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Meeting the Challenges
Contracting 2002
By Donald Waters
New Jersey contracting is filled with risk and challenges. Competition is
fierce. Regula-tions that can delay and disrupt the flow of work, coupled
with unparalleled public demands for fast project completion, make for a
pressure-cooker industry. Yet, there are many of my colleagues who will
do nothing less than meet these challenges and help make New Jersey a
better place to live and work.
My contracting vantage point in the public utilities contracting business
brings me into contact with public and private sector contractors in both
the heavy-highway and commercial building sectors. Here are some challenges
contractors face in 2002 and beyond:
The quest for steady and reliable sources of construction funding:
Heavy-highway contractors live in a roller coaster world that depends on
steady tax receipts to state and federal government transportation trust
funds for their core business. But, it is not just the road and transit
contractors who depend on steady and dependable funding. Building contractors
also need steady interest rates and business vitality to assure continued work
in their office building and manufacturing facility markets. The ability to
plan our work and to expand our businesses at the proper time can mean the
difference between prospering or not surviving.
The essential need for ample numbers of qualified and dependable workers:
The construction workforce is aging. The need to recruit and train the next
generation of workers is a daunting task. We are helping spread the word
about the good things our industry does in many ways. Contractors and their
construction associations are working cooperatively with unions in programs
such as New Jersey LECET and the Construction Industry Advancement Program
to bring construction career information into the state's school classrooms.
We are conducting construction industry career days and sponsoring summer work
programs. We are encouraging pre-apprentice orientation programs and using
apprentices on our projects as much as possible.
The challenge to man our future projects with capable young men and women will
be met by working as an industry team.
The danger of regulatory melt down in New Jersey's economy:
New Jersey is the most congested state in the nation, yet it is a tremendous
struggle to add capacity to the state's transportation network. Goods movement
and the ability to get employees to their work places are primary concerns of
business leaders. The recent closure of the Edison Ford Motor plant was directly
linked to a parts shipping cost into New Jersey and finished shipping costs out
of New Jersey that is three times the cost other Ford locations experience.
Creative ways to meld the built environment with the natural environment can be
carried out if reasonable people in positions of political and regulatory
leadership stand up to those who would shut our state down to 'save' it.
The challenge to reduce construction accidents and make our work zones as safe
as they can be:
The construction process by its nature brings the construction worker into close
contact with various hazards. Our industry is engaged in a concerted effort to
raise safety awareness, to engineer safety into all our projects and to learn
from our workers how
to make our construction sites as safe as they can be. Too many contractors
have had to make the fateful visit to an employee's family to explain that
their father or husband will not be coming home tonight.
There is a special emphasis program by contractor associations and unions to
improve work zone safety both for motorists and for our workers. With more night
work and tight urban repair projects, we have to find innovative means to keep
on-site machinery, nearby traffic and supplier trucks away from our workers.
That is our goal and we cannot fail.
I am sure that other major challenges will surface for contractors as we
pursue 21st century contracting. Indeed, programs like New Jersey LECET will help
provide fresh approaches and stronger alliances to keep our industry moving
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