Construction Law Today : Construction Lawyer & Attorney : Joshua Glazov : Design Build Contracts, Construction Bankruptcy

Software Advice's Chris Thorman recently published State by State: Is the Stimulus Bill Creating Construction, an article analyzing how effective the federal stimulus money actually is in preserving and creating construction jobs.

According to SA's calculations based on October 30, 2009 data from Recovery.gov, spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ARRA") has created, or saved, 73,352 construction jobs across the nation, at a cost of $15.8B. That's $222,107 per construction job.

SA's piece also includes a chart sorting spending on a state-by-state basis, identifying for each state:

• Amount of stimulus money awarded
• Amont of stimulus money received
• Jobs created
• Cost per job

SA's critical of the government's return on the taxpayer's investment in ARRA's efforts to preserve and create construction jobs, not to mention improving infrastructure and public works. To read the entire article, including the charts, just click here.

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Yesterday in a piece titled Stimulus Saves Construction Jobs: House Panel, Reuters' Lisa Lambert reported on where the federal government's stimulus money is going in the construction industry and who's using most of it.  The highlights of the highlights:

• Jobs created or preserved in July '09 by infrastructure projects increased by more than 50% over June '09

• According to a U.S. House of Representative report, water, highway, and public transportation projects "created or sustained" 77,470 jobs in July '09 compared to just under 50,000 in June '09

• Illinois accounts for almost 20% of jobs created or sustained - 15,388.  We need it here in Illinois.  Our unemployment rate was 10.4% in July '09, a whole percentage point above the national rate of 9.4%

• California got $787B and reported 10,146 jobs created or sustained
  

• Texas reports using stimulus money to create or sustain 5,953 jobs

• Wyoming led the nation in the number of projects (a) out to bid, (b) under contract, and (c) underway

• Hawaii is slowest in processing projects

• Associated General Contractors of America (the "AGC") CEO Stephen Sandherr said on Monday that while the states may be starting work, cities are lagging.



"It is difficult to understand why more communities aren't moving to put their stimulus funds to work while they are experiencing these kinds of job losses"


According to AGC analysis, city construction employment declined in 319 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas in July '09, while increasing in only 11.

• The U.S. Labor Department reported that the construction industry shed 76,000 jobs in July '09.

• According to a federal report on construction spending released on Tuesday, money put into public capital works dropped 0.7% in July '09

• After rising 3.1% in June '09, state and local construction spending fell by 0.8% in July '09. Highway and street spending fell 1% and overall transportation fell 0.4%
  

• July '09 educational spending was down 1.3 compared to June '09
  

Lisa's writes regularly for Reuters on government stimulus spending and economic recovery efforts.  Hopefully she'll soon join Twitter so we can all follow her and see her new work sooner.

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This past Thursday the San Diego Chapter of the Associated General Contractors (the "San Diego AGC") sued the California Department of Transportation ("CalTrans") claiming that racial and gender contracting quotas under CalTrans's 2009 Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (the "DBE Program") are illegal.
 
Representing the the San Diego AGC, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed the Complaintstarting the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.  The lawsuit focuses on a March 4 internal CalTrans Memo from CalTrams Division of Local Assistance Chief, Denix D. Anbiah. 

The memo says that on projects receiving federal funds (this includes federal infrastructure stimulus grants), Caltrans must award at least 6.75% of contracts to women or a group composed of African-Americans, Asian-Pacific Americans, and Native Americans.  The group doen't include Latinos.

The lawsuit claims that that the DBE Program violates the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, various other federal statutes, and the California Declaration of Rights, a/k/a Proposition 290.

The San Diego AGC's lawsuit also asks the judge to enjoin CalTrans from adopting, enforcing, or attempting or threatening to enforce, the parts of the DBE Program that the San Diego AGC claims discriminates against, or grants  preferential treatment to, anyone based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.

Tip to Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee for breaking this story in his article California Challenged on Race-, Gender-Based Contracts.

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On the United States Department of Veterans Affairs' website, the Office of Construction & Facilities Management publishes a Construction Contract Forecast Summary. This summary updates the public on upcoming Department of Veterans Affairs construction projects. Contractors can also use it to identify new projects in their areas they can bid on. 

The site also includes the following information about upcoming projects:
 

• Project number
  
• Project summary
• Location
  
• Dollar value
• Contracting officer contract information
  

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