On March 25, AGC called on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to issue a revision to recent COVID-19 related guidance that will explicitly include all construction workers as “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers.” The absence of the word “construction” from many of the critical infrastructure workforces described in the guidance has become problematic as many state and local governments appear to be overlooking the memorandum and evaluating only the descriptions included under the various listed critical infrastructure workforces. In the few instances where construction is noted or, perhaps, implicitly referenced in the list, significant confusion has arisen. It is imperative that CISA issue a technical correction to this guidance to avoid states and localities from creating a confusing patchwork of regulations that would inhibit the full industry’s essential role in helping address the COVID-19 outbreak and protecting national security.
Cutting Off Vital Infrastructure Funding Will Hurt Efforts to Improve California’s Infrastructure and Air Quality; Construction Association Urges Federal Officials to Give State a Grace Period
On February 21, 2017, the Maryland Court of Appeals decided Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc. v. Rummel Klepper & Kahl, LLP, where a general contractor had sought to hold the design firm that developed the plans and specifications for a large public project liable for the economic losses that defects in their designs had allegedly caused the contractor to suffer. Significantly, the project was design-bid-build and the contractor did not have a contractual relationship directly with the designers. The question that the case presented was whether the “economic loss doctrine” precluded the contractor from suing them in tort. Siding with the designers, the court held that the doctrine does apply “to large-scale government construction projects such as this one,” and as a result, the contractor could not bring a tort action against the designers for its purely economic losses.
Need a vendor? Reach thousands of suppliers and service providers in one place: AGC's official purchasing directory, Constructor Marketplace. This site places you in contact with vendors from more than 50 categories -- everything from acoustical and drywall to windows -- quickly, so you can get the materials or the help you need to get the job done right. Use Constructor Marketplace's free Request for Proposal (RFP) Automator to request custom project bids from multiple Marketplace vendors with just a few clicks.