As the economy improves and commercial construction expands, it is critical that owners are careful with their selection of both design professionals and contractors. According to BizMiner, less than 70% of the contractors in business in 2007 were still in business in 2010. To make matters worse, many of those surviving contractors are not financially sound. As a means of lowering operating costs, many contractors have reduced their insurance coverage, cut back on safety and quality procedures, and trimmed down employee benefits. Due to the decline in the financial strength of most contractors, surety companies have tightened their bonding requirements, thus making it difficult or impossible for some contractors to obtain bonding. If a contractor cannot bond a project, this should send a serious message to the owner! (more…)
Exactly what does the construction industry at large think of modular construction today? Recent comments made at the spring meeting of the Construction Users Round Table (CURT) in Covington, Ky in April may hold a clue. As reported in an article in the Engineering News Record, the CURT has renewed a call for the use of more sophisticated methods of prefabrication and modular construction techniques. The CURT leadership wants to push designers and contractors to adopt these methods to cut the time and cost of construction as well as to complete projects with fewer workers and a higher degree of safety. (more…)
On April 29, 2011 Ramtech’s Roland Brown attended his first meeting of the Texas Industrialized Building Code Council since his re-appointment to the Council by Texas Governor Rick Perry earlier in the month. Along with existing members of the Council, Mr. Brown was joined by new members Doug Robinson of Williams Scotsman, and Scott McDonald, a building official from the city of Amarillo. (more…)
The Directorate of Information Management (DOIM) at Fort Bliss, TX recently began their final preparations prior to occupancy on the third in a series of permanent modular buildings developed and built by design-build construction firm Ramtech Building Systems of Mansfield, Texas. Located on the main cantonment of the sprawling Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, the new 15,000 square foot building addition replaces the original base Data Center and Server Rooms built in the 1960’s. (more…)
With the subject of immigration reform and border security continuing to be a top issue in Washington, new legislation has been proposed that once again recognizes the benefits of modular construction and the use of permanent and temporary modular buildings for border security applications. (more…)