CBCTC Blog

By George F. Will, Cleveland Plain Dealer

In the 1940s, Steve Shelton's grandfather dressed up — white shirt, tie, fedora — to take the streetcar to the steel mill where he would change into work clothes, and would shower before dressing up to return home. ''There was,'' Shelton says, ''such dignity in the trades back then.''

By Michael Blakemore, Construction Executive

Construction’s current evolution sees the introduction of futuristic technologies, such as drones and augmented reality, that are radically shaping the way projects are built and delivered to clients. And yet, in other ways, the industry is stuck in the stone age. One such dinosaur is the existing template for the general contractor/trade partner dynamic, which is one of adversaries, not allies. 

By Kim Slowey, Construction Dive 

The Illinois Economic Policy Institute, in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign's Project for Middle Class Renewal, released the results of a study that found that those enrolled in joint labor-management registered apprenticeships experience comparable training hours, graduation rates and pay as those who attend a four-year university in Illinois. 

By Company 119

By Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect

ConstructConnect’s grand total construction starts statistics two-thirds of the way through 2019 are almost even with January-August 2018, -3.3%. The composition of starts this year, however, has undergone a dramatic change. It is much more heavily weighted towards very large projects, the so-called ‘mega projects’ of one billion dollars or more each.

Scott Suttell, Managing Editor of Crain's Cleveland Business

Owners and executives of small and midsize businesses have high levels of confidence about the economy and do not expect a recession before the end of this year, though they're a little less upbeat about what 2020 might bring, according to a new survey from PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

By Kim Slowey, Construction Dive

Construction material prices are sometimes an unknown when planning a project. Whether related to tariffs, supply chain concerns or a volatile raw materials market, there could be fluctuations that can impact the bottom line for both owners and contractors.

Article by Michael Carragher, P.E., Engineering News-Record.

Major shifts of people into cities is not new, but what makes urbanization different today for planners, engineers, architects, contractors, financiers and public administrators than in decades past is the magnitude and pace at which all of us now encounter disruptions.

By Matt Krupnick, The Hechinger Report

At a steel factory dwarfed by the adjacent Auto Club Speedway, Fernando Esparza is working toward his next promotion.