VISTA — The importance of Fort Huachuca can be seen with the number of new construction projects which will start soon and future ones planned for upcoming years, Brig. Gen. Gregg Potter said Thursday. New facilities, worth $15 million for the Army’s Gray Eagle Unmanned Aerial System training, is a year out from opening and a $6 million replacement fire station will be occupied in May 2012, said Potter, who commands the Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca. Making his comments at a dinner of the Fort Huachuca 50, an organization which for the past 23 years has...

President Barack Obama unveiled a $37 billion budget blueprint that calls for $640 million in military construction projects at installations in Texas, including $315 million for Army and Air Force projects at Fort Sam Houston, Lackland AFB and Randolph AFB in San Antonio.The amount of Pentagon-proposed military projects in the state is far below the $1.1 billion sought last year, but represents the end of a building boom created by the 2005 base closure process and the transfer of Army troops from overseas installations to Fort Bliss and Fort Hood.

Dallas-based Primoris Services Corp. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, James Construction Group LLC, has been awarded five contracts — worth about $89 million — for highway infrastructure work and projects related to the construction of natural gas production facilities in Louisiana and Texas. Primoris moved its headquarters to Dallas from California earlier this month.

Bones delay Blue Island stadium By Steve Metsch smetsch@southtownstar.com Jan 18, 2011 02:31AM Blue Island Park District Commissioner John Spizzirri isn’t joking when he calls the hill at Blue Island’s Memorial Park, “Curse Hill.” Over the past year, the construction of a new stadium there has been delayed by weather, building woes and, yes, bones. Human bones. “We didn’t find any full skeletons,” said park board president Fred Bilotto. “It’s all pieces. A femur here. A rib there.” Construction workers discovered the bones in September while excavating for the foundation of a new football stadium at the park. When the...

The stretch of U.S. 65 between Ozark and Branson (MO)has some of the Ozarks’ most impressive scenery. There are lush, rolling hills, distant horizons and, if you look east, one of the biggest homes in the United States. A house currently under construction near Highlandville spans almost a full acre from wall to wall, on a 500-acre site. The ambitious project, nearly three years in and barely at the first floor, totals 72,000 square feet. Putting that figure in perspective might require a few comparisons. According to the Census Bureau, the average new home size over the last five years...

Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the workers were unaccounted for. Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the...

The McMansion, the mass-produced, super-sized home that saw its heyday earlier this decade, is poised to resurrect itself from the ashes of the real estate collapse. A few months ago, real estate site Trulia declared, "The McMansion Era is Over." Just 9 percent of the people surveyed by the site said their ideal home was more than 3,200 square feet. That news came on top of data from the National Home Builders Association that the median size of new homes dropped from 2,268 square feet in 2006 to 2,100 square feet in 2009. The implication is that the recession has...

A 15-story hotel in Shanghai, China was built in six days, according to ArchDaily. What's even more impressive is that this building is apparently "Level 9 Earthquake Resistant." CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO OF ITs CONSTRUCTION

  For union officials who wanted to line their pockets with benefit payments intended for members, Joseph Olivieri was the man to see. Now they will have to go elsewhere. This Wednesday a Manhattan federal jury found Olivieri, ex-executive director of the Long Island-based Association of Wall, Ceiling & Carpentry Industries (WC&C), guilty of perjury in a case that underscored the extent of Genovese crime family control of New York City-area construction contractors and unions. As part of the Justice Department racketeering probe, former Carpenters & Joiners District boss Michael Forde and eight other defendants already had pled guilty....

A plan to install what would have been North America’s largest living wall on the west facade of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland has been deemed too risky, and too expensive, by the General Services Administration. Portland’s SERA Architects and Cutler Anderson Architects of Bainbridge Island, Wash., received international attention for proposing 250-foot-tall vegetated “fins” to shade the federal building’s west side. The building’s energy performance is tied to the amount of shade it receives throughout the day, according to Don Eggleston, president of SERA Architects. However, because of concerns about high costs of installation and potential...

And here you thought bedbugs were the biggest source of anxiety for hotel guests. Yes, guests at Vdara hotel in Las Vegas now have something else to worry about: being burned alive by the glare of the building's "death ray." What the heck's a "death ray," you ask? Well, first off, it's not as deadly as it sounds, since no one has actually died from it -- at least not yet. But according to the U.K. Daily Mail, the powerful beams of Nevada sunlight reflecting off the glass hotel onto sections of the hotel's swimming pool area have burned some...

A $7.25 million, 850-foot pedestrian bridge and guardhouse for the Volkswagen plant won approval from a city panel Tuesday. The steel-and-glass structure, more than one-quarter the length of the Walnut Street Bridge that spans the Tennessee River, will serve as the main entrance to the auto plant. The pedestrian bridge, paid from city, Hamilton County and state funds as part of the automaker’s incentive package, will cross over a stream and one of VW’s vehicle test tracks and negotiate a steep change in elevation at the site, officials said. “It will be an extraordinary bridge,” said Steve Leach, the city’s...

Peace Now: At least 2,000 W. Bank units have foundations laid, ready to be built as freeze expires; 11,000 ready for construction without further gov't approval. More than 13,000 settlement housing units in the West Bank are ready for construction once the building moratorium ends on September 26th and at least 2,000 are ready for immediate construction, according to a report by Peace Now released on Sunday. According to the report, 2,066 units in the West Bank have either had construction permits approved or their ground works already laid. Peace Now said that hundreds of additional units, whose foundations have...

HUAIAN COUNTY, CHINA—So you think struggling home from Ontario’s cottage country was tough? Think again. And consider, if you will, the case of Chinese trucker Pang Laisuo. On Sunday his coal-laden transport truck was caught in a traffic jam near here, about 240 kilometres north of Beijing. Pang knew he’d have something of a wait. What he didn’t know was that it would last 18 hours. “Everyone who pulled up at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon ended up being stuck there until 10 o’clock Monday morning,” says Pang, a lean and grizzled man in his 50s speaking at a roadside stop...

Note: Video included. "Bin Laden's Son Is Hospitalized After He Hears His Father's Voice Omar Bin Laden Is Treated for Schizophrenia, Wife Asks for Divorce" July 9, 2010 SNIPPET: ""It's true that he was put on medication but released himself early," said a spokesman for Zeina Al Sabah, Omar's wife. The spokesman confirmed that Omar had bipolar disorder and was on anti-depressants." SNIPPET: ""Omar loves and hates Osama at the same time," she said." SNIPPET: "Omar, 29, has denounced his father's terrorist tactics and ideology. But he still maintains an emotional bond..." SNIPPET: "Much of Osama Bin Laden's family, comprising...

A nine-day traffic jam outside Beijing has drivers fuming, street vendors turning a quick profit and Chinese traffic authorities struggling for answers. Traffic has been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on a 100-kilometer stretch of National Expressway 110 that runs between Beijing and Heibei province. Officials say the jam is caused by an increase in trucks carrying goods to Beijing and by highway maintenance work along the route. Highways have become numerous and complicated in and around Beijing in recent years as the Chinese public has made a large shift to motorized travel over the past 30 years....

(07-29) 16:28 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- A construction worker has died after being buried under 11 feet of dirt at a Pacific Palisades home. Los Angeles Assistant Fire Chief Terry Manning says the man was buried in a trench during an excavation shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday morning. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/29/state/n143938D50.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0v8Fv9KJ4

The American Institute of Architects’ midyear look at nonresidential construction concludes that new development spending likely to fall more than 20% this year -- significantly more than forecasters predicted six months ago -- with hotel and office construction down by more than 43% and 29%, respectively. Even with a modest U.S. economic recovery under way, overall nonresidential spending is expected to drop 20.3% for 2010 - nearly 30% for private commercial development -- before edging up an inflation-adjusted 3.1% in 2011, according to the AIA’s semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation’s leading construction forecasters. Manufacturing facilities will...

On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained 25 illegal aliens who attempted to enter Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, SC. All of the were carrying fake identification and worked for a contractor doing work on the base. According to ICE, two of the illegal aliens were being held in the Charleston County Jail, as they were wanted on other charges. The other 23 were released pending deportation hearings. The foreign nationals were working for Palacio Drywall of Cornelius. The company is being used as a subcontractor for Caddel Construction Co. of Montgomery, Alabama.

For the seventh month in a row, the price of construction materials and supplies increased in May, rising 0.7 percent, according to the June 16 producer price index report by the U.S. Labor Department. Prices are 5.9 percent higher from May 2009. (See Analysis below)

6/15/2010 - QALAT CITY, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Airmen and Soldiers are encouraging Afghan government officials to determine their own priorities for construction projects that will benefit people in the Zabul province. "We recognized a need for the people of Zabul to be connected with their government and the desire of the population to build trust with their government," said Capt. Matthew Joseph, the Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul lead engineer. "As a team, we are partnering with Afghan leaders to better use our time and resources to serve the people of Afghanistan." PRT Zabul leads 14 projects in the province including...

"A combination of factors, including still tight credit and high commercial vacancy rates, conspired to reverse what had been growing construction employment momentum." —ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu Employment in the nation’s nonresidential construction industry fell by 4,200 jobs in May after an across-the-board jobs gain the previous month, according to June 4 employment report by the U.S. Labor Department. Since May 2009, the nonresidential building construction sector has lost 55,400 jobs, or 7.5 percent, and the employment stands at 684,300.

What kind of holes you ask? Boy howdy, try holes in really thick steel, such as, um, railroad track. No kidding, see for yourself. I know not what size cartridge they use to do this, but I doubt it is a .22!

TODAY Al Gore is expected to join some of the city’s top developers and bankers for the grand opening of the luminous office tower known as 1 Bryant Park — the second-tallest building in New York City and, with a handsome foyer and a roster of prominent tenants, a ray of hope in a gloomy commercial real estate market. But beyond its height and tenancy rates, 1 Bryant Park is slated to be the only office tower in the nation to draw the United States Green Building Council’s highest level of certification — platinum — in its Leadership in Energy...

Yishai tells Shas daily that he has clarified this stance to the U.S., and plans to expedite construction in the capital. Interior Minister Eli Yishai declared Thursday that Israel had not agreed to freeze construction in East Jerusalem, adding that American demands to do so would never be met. "There is not and never has been a freeze on construction in Jerusalem, nor will there ever be," said Yishai, whose approval of a 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit in March sparked tension in U.S.-Israeli ties.

Construction of new housing for Jews in east Jerusalem will press forward, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser illustrated in a statement on Monday. This drew Palestinian accusations that the plans could undermine newly relaunched peace talks. "Building is expected to begin soon in Har Homa ... and Neve Yaakov, where (construction) bids have been issued," Hauser told Army Radio, referring to two east Jerusalem neighborhoods. "Building in Jerusalem is continuing according to its regular pace."

KB Home posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as prices and demand for its houses sagged and expenses climbed. The top-five U.S. builder, said its loss narrowed to $54.7 million for the first quarter ended February 28, from $58.1 million a year earlier. Revenue slumped 14 percent to $264 million and selling, general and administrative expenses rose 18 percent to $72.2 million. But Chief Executive Jeff Mezger said the company is positioned to make a profit in the second half ofthe year as higher-margin homes on cheaper land make up an increasingly bigger percentage of its sales. In the...

/22/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Construction on a new 2.7-mile pipeline to bolster ground refueling operations for the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing began March 17 at a non-disclosed base here. The $5.7 million project calls for the construction of an above-ground 8-inch carbon steel pipeline from the existing tanker truck offload facility to the bulk storage fuels area operated by the 380th Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight staff. Capt. Timothy Frank, from the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron who helped coordinate the project, said it was awarded with 2009 military construction supplemental funds. This pipeline improvement is the...

The construction unemployment rate jumped to 27.1% and construction employment dropped to a 14-year low as another 64,000 construction workers lost jobs in February, according to federal employment figures released recently. The industry's job losses in February were consistent with the prior six months and not mainly attributable to exceptionally bad weather, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Arlington, Va. Simonson added that construction unemployment is at the highest level recorded since the federal government began making the data available in 1976. And he noted that non-residential construction experienced significantly more job...

1,600 housing units in east J'lem approved Interior Ministry's District Committee for Planning and Construction approves expansion in Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, located beyond Green Line while US Vice President Joe Biden in Jerusalem to promote peace talks with Palestinians. Ministry source says timing coincidental Ronen Medzini Published: 03.09.10, 18:13 / Israel News US Vice President Joe Biden is in the region to reignite the peace process, but the Interior Ministry seems unmoved by the political statements made and on Tuesday approved the addition of 1,600 housing units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, which is located beyond the...

WASHINGTON -- On an otherwise quiet Saturday at the White House, there was quite a sight along the driveway: the careful unearthing of two trees to make way for some construction underneath the front lawn. People walking along Pennsylvania Avenue saw two enormous cranes stationed just outside the West Wing. One crane lifted away a sugar maple tree that had been planted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. And then a large linden tree, planted by the National Park Service in 1979, was also hauled out of the ground.

A federal commission has yet to enact a year-old executive order that President Barack Obama thinks will avoid labor unrest but one that critics say discriminates against non-union companies and non-union workers in federal contracting. The construction industry, one of the hardest hit industries from the economic downturn, is speaking out against enactment of the executive order. While unemployment is 9.7 percent nationwide, it is 18.7 percent in the construction industry. Brett McMahon, vice president of the Miller & Long concrete construction firm in Bethesda, Md., said the company is anxious over what will happen if the executive order is...

PALM SPRINGS - Unemployed construction workers may be able to get some new jobs fixing windmills and solar panels. College of the Desert opened their new energy training center Wednesday morning. This lonely building near Gene Autry south of Interstate 10 is the future of the Desert's energy industry. Somebody has to train the workers who will fix the increasing numbers of windmills and solar panels here. The College of the Desert is stepping in, opening new classrooms paid by federal stimulus dollars. Larry McLaughlin with College of the Desert says, "East of us in Riverside County, there's going to...