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Engineering News-Record provides the business and technical news needed by anyone who makes a living in or from the construction industry. We cover major projects, technological achievements, business conditions, markets, finance, costs, legislation, government, management, labor, construction methods, equipment and materials. We give readers the weekly news and analysis they need to make decisions in their work, covering all sectors of the industry from buildings to highways to hazardous waste cleanups. We highlight significant events worldwide. Good ideas don't stop at political boundaries nor does the business of construction.

• Pemex Delays Decision On Platform Demolition
  U.S. contractors say they have been in protracted negotiations about the demolition or removal of a damaged oil platform in the Bay of Campeche where 23 workers have died.
• Creatling Opportunities to Build Diversity and Competence
  A four-week pre-apprenticeship training program at Baton Rouge's Louisiana Technical College turns out craftwork candidates that smash the barriers of gender, race and age.
• Senate Leaders Revising House Energy Bill
  After the Senate blocked a House-passed energy bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is trying to rescue at least some of the measure’s major elements.
• Insurance: House to Vote on Terrorism Coverage Extension
  The House was nearing a vote at press time on a seven-year extension of the federal terrorism insurance program.
• Immigration: Justice Dept. Appeals 'No Match' Injunction
  The Justice Dept. on Dec. 4 filed an appeal of an October court ruling that blocked a "no-match" immigration regulation.
• State Finance: Budget Pressures Are Growing
  Housing-market problems and other stresses will slow states' fiscal 2008 spending and revenue growth.
• Four Injured in Yet Another Las Vegas Construction Collapse
  Las Vegas Strip's grim streak of construction accidents continued on Dec. 10 when four workers fell 30 ft from a retaining wall at the $2.9-billion, 3,889-room Fontainebleau Resort Hotel.
• St. Louis Rail Agency CEO Out After Jury Rules for Engineers
  Larry Salci, the embattled president and CEO of Metro, the St. Louis area transit agency, was terminated on Dec. 6, one week after a local jury ruled against the agency in its battle to hold its design and construction team responsible for losses and delays on a $550-million rail extension project.
• Weather Buries Roads in Mud and Debris in Pacific Northwest
  Crews in Oregon and Washington are diving into cleanup and repairs following a storm that slammed into the Northwest Dec. 2, leaving 13 dead in storm-related incidents.
• SEC Says Laborers' Union Can Seek Pension-Fund Disclosure
  The Laborers International Union of North America won a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruling requiring greater disclosure by Beazer Homes of its mortgage investments to help investors, including its own pension fund, better understand current risks.
• Snowplow Slips Across 'Deficient' Bridge Just Prior to Collapse
  The 116-year-old Dysart Bridge in central Pennsylvania collapsed on Dec. 6 just after a state plow truck crossed it.
• Walsh Agrees to Pay $130,000 Over Sexual Harassment Claim
  The big Chicago-based contractor says it inherited the two workers involved with alleged sexual advances.
• Bridge Collapse Forensics Prompt ADOT to Change Spec
  A mysterious Aug. 9 bridge collapse in Mesa, Ariz. caused by "lateral instability" is prompting the Arizona DOT to update its construction specifications.
• Canal Authority Digs In, Awards 2nd Excavation Pact
  Progress on the $5.2-billion expansion of the Panama Canal has picked up steam with the awarding of the second of five dry excavation contracts.
• Pols Agree on Auto Mileage; Energy Package Not Yet Final
  Congressional negotiators have struck a deal that would require cars to meet tougher fuel economy standards by 2020.
• NYC DOT Officials Nabbed for Bribes
  The Nov. 27 arrest of two New York City Dept. of Transportation officials, one a top executive, on bribery charges came as a shock to some metro area construction participants.
• Utility Settles Suits and Claims in Taum Sauk Collapse
  Nearly two years after 4,000 acre-ft of water poured through a breach in the earthen impoundment of the upper reservoir of a pumped-storage project in Missouri, the utility that owns the reservoir has settled the state's lawsuit and claims for damages.
• Louisiana Risk-Model Review Shows Need for Clarity
  The risk and reliability portion of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Taskforce report on Louisiana's hurricane protection system continues to be rigorously reviewed by a committee of the National Academies, whose members are looking for a more thorough explanation of the document's analysis.
• Pier Pressure May Make Or Break Spire
  The Chicago Spire, slated to be the Americas' tallest building at 2,000 ft, probably won't set any world records for height.
• Baseball Park in Nation's Capital Is on Its Way to Break the Speed
  With only 23 months to complete all the bases, the team building the 85%-complete D.C. Major League baseball park is getting very close to hitting construction's equivalent of a grand slam off a 100-mph pitch.
• Report: Ontario Requires $2 Bil. to Fix Bridges
  Ontario needs a $2-billion investment over five years to adequately rehabilitate its inventory of 12,000 municipal bridges, according to a report released in November.
• Engineers Fine-Tune Moscow's Striking Cable-Stayed Bridge
  Contractors in Moscow crowned one of the Russian capital's most unusual highway bridges by placing a complete restaurant at the interior apex of a 101.5-m-tall steelwork arch over the Moskova River.
• St. Louis Jury Rules for PB Team in Metro Cost Claim
  Owner agency fails to prove fraud and collect $81 million in damages.
• Design-Build Team Picked For New Kansas City Bridge
  Missouri awards contract to team that includes Kiewit, Parsons Corp., Clarkson and Massman.
• No Matter What You Call It, This Is One Strange Structure
  The Swedes call it an elk building. North Americas would recognize the model as a moose. Either way, the wilderness center planned for Svansele, north of Stockhom, is a trophy building.
• Corps Stands by Flood Report
  An incorrect elevation figure found in an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft report raised concerns that some of the maps flood-risk maps for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were incorrect.
• Jobsite Fatality in Las VegaJobsite Fatality in Las Vegas Fifth for Perini During 2007s Fifth for Perini During 2007
  Perini Construction's luck on the Las Vegas Strip has seemingly run dry. On Nov. 27, the firm suffered its fifth construction jobsite fatality this year.
• Carpenters' International Union Yanks Control of New York Local
  The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners says it placed an errant local in New York City under emergency suspension on Nov. 26.