press release – HC Ingenieria http://hcingenieria.com/ Wed, 16 Mar 2022 05:20:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.3 https://hcingenieria.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/favicon-20.png press release – HC Ingenieria http://hcingenieria.com/ 32 32 Construction of AT&T Cellular Facility Underway at Erie Community Park – Longmont Times-Call https://hcingenieria.com/construction-of-att-cellular-facility-underway-at-erie-community-park-longmont-times-call/ Wed, 16 Mar 2022 05:20:34 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/construction-of-att-cellular-facility-underway-at-erie-community-park-longmont-times-call/ Staying connected will soon be easier for some Erie residents. Construction began this week on a new AT&T cellular facility on the west side of Erie Community Park. According to a press release from the City of Erie Parks and Recreation Department, the city has entered into a lease agreement with AT&T to provide better […]]]>

Staying connected will soon be easier for some Erie residents.

Construction began this week on a new AT&T cellular facility on the west side of Erie Community Park. According to a press release from the City of Erie Parks and Recreation Department, the city has entered into a lease agreement with AT&T to provide better cellular service throughout the area.

The cell tower will be located south of the baseball diamonds in the park and north of the tennis courts on a previously empty stretch of land.

The press release indicates that the construction project will be carried out in several stages, which include the removal and replacement of a lamp post, the construction of an access road off County Line Road, the removal and replacement of a portion of trail in the park, installation of landscape screens around the facility, and construction of a 30-foot x 20-foot AT&T wireless communications facility.

Construction of the cellular facility is expected to take six weeks, and the city expects the facility to be fully functional by June.

Erie Community Park will remain open while the installation is complete. However, for the duration of the work, a temporary detour will be put in place for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists accessing the park. The city urges everyone to reduce their speed when going to this area to completely avoid the construction zone.

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DOL proposes new Davis-Bacon rules https://hcingenieria.com/dol-proposes-new-davis-bacon-rules/ Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:22:16 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/dol-proposes-new-davis-bacon-rules/ Diving Brief: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh deployed new regulatory proposals for the first time in nearly 40 years to change the Davis-Bacon Act, which sets the prevailing wages that contractors must pay workers on federal projects. While a association of construction employers said the changes represent “more special-interest pork” for unions, which President Joe Biden […]]]>

Diving Brief:

  • Labor Secretary Marty Walsh deployed new regulatory proposals for the first time in nearly 40 years to change the Davis-Bacon Act, which sets the prevailing wages that contractors must pay workers on federal projects.
  • While a association of construction employers said the changes represent “more special-interest pork” for unions, which President Joe Biden supports, Walsh claimed the changes would do the exact opposite. “This action is an example of the federal government being a good steward of taxpayers’ money,” Walsh said on a conference call Friday. “As President Biden said during the State of the Union, when we invest in our workers, we build an economy from the bottom up and the middle.”
  • Labor groups and unions applauded the announcement, saying it would be pprotect the wages of construction workers and protect them from exploitation.

Overview of the dive:

The Davis-Bacon Act, originally passed in 1931, uses salary surveys administered by the DOL to set the prevailing salary in the location of a federally funded project. It affects $217 billion in federal spending a year and 1.2 million construction workers.

But the process can be complicated and time-consuming for contractors and has raised concerns that it distorts wage rates.

Under the current process, at least 51% of surveyed salaries must fall within an “same or similar” range. If they are not, the weighted average – as opposed to a simple average – of all salaries is used. This means that more frequent occurrences of low wages could lower the overall rate.

“The problem … is that these weighted averages don’t reflect the actual wages paid to actual workers on actual construction projects in this local community,” said Jessica Looman, acting administrator of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division during of the briefing.

To remedy this, the DOL’s proposal would revert to the system used until 1983, when the last changes to the law were made under the first administration of President Ronald Reagan. At that time, the redesign was considered a blow to organized labor.

Under the proposed unique configuration, if the 51% threshold is reached, this is the salary in effect, as now. But if not, the new rule would allow only 30% of the same or similar salaries to be used. If this bar cannot be reached, then a weighted average will be used.

And this is where construction employer groups have called fault.

“The process for determining what a going wage rate is is already archaic, and this proposal dates back 40 years,” said Ben Brubeck, vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs at Associated Builders. and Contractors, in an interview.

Brubeck said ABC, the majority of whose 16,000 contract members are non-union stores, has been advocating for Davis-Bacon reform for years, the current proposal unfairly favoring unionized work.

“Under the 30% rule, union rates will prevail more often,” Brubeck said. “When this happens, unionized contractors are more competitive. But if the government determines that the wage is below the union rate, that’s a problem for them, because they can’t compete on wages, because they’re locked into a union contract.

Instead, Brubeck suggested using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine prevailing wages for a given position and location.

“We’ve been suggesting for decades to go do something that’s scientifically modern and can be done more frequently, and that will result in higher wages for workers around the world,” Brubeck said.

Comment period

Labor and union groups hailed the potential rule change.

“NABTU commends the Biden administration for today’s proposal to bring the 41-year-old Davis-Bacon Act regulations into the 21st century,” said Sean McGarvey, president of the Trades Unions Group. of North America, in a press release. “The proposed updates to the regulations will restore the law’s bipartisan goal of protecting the hard-earned wages of construction workers and, in doing so, protect them from exploitation.”

An anti-retaliation clause was also included that would protect workers who report employers for non-compliance. DOL said it was opening a 60-day comment period for comments on the new rules.

At ABC, Brubeck said the group would fight longer, while opposing floating rules in their current form.

“A 60-day comment period is too short for the first major reform in 40 years,” Brubeck said. “We will ask for an extension.”

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The battle intensifies to keep Ukraine in line https://hcingenieria.com/the-battle-intensifies-to-keep-ukraine-in-line/ Fri, 11 Mar 2022 21:19:30 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/the-battle-intensifies-to-keep-ukraine-in-line/ The Ukrainian government has stepped up its efforts to keep people connected to the internet while Russian invaders attempt to destroy the communications infrastructure that keeps it going. Ukrainian armed forces have taken control of civilian communications infrastructure in areas where they are fighting against the invading Russian army. Elsewhere, Ukrainian security services and civil […]]]>

The Ukrainian government has stepped up its efforts to keep people connected to the internet while Russian invaders attempt to destroy the communications infrastructure that keeps it going.

Ukrainian armed forces have taken control of civilian communications infrastructure in areas where they are fighting against the invading Russian army. Elsewhere, Ukrainian security services and civil administrations have become dependent on mobile communications to mobilize the country’s response to Russian attacks.

Russian forces have attempted to dismantle cellphone cellular communication towers in towns they have taken, according to Ukrainian state sources. Meanwhile, Russian artillery fire destroyed network cables and disrupted communications in entire towns and regions. Ukrainian engineers came out when the shelling ceased to carry out repairs and restore services.

The Unsung Heroes

Alla Struchaieva, chief executive of MaxNet DC, an internet service provider that operates one of Europe’s major internet communications exchanges in Karkhiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where intense Russian bombardment has driven most of its 1.8 million residents, some of its engineers said had chosen to stay to operate the data center.

Struchaieva said Knowledge of the data center that she had helped their families to flee regions of Ukraine who were still safe from bombardment.

“Our guys are coming out to fix the network despite it being life threatening,” she wrote via a secure Telegram chat connection. “It’s incredibly difficult. The shooting and shelling continues for days in Kharkiv.”

“We have to work. A lot depends on it now. We are not just a data center. We are a telecommunications operator. Internet, telephone and television,” she said.

On Tuesday, when it seemed safe to get out after last week’s bombing in central Kharkiv, MaxNet engineers were mending torn internet cables that had interrupted communications in their data center and surrounding streets.

They took photos and videos of the bombed-out street where they carried out the repairs outside the city council administration, showing how a beautiful metropolitan boulevard, Myronosytska Street, had been transformed into an apocalyptic scene.

The engineering team repaired the network cables between the manhole covers, where the fire had fused them. He restored about a third of the network, Struchaieva said. Now they were trying to figure out where they needed to repair. MaxNet suspended services for non-Ukrainians.

Marc Ballard

26 Mryonosytska St., Kharkiv – March 8, 2022

The destroyed building next to them was the site of Ukrainian Host, one of the largest web hosts in the country, with a group of government and corporate customers. It has other data centers, according to its website. The Ukrainian Host website was still working this week. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Struchaieva joined refugees fleeing the city that day, as her home was destroyed, along with her parents’ home.

“We had thirteen days without electricity, without heating. Eight days without water, making water with snow. Five days without food. But the main thing is that we are alive.

“We got in our car and drove through Russia, because we couldn’t go through Kharkiv. My husband drove the car like a robot for 28 hours nonstop,” she said.

The car was stopped and the family was questioned by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the infamous FSB, she said. They took her phone, which she had erased.

“We pray for Ukraine and the whole world because this horrible war has affected us all,” she said.

Stay connected

Dmitry Deineka, general manager of another hosting company with a bombed-out data center in Karhkiv, said Knowledge of the data center last week that there were still six support technicians and engineers, in shelters with their families.

“Some of my colleagues managed to get to western Ukraine. Others, my relatives, are planning to leave the city. We have to help them,” he said from his base in Bulgaria.

“Today’s strike on the city was 500 meters from one of our nodes and a kilometer from the data center. As long as there is power, connectivity and the systems of cooling will not be damaged, I hope the site will be online, but I have no illusions, it can stop at any time.

“But I believe we will push them back behind a new iron curtain. We have a very motivated army and our local civil defence. I am angry,” he said.

Ukraine’s government agencies started working with telcos and local authorities this week to run IFrom Internet cables to basements that people had turned into bomb shelters, in cities under Russian attack in the south, east and north of the country.

The state is trying to keep Ukrainians connected to government services and keeping them informed about the war; youhEast Is an information war many like it’s a physical. The Russians were spreading propaganda in the areas they had occupied, to persuade the Ukrainians to give in to their domination, the Ukrainian armed forces said today.

The executive of a telecommunications provider helping to get internet connections to bomb shelters, who asked not to be named, said many residents were using the basements of apartment buildings that already had internet connections. To make a connection to the basement, all they had to do was run an Ethernet cable.

“It’s like connecting an apartment,” he said. For shelters under buildings without a connection, the local network provider with the closest connection point carried out the work of laying the cable from the outside.

“In Ukraine, five to ten suppliers operate in each city,” he said. “So it’s not that difficult.”

In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, the local authority built a website whereby residents could request a connection to their air raid shelter. This has build a mobile phone application who showed residents maps of places to get things like food and medicine. It was also solicit resident feedback through the app.

Ukrainian security services used mobile phone apps, a chatbot, email and secure messaging via WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, to request reports Russian troop movements, and collect evidence of potential war crimes which could be used to organize prosecutions against Russian forces under international law.

Strategic importance

Jhis week, once again, seen a struggle between Russian attempts to destroy the communications infrastructure and Ukrainian attempts to repair it.

The Russian damage had severed the main lines of communication to the towns they had occupied, the Ukrainian State Special Communications Service said in a press release. Mobile phone network operators were trying to rebuild services in Kharkiv. They had restored services to Chernihiv, a northern town which, like Kharkiv, had been heavily bombarded. Communications from Kiev had been partially cut and then restored. Remarkably, three mobile phone operators had almost completely restored services in Kherson, a Russian-held city in the south. Engineers were working to restore services in other occupied towns.

Three quarters of Ukraine IInternet nodes were still working, the agency said. But the war has caused $100 billion in damage to Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and shut down half of its businesses, according to one of the Ukrainian President’s advisers. The government has asked people to ration their cell phone useDue to the network damage. Since the Russians had destroyed the Ukrainian television broadcast towers, the government had managed to send television signals by satellite and mobile networks.

Meanwhile, Russia has summer Assembly intense cyberattacks on Ukrainian government web services and infrastructure, according to security agencies. Ukraine responded by lobbying for penalty be taxed on Russia at International Telecomcommunications Union, the international organization through which countries agree on terms of cooperation in communications.

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The hostess confirms the plan for the bakery https://hcingenieria.com/the-hostess-confirms-the-plan-for-the-bakery/ Tue, 08 Mar 2022 08:24:28 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/the-hostess-confirms-the-plan-for-the-bakery/ Hostess Brands Inc. on Monday confirmed plans to upgrade an unused factory in Arkadelphia, convert it into a bakery and create about 150 jobs over three years. Company officials also said the plant is large enough for future expansions as the snack maker adds product lines. Hostess said it would spend between $120 million and […]]]>

Hostess Brands Inc. on Monday confirmed plans to upgrade an unused factory in Arkadelphia, convert it into a bakery and create about 150 jobs over three years.

Company officials also said the plant is large enough for future expansions as the snack maker adds product lines. Hostess said it would spend between $120 million and $140 million to install.

The new bakery will increase the company’s capacity on its donette and cake platforms by around 20%. Officials said the 330,000 square foot facility will begin operations in the second half of 2023.

“We have profitably gained market share in the snack categories in which we compete,” Andy Callahan, president and CEO of Hostess Brands, said in a press release announcing the new plant. “The addition of this new bakery signals our confidence that we expect the growth we have demonstrated over the past few years

Governor Asa Hutchinson welcomed the news. “The Company’s selection of Clark County speaks volumes about the confidence it has in the area’s business climate and workforce, and I am confident that Hostess will find success in Arkansas,” he said in a press release.

The facility, located at 1 Scroll Drive, is the former Danfoss factory which the company closed in January 2020.

The hostess said the decision to renovate an existing building will reduce the company’s costs for the new bakery and minimize environmental impacts.

“We are emphasizing a sustainability-focused approach to this project while leveraging best practices from across our bakery network and anticipate this bakery to be our most efficient and greenest operation yet. day,” Callahan said in the press release.

Arkansas offers two economic development incentives to Hostess. The tax rebate program provides sales and use tax refunds on the purchase of taxable building materials and machinery. And the company will participate for five years in the start-up rebate program, which offers a financial incentive equal to 3.9% to 5% of annual payroll for new permanent full-time employees.

Chief Growth Officer Dan O’Leary said the company considered three key issues before deciding on Arkadelphia: the distribution network, an existing facility that could be converted, and a strong labor pool. . “We were also able to establish a strong partnership with state, county and local authorities,” he said Monday.

Last week, Arkadelphia’s expansion was revealed during a three-hour presentation that company officials gave to the investment community.

Hostess, based in Lenexa, Kan., has five North American bakery plants in Emporia, Kan.; Indianapolis.; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; and Ontario, Canada.

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Landslides and construction deliver a double whammy to Pierce County roads https://hcingenieria.com/landslides-and-construction-deliver-a-double-whammy-to-pierce-county-roads/ Sat, 05 Mar 2022 18:23:44 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/landslides-and-construction-deliver-a-double-whammy-to-pierce-county-roads/ You may need to find creative re-routings to avoid some road closures in the area in the coming days, and in at least one case near the Pierce-Mason County line, a 22-mile detour is in store. Interstate 5: The final push for a new I-5 bridge over the Puyallup River, part of the $1.4 billion […]]]>

You may need to find creative re-routings to avoid some road closures in the area in the coming days, and in at least one case near the Pierce-Mason County line, a 22-mile detour is in store.

Interstate 5: The final push for a new I-5 bridge over the Puyallup River, part of the $1.4 billion I-5 and Highway 16 project for high occupancy vehicles (HOVs), has tracing work which need to be completed. This includes an approximately 2 mile long segment of I-5 from Port of Tacoma Road to the East McKinley Way overpass, and is weather dependent. Work will take place at night, typically from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., with traffic reduced to one lane at certain times. The ramps will close at night but reopen during the day.

Key Peninsula: Drivers should be prepared to find part of the Key Peninsula Highway NW closed Monday for culvert replacement. Temporary repairs were carried out on site on Friday. The county, in an update sent Friday, said the site should be “closed” Monday with a detour in place. The detour route is Cornwall Rd NW, 186th Ave NW and Herron Rd NW. Closing on Monday is scheduled from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Pierce County: Orville Road East between Kapowsin Highway and State Route 161 remains closed to traffic due to multiple mudslides, according to the county. Although some minor landslides have been cleared, the county said it will assess the remaining landslides on Monday “to determine if they have stabilized enough to be safely cleared.”

A landslide blocked both lanes of Orville Road East near the south end of Lake Ohop. The road is closed to all traffic. The county advised local residents to use State Road 161.

Mason County: State Route 302 remains closed in both directions at mile marker 4.5 near the Mason/Pierce County line (Rocky Bay/Victor area) and will remain closed until further notice, according to the State Department of Transportation. the state. The site is closed to through traffic in both directions due to damaged pavement. Officials told the Kitsap Sun tCrews should wait for the site to stabilize before beginning repairs. DOT Status noted in a press release that “people who usually use National Road 302 between National Road 3 and National Road 16 will have to use a 22-mile detour via National Road 16 to Gorst or use alternative routes.”

Debbie Cockrell has worked for The News Tribune since 2009. She reports on business and development, local and regional issues.

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The construction industry faces a huge shortage of workers in 2022 https://hcingenieria.com/the-construction-industry-faces-a-huge-shortage-of-workers-in-2022/ Fri, 25 Feb 2022 06:01:45 +0000 https://hcingenieria.com/the-construction-industry-faces-a-huge-shortage-of-workers-in-2022/ Facility Manager Cost Reduction/Best Practices Quick Reads RSS Feeds February 25, 2022 – Contact the FacilitiesNet editorial staff » The supply chain crisis and skilled labor shortages have forced facility managers to do more with less, now more than ever. And unfortunately, according to Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)it looks like at least one area […]]]>