Hawaiian rail construction bids to be up for grabs

Construction News
From the AGC SmartBrief Newsletter dated 1/12/09. Honolulu officials hope to start construction on an elevated commuter train in December of this year. The first of four contracts worth about $1 billion is expected to be awarded in February. Later this year, it will award a contract worth up to $600 million to a firm selected to design and build an elevated six-mile guideway, as well as one worth $120 million to build a maintenance storage facility. Read the entire article here.
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Army Announces plans for $4B in storm-protection contracts

Construction News
From the AGC SmartBrief Newsletter dated 1/12/09. Contracts worth $4 billion for levee and drainage projects in New Orleans will be offered by the Army Corps of Engineers. "The 113 contracts for the hurricane and storm-damage risk-reduction system will be the largest number we award in any given year," said Col. Gregory Gunter, operations officer for Task Force Hope. "It's going to be a huge year." Projects involve bringing structures up to 100-year flood levels, improving drainage and adding a new pumping station. The Web site, https://www.FedBizOps.gov, will advertise the contracts. Read the full article
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New Federal WH-347 Reporting Mandates Effective 1/18/09

Construction News, The "Sunburst" Website
IMPORTANT Revisions to U.S. Department of Labor/Federal WH-347 Reporting Mandates Regarding Protecting the Privacy of Workers. January 9, 2009 Affected Audience: All prime/general contractors and subcontractors required to file the Federal WH-347 Certified Payroll form on prevailing wage projects. Background: On October 20, 2008 the U.S. Department of Labor published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register (73 FR 62229) which invited comments until November 19, 2008, on proposed revisions to update current regulatory standards in order to better protect worker privacy for contracts covering federally financed and federally-assisted construction contracts.  Specifically the proposed revisions affect the reporting of employee addresses and social security numbers on the Federal WH-347 certified payroll reports. Effective Date: According to recent information released in the Federal Register (73 FR 77504) published on…
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