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Viewpoints - Featured Headline

ENR's 2012 The Year In Construction Photo Contest Winners
01/14/13 By the ENR editors
The best construction photography collection in the world

Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata

ENR's Photo Contest Runners-Up
01/09/13 By Luke Abaffy
After sifting through over 1,500 photos, ENR's judges set aside the Runners up that didn't quite make it. Here they are.

Christopher Karlson, project designer, Perkins+Will

More Viewpoints

05/15/13	Viewpoint: OSHA Crane Rules Must Change By Robert Weiss The majority of crane operators in this country are certified to crane type only, but new federal rules would render those tests invalid.
05/15/13	Viewpoint: OSHA Crane Rules Have Merit By Debbie Dickinson The big debate over certifying crane operators by type and capacity is being driven not by safety concerns or genuine cost factors but by politics.
05/02/13	Risk Vs. Rewards in P3s for Design-Build Contractors By Rick Ciullo The P3 asset must be buildable but also productive and cost efficient to operate and maintain.
04/30/13	Viewpoint: Lawyer as Constructor By Walter J. "Johnny" Wells Jr., P.E. Have attorneys helped or hindered large American construction projects?
04/24/13	Viewpoint: When the Owner Fails By Doug Lareau and Ken Rubinstein the reality in today’s construction market is that the general contractor must pay close attention to the owner’s ability to pay regardless of how stable the owner appears to be.
04/18/13	Award of Excellence: Getting Close to Mr. Jones By Janice L. Tuchman, Editor-in-Chief One of the premier assignments for ENR editors is writing the profile of the Award of Excellence winner, says Tom Sawyer, the ENR senior editor who wrote this year's story.
02/12/13	Viewpoint: Use Signs and Symbols to Teach Safety Rules By Timothy Galarnyk You don’t have to use words in order to train a multilingual workforce to avoid the most common causes of fatalities, argues a safety expert.
01/30/13	The Personality Traits Needed for the New Risk Managers By Peter Robertshaw Athough the majority of today’s risk managers have characteristics that conform to the stereotype, Active Risk's survey results showed that,they have other characteristics, too.
01/29/13	Trends in the Health-Care Construction Market By Maja Rosenquist Prefabrication and integrated project delivery are becoming more popular among health-care facility owners.
01/23/13	Viewpoint: Raise My Gas Tax, Please By Bill Siegel CEO of The Kleinfelder Group on the need to increase the federal gas tax.
01/14/13	Beware the Recovery: What History Teaches Contractors and Sureties By Thomas C. Schleifer No one liked the recession, but the rate of construction enterprise failure runs three times higher during recovery than during recession.
01/14/13	Construction Photography Contest Judging Is Challenging And Rewarding By Tom Sawyer Art, Impact and Safety Factor In
01/09/13	Construction Photography Reminds Us of What Makes The Industry Great By ENR Editors ENR's annual Best Construction Photos issue showcases some of the best work of 2012.
12/28/12	Partner at 35? Why I Know I'm Not Ready Just Yet By Brian Wodka A young go-getter fancies himself as an engineering firm partner, but when he is entered into a mentoring program instead of an executive role, his bruised ego gets a much-needed education.
12/05/12	An Upside to Automatic Federal Budget Cuts By Tim Grogan With all the hype and hysteria about the fiscal cliff, there are some good reasons to prefer sequestration, the much-feared automatic federal budget cuts.
11/28/12	Viewpoint: Hurricane Sandy, a Reminder of the Need for Speed By Fredric L. Plotnick, P.E. The need for rapid repairs and recovery after Hurricane Sandy means we have to return to time-centric scheduling and insist that scheduling software allows us to do it.
11/28/12	Multifamily Construction Requires Due Diligence and Careful Team Selection By Danielle N. Senn Bidding errors or unanticipated project costs can wipe out all profits on a project and even threaten a company’s overall financial strength.
11/26/12	Viewpoint: Tell Bullies to Step Off By Jonathan Barnes A foreman bullies a college student working on a Pittsburgh roof, until the victim finally stands up for himself. But who won?
10/17/12	Viewpoint: Innovation in Response to Europe's Construction By Simone Trevisani Adopting new technologies, proven in Europe and other parts of the world, is one great way to reduce risk and continue to build great projects.
09/21/12	Viewpoint: Vietnam, Indonesia Hold Opportunity for U.S. Infrastructure Firms By Sarah Kemp and David Gossack U.S. trade mission to connect U.S. companies with prospective partners.
09/19/12	Viewpoint: Finding the Sweet Spot By Bill Siegel, Kleinfelder Design firm CEO assesses merger-and-acquisition strategy for AEC firms today.
09/12/12	Making Growth Count By Jordi Roca, Accenture Industry firms need to find ways to turn revenue growth into bottom-line success.
09/05/12	Let's Save an Architectural Gem That Also Pioneered Engineering By Geoffrey Goldberg, Chicago architect Threatened by demolition, Chicago's Prentice Women's Hospital deserves to be preserved as an example of design excellence and bold engineering.
08/27/12	Viewpoint: Keep Your Guard Up Against Green Project Risks By Glen R. Mangold and Charles W. Kopplin If you are wondering why we haven’t seen more green legal disputes, here are the reasons why and why they may be just around the corner.
07/30/12	The Distaste for Toll Roads in the U.S. By Rakesh Tripathi Why Americans vote to approve local and state-wide bond programs that clearly outline the public deliverables but vehemently oppose any increase in the general gas tax.
07/23/12	How Mortenson Opened an Office in China By Shuke Miao Building in China requires the company to reconcile U.S. client expectations and local labor.
07/23/12	Viewpoint: The Case for Neutral, Third-Party Schedulers By Kurt Rossetti What happens when you bring a new idea to avoid delays to an audience of contractors?
07/02/12	Viewpoint: Bribe Scheme Contractor Wanted Insurer to Cover Civil Lawsuit Costs By Richard Korman Is it your liability insurer’s job to defend you in a civil lawsuit over an admitted felony?
06/27/12	Viewpoint: Why Home Baseline Water Testing Matters By James J. Kohlhaas Opinion by SAIC’s James J. Kohlhaas on a key issue related to risks of hydraulic fracturing.
06/25/12	Complexity Is Often the Culprit in Project Overruns, Delays By Robert C. McCue, P.E. Are today’s engineers and contractors just not as good as those who built the megaprojects of yesteryear?
06/11/12	The Factors Behind Construction Risk By Shekhar Suresh Patil Dependence on government support prevents the stakeholders from clarifying the risks in construction and coming to an agreement on how the construction economy can remain systemically sustainable.
05/29/12	Closing the License Gap: Register Implementers of Software and Controls for Critical Systems By Daniel A. Groves, principal consultant at Red Oak Consulting, an ARCADIS group For public safety and protection, designers and implementers of control systems for critical infrastructure must be licensed and registered.
05/21/12	Competition Can Help Our Roads Evolve By Viewpoint by Hesham Ali Product warranties can shift the risk back to the product developer in return for profit potential.
05/07/12	Help a Teacher: Be a Mentor! By David B. Rosenbaum High school math-engineering teacher seeks industry support to mentor low-performers in critical STEM skills.
04/30/12	VIEWPOINT: In Tampa Bay Water v. HDR, Fiscal Prudence Falls Through the Cracks By James G. McConnell The history of this case reveals that reversal of the jury’s verdict on appeal is about as likely as a man flying to the moon by flapping his arms.
04/23/12	The Teaching Moment Arrives in Tampa Bay Water v. HDR The lesson of Tampa Bay Water v. HDR is to never gamble millions on a trial since all you may do is pend funds that boost the gross domestic legal product.
04/16/12	Make Storm Drainage System Inspection Standard By Viewpoint by Ali Abolmaali Post-installation inspection likewise ensures that a suppliers’ product was installed properly, reducing the potential for liability due to unanticipated maintenance or failure.
04/09/12	Why We Need the Keystone XL Pipeline Project By Ralph Christie Jr. One of the key objectives to securing the nation’s long-term economic security is the need to expand our access to safe, secure and sustainable sources of energy.
03/26/12	Bidding Edge? It's Cheating, But There's a Right Way to Compete By Don L. Short II An estimator explains how substitutions without the knowledge of the rest of the project team really amounts to ‘strategic’ cheating, and why the bid period is the proper time to seek an edge on the competition.
03/13/12	?Tides of Fate Swamp An Engineer's First Bid By Samuel C. Florman In a story adapted from his new book, Samuel C. Florman recalls how his first bid estimate in his first week on the job looked like a big loser for his company.
02/27/12	Take Infrastructure Back from Politicians By William G. Reinhardt The best hope is for public and private planners, designers, builders and operators of these facilities to convince a skeptical public that it is getting the services it pays for at a fair price and without political favoritism.
02/20/12	Display of the Retired Space Shuttle: An Opportunity Los Angeles Should Not Miss By Theodore H. Nathanson The right type of display, in docking mode with the Space Station or in launching mode, or both, could draw a huge number of visitors each year.
02/13/12	Project Delivery: The Choice Isn't All or Nothing With Design-Build By Ted Lynch An argument for using design-build for some major subcontracts on a project that is otherwise delivery the customary way.
02/13/12	Why Peer Reviews Need Statutory Protection By Bill Quatman Designers need statutory privacy protection for peer reviews, the same privilege enjoyed by physicians, to be sure reviews won’t be used as court evidence.
01/23/12	Float May Be Sinking the Project By Murray B. Woolf By eliminating float as a way to determine delay, we could return Critical Path Method schedules to being a model for Project Execution Strategy and a tool to coordinate and direct work.
01/09/12	ENR Showcases Great Shots of 2011 By Tom Sawyer ENR’s annual photo contest brings attention to inspiring construction photographs and the workers and projects they depict.
01/09/12	Judging the ENR Photo Contest: Hows and Whys By Tom Sawyer Selected by ENR from hundreds of photographs submitted every year, “Images of the Year in Construction” features photographs that best capture the mood and flavor of construction.
12/19/11	VIEWPOINT: Engineering-Construction Needs a New Model By Robert Prieto Is our business model broken? The need for innovation should cause us to reconsider how we conduct our research and rethink how products and applications are developed.
12/07/11	Opinion: Assuring You Have Skin in the Safety Game By Peter Lupo A contractor’s safety director finds that the U.S. Navy is more-than-serious about safety on its construction sites.
12/05/11	VIEWPOINT Project Risk Sharing: Owner Clauses-Bad Practice? By Mike Herlihy Viewpoint on project risk management trend
11/28/11	Viewpoint: Contemplating Competence By Jon A. Schmidt Engineer says competence ss exercise of skill, not just awareness of facts.
11/07/11	Insurance Notices of Termination: Will You Find Out Coverage Ends? By Michael Campo A recent change to a common risk management activity poses new risks to the bottom line.
10/31/11	Editorial: Prosecution of Ex-Berger Group CEO Wolff May Push Non-Compliance To Criminal Level By the editors of ENR In our opinion, a multiyear audit and payment process on a cost-plus contract is a moral sand trap for a federal agency and a contractor.
10/10/11	Multihazard Design: How to Prepare for Dual Disasters By Viewpoint by Mohammed Ettouney and Anurag Jain If we want new structures to stand for the next 50-100 years and age with grace, then we must manage structure and infrastructure health comprehensively, making assessments throughout the life cycle.
09/26/11	Allow Utilities To Place Lines Along Freeways By Paul Scott Speed up the process of change at AASHTO to allow the needed energy revolution to take place
09/14/11	Structural Engineers Need Separate Licensing By Jon A. Schmidt An engineer's primary obligation is to the safety, health and welfare of the public, and this is what motivates advocates of separate licensure for structural engineers.
08/29/11	Safety-Related Jury Verdict in Nevada Lacked Common Sense By Paul Gogulski An expert witness worries that a jury's decision badly undermines justice for a third party injured on a jobsite.
08/15/11	Saga of the World Trade Center in ENR Continues By Janice L. Tuchman In its historic coverage of the 16-acre World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, ENR has published more than 100 articles, beginning with a project summary overview in 1958.
07/25/11	With the Carmageddon Fresh in Our Minds, Why We Must Finish Another Vital L.A. Artery By James E. Moore II and Nat B. Read Despite clear need and pervasive public support, a small but highly organized, vocal group has delayed the I-71- link by learning exactly where to insert monkey wrenches into the gears of public process.
07/18/11	Viewpoint: Why Uncertainty Is a Critical Factor in Designing for Disaster By Ed Link Over time, formally factoring in risk can bring enormous monetary savings and avoid major interruptions to society and the economy.
06/29/11	Don't Wait Until Winter To Manage the Risks Related to Heavy Snow By Lionel Béjean Winter test roofs and most are sound, but you don’t have to be wrong to end up the target of a lawsuit
06/21/11	Before You Upgrade CAD: Questions to Ask By Steve Ross Thinking about finally adding computer-aided design software to your workflow? In part 1 of this 2 part article, CAD expert Steve Ross explains important questions you need to ask yourself and your vendors before you buy.
06/13/11	The Case for Practice Restrictions in Licensure By Jon A. Schmidt Licensure is already discipline-specific–entirely discipline-specific–when it comes to the PE exams. The logical next step is to make licensure discipline-specific when it comes to actual practice.
05/23/11	Casual Insults Sap Prestige, Power By Rakesh Tripathi Engineers should not lead organizations. Engineers are rigid, politically unsophisticated, unimaginative, uncommunicative and oblivious to the big picture. They lack the needed qualities for leadership and are best suited for lower-level supporting roles. You hear these comments all the time. Had these comments been made about
04/13/11	Studies Show That Unions Work By William P. Hite While reliable studies of craft labor productivity in the U.S. are in short supply, a few recent reports that specifically address changing trends in construction over the last decade indicate declines in productive output of skilled trades and rising project costs can be traced to gaps in education and training among non-union workers.

05/18/11 Casual Insults Sap Prestige, Power
05/11/11 Run a Train That’s Fast Enough
05/11/11 True High Speeds Vital for U.S.
04/06/11 Cut Review Time To Save Money
03/23/11 Blog Posts From Tokyo and Sendai After the Great Quake and Tsunami
03/02/11 My Verdict On Merger Mania
02/23/11 Getting Outside The Comfort Zone
02/09/11 Recycling Asphalt Rescues Roads
02/02/11 Filling a Gap in College Studies
01/19/11 How To Close A License Loophole
12/15/10 Steel Inscribed With Love’s Signature
12/01/10 When Language Obstructs Safety
11/10/10 Streamlining the Healing Process
10/27/10 Tea Party Is Silent On Infrastructure
10/20/10 Builders Need A Defined Role
09/22/10 Why I Love Pay-to-Play Rules During Election Campaigns
10/13/10 Code Proposals Are Self-Serving
10/06/10 Contract Unfair? Just Say No
09/22/10 A Non-Traditional Project Newsroom
09/01/10 The Legal Worries Raised by IPD
08/25/10 A Classic Case Of Good Intentions
07/28/10 Why Owners Make The Difference
07/21/10 What I Want From Washington, D.C.
07/14/10 Don’t Blame Engineering
06/30/10 Electric Vehicles: Are We Being Sold A Bill of Goods?
06/23/10 Is Faith Misplaced In Mediation?
06/16/10 Push Back FEMA’s Levee Deadline
05/26/10 Ending the Politics Of Infrastructure
05/19/10 Digital Files May Kill Credibility
05/12/10 Build Roads That Anticipate Errors
04/28/10 Doing Business In South Africa
04/21/10 Downsizing Can Lead to Success
03/17/10 How to Pay an Insurance Broker to Protect Your Blind Side
03/03/10 China Gateway? Not Hong Kong
01/27/10 How To Keep Mentoring Alive
12/09/09 Projects in China Need Vigilance
11/18/09 Don't Leave Safety Out of Sustainability
10/28/09 Why Wash Dirty Laundry in Public? Studying Failure Is Crucial
09/16/09 When Bidders Choose to 'Bomb'
08/12/09 Proposal For Portable Safety Records Is Generating Dialogue and Controversy
07/29/09 N.J. Privatizes Remediation
07/22/09 Rail Race: Maglev or HSR, What is the Future? Join the Rail Debate and Help Shape History
07/15/09 New Innovations In Crash Barriers
07/08/09 Taming Construction Disputes Through Rapid Resolution
07/02/09 Is Another Boom and Bust Cycle Coming To Engineering Staffing?
06/25/09 Controlling Work-Related Disability Costs
06/18/09 Complacency is the Enemy
06/17/09 New Fuel Rules Challenge Trucks
06/10/09 Taxpayers Benefit By Outsourcing
06/03/09 LEED 2009 - A Good First Step
05/29/09 Could Your Firm Pass a Stress Test?
05/20/09 Firms Should Think About Expanding
05/20/09 Sustainability Can Drive Investment
05/13/09 Contractor Laws Equalize Bidders
05/06/09 Gaining a Slice of Stimulus Pie
04/27/09 High Speed Rail is a Game-changer
04/22/09 Productivity Is Key To Profitability
04/15/09 Aging Ports Need Revitalization
04/08/09 P3 Bonds Need Transparency
04/01/09 We Need Personal Safety Records
03/25/09 Crisis Control in A YouTube World
03/18/09 Supercharging Industry PDAs
03/11/09 Prospering in Cyclical Markets
03/04/09 Energy Savings: California’s Big Step
02/26/09 Energy Tax Deductions — Build Green, Save Green
02/25/09 Finally, Maglev Leadership
02/18/09 Guidelines For Stimulus Package Projects
02/11/09 A Stimulus for Good Design
02/04/09 Engineering Talent Is the Best Stimulus
02/02/09 An Open Letter to the Profession: Civil Engineering Education at a Crossroads
01/21/09 Making Projects Regulatory Ready
01/16/09 Emergency Responder Legislation Protects Engineering Firms
01/09/09 Going Green Through Parking

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