Every industry has created unique terminology to describe itself and its accomplishments. Commercial Construction is certainly no different. The language employed to describe the actions and projects is so extensive, we need two articles to cover it all. Part 1 appeared in January and Part 2 continues below.

Common Terms Continued

Preliminary Design (PD Phase) – Further developed plans showing physical spaces and attributes such as doors, windows, and walls.

Punch List – A document that itemizes incomplete or unsatisfactory work at the end of a construction project.

Purchase Orders (PO) – A PO is an offer to purchase issued by a buyer to a seller. The PO details types, quantities, and agreed prices for each product or service.

Rebrand – A rebrand project is a refresh of a storefront, corporate office, or commercial building.

Request for Information (RFI) – a process for procuring information in construction decision-making to respond with a quote.

Renovation – The total or partial upgrading of a facility to higher standards of quality or efficiency.

Roll Out: a project where multiple buildings, storefronts, or offices are built with the same construction elements for brand consistency. This is common in both franchising, and branch locations.

Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) – an estimate of costs and time when requirements aren’t specified in the early stages of the project.

Section Drawings – depicts different views of a building as if it were sliced on a vertical plane.

Specifications – A detailed statement prescribing materials and methods; and quality of work for a specific project. The most common practice for specifications substantially parallels the CSI (Construction Specification Institute) format.

Submittal – a variety of construction documentation, provided to architects and engineers to be assured the correct elements are being implemented in the construction project.

Subcontract – an agreement between the primary contractor and a subcontractor to execute specific construction deliverables.

Subcontractors – perform commercial construction duties managed by the general contractor and are typically chosen by their expertise in specific trades such as drywall, mechanical, concrete, or electrical.

Tenant Improvements – these are the commercial construction elements executed to make a building move-in ready for the tenant. The elements include wall finishes/painting, carpet, lights, and fixtures.

Time and Materials – this is a method to charge clients based exclusively on the costs of labor time and materials.

White Box – is a building that is stripped down to its core and provided the basics, including white walls, electrical, plumbing, concrete floors, restrooms, and emergency evacuation routes prior to the tenant improvement phase.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

CREED LA is a non-profit coalition of labor organizations concerned about sustainable

development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. Every industry has created unique terminology to describe itself and its accomplishments. Commercial Construction is certainly no different. In fact, the language employed to describe the actions and projects is so extensive, we need two articles to cover it all. Part 1 of the terms begins below.

Common Terms

As-builts – Throughout the process of construction errors in drawings are discovered and the building is not constructed exactly as originally designed. As-builts are drawings of the final building, specifications, and work completed.

Assignable Square Footage (ASF) – the usable square footage within a physical space (measured from finished wall to finished wall).

Bid – an estimate established by reviewing the design and specifications.

Blueprints – are digital drawings of the planned construction. Before modern-day printers, the method of printing blueprints caused the paper to turn blue.

Building Information Model (BIM) – Designers develop BIM, a digital representation of a planned building. The BIM is used to assist throughout the building’s lifecycle. It aids in planning, design, construction, and facility operations to improve collaboration, reduce waste, and improve project delivery.

Change Order – a document detailing construction plans, revisions to specs, or pricing changes to the contract.

Daily Report –used to document job site activity at the end of the day by the supervisor. The report captures information such as crew employed, equipment used, materials installed, safety incidents, work completed, and weather conditions.

Design-Bid-Build – the traditional approach to construction projects where the design firm is separate from the contractor. The client chooses a design firm and secures a finished design prior to getting bids from construction firms for the build.

Design-Build – the construction contractor provides the design and final building plans and cost

estimates.

Elevation –a drawing that shows the finished appearance and the vertical height dimensions of

each side of a building.

Field Work Order – Typically provided by the main contractor to each subcontractor, listing specific items to execute.

Floorplan –shows the layout of a building when viewed from above.

Foreman – the main supervisor who manages the construction crew’s daily tasks and documents completed work.

General Contractor – the lead contractor responsible for overseeing budgeting, scheduling, and the management of subcontractors.

Lien – a legal term where a contractor can file a claim on the property if they have not been paid for completed work on the project.

Look for Part 2 of commercial construction terminology in our February 2023 blog. For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

With 4 million residents, Los Angeles is the center of a metropolitan area that is home to 14 million

people in Southern California within a narrow stretch between the Pacific to the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains. For decades, auto-centric growth has sent the city down a path of unsustainable development. In the 1980s, due to the exploding population, the county and region decided to return to rail-based public transport and build a network of metro and light rail lines.

Benefits of Light Rail

• Light rail transportation (LRT) uses about a third less energy and emits about half the CO2 of buses and trucks; passenger cars use about the same amount of energy per passenger mile.
• LRT best provides the quickest and most cost-effective service for interurban transportation in a metropolitan area.
• LRT promotes transit use and increases person throughput across their service corridors.

Historical Highlights

As of October 2022, LA transit-served a total length of 180 km, with two subway lines (Red & Purple Line) and four largely grade-separated LRT lines (Blue, Green, Gold, and Expo Lines) including:

14 July 1990: Metro Blue Line opened

30 Jan 1993: Union Station, Westlake/MacArthur Park

12 Aug 1995: Metro Green Line opened

13 July 1996: Westlake/MacArthur Park, Wilshire/Western

12 June 1999: Wilshire/Vermont, Hollywood/Highland

24 June 2000: Hollywood/Highland, North Hollywood (10 km)

26 July 2003: Metro Gold Line Union Station, at Sierra Madre Villa (22 km) 15 Nov 2009: Metro Gold Line Union Station, Atlantic (9.6 km)

28 Apr 2012: Metro Expo Line 7th Street/Metro Center, La Cienega/Jefferson (12.3 km)

20 June 2012: Metro Expo Line La Cienega/Jefferson, Culver City, and Farmdale stations added (1.6 km) 05 March 2016: Metro Gold Line Sierra Madre Villa, at APU/Citrus College (18.4 km)

20 May 2016: Metro Expo Line Culver City, Downtown Santa Monica (10.6 km) 07 Oct 2022: Metro Pink Line (K) Expo/Crenshaw, Westchester/Veterans (9.7 km)

Current Projects

The Regional Connector is planned to connect the various light rail lines in the city center via a tunnel following Flower and 2nd Streets (3 km), with three new stations: 2nd/Hope, 2nd/Broadway, and Little Tokyo/Arts District at 1st/Central. Construction started in Oct 2014 for completion by the end of 2022.

The second phase of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension will add another 19.8 km from Azuza via Pomona (2025) to Montclair (2028).

A planned Purple Line extension to Westwood/VA Hospital following Wilshire boulevard, 14.4 km in distance, with seven new stations: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, Wilshire/La Cienega (2023), Wilshire/Rodeo, Century City (2025), Westwood/UCLA, Westwood/VA Hospital (2027).

An East San Fernando Valley Light Rail addition between the G Line (Orange – BRT) Van Nuys station and the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink station in the northwest of the city (2028).

Street Upgrades

Ongoing and planned projects are not all about rail improvements, but also address road improvements:

• The downtown L.A. Regional Connector, a $1.8 billion 1.9-mile light rail subway is expected to open in early 2023. While a lot of Metro’s “civil improvements” around stations (mostly street widening and repaving, but also some sidewalks) are termed “restorations,” Metro calls this one a “reconfiguration.” This sort of street widening at Metro Stations is common; it has already happened at many stations along Metro’s Blue, Red, Purple, and Expo Lines.
• The 3rd Street Bike Lane Gap Closure involves repaired pavement, reconfigured lanes, and the installation of other critical safety improvements on 3rd Street from Main St to Alameda St. Improvements include fresh paint, upgraded crosswalks, and the repurposing of one travel lane to calm traffic and create space for protected bike lanes in one direction.
• Improvements along Adams Blvd will include pavement repair, signal upgrades, bike lanes, lane reduction, pedestrian beacons, pedestrian refuge islands, and other safety treatments.
• Plans to increase pedestrian and bicycle safety, mobility, and connectivity on parts of Martin Luther King Jr Blvd (MLK), Avalon Blvd (Avalon), and Gage Ave (Gage).

CREED LA is a non-profit alliance of labor organizations concerned with sustainable development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. To learn more about how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

With inflation reaching a forty-year high in recent months, everyone is now acutely aware of rising costs.

The consumer price index, which measures changes in the cost of food, housing, gasoline, utilities, and other goods, increased by 8.2% in the 12 months from September 2021 through August 2022.

The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows energy prices increased by 19.8% and gasoline by 18.2% over the last year.

Non-Residential Construction Material Costs

Rising costs in an inflationary period are not just impacting consumers. Global property services giant, CBRE(formerly REI Limited and CB Richard Ellis) forecasts a 14.1 percent year-over-year increase in U.S. construction costs by the end of this year due to the combination of labor shortages, inflation, supply chain disruptions, ongoing pandemic reverberations, and the war in Ukraine.

Let’s take a brief snapshot look at the last twelve-month increases in material costs according to the Producer Price Index from the Associated Builders and Contractors:

*Fabricated Structural Metal Products up 17.7%

*Softwood Lumber up 14.8%

*Concrete Products up 14.3%

*Prepared Asphalt, Tar, Roofing & Siding Products up 15.2%

*Nonferrous wire and cable up 6.1%

*Crude Petroleum up 38.8%

*Natural Gas up 118%

*Iron and Steel down 5.7%

*Steel Mill Products down 4.6%

The Impact

Deliveries of construction materials and equipment were disrupted not only due to severe labor shortages in factories but also shipping facility limitations. While some products were being manufactured, often they were waiting to be shipped for months at a time.

With such low resources and high requirements, construction material cost dramatically increased. Construction companies are reporting 10% to 30% increases in material costs from the time the bid is accepted to the time material orders are placed.

While many contractors may be considering passing on the material cost increases to project owners, they will likely find them resistant to the elevated charges due to increased borrowing costs and mounting recession concerns.

But it isn’t just the price of materials that is impacted; the lack of construction products also creates long waits for them to arrive and become available. These delays significantly affect contractors’ ability to meet their deadlines and complete a project as planned.

The increased costs of construction materials can greatly impact the construction industry, whether material price volatility is caused by an increase in demand for specific construction materials or supply chain disruptions are the culprit.

Be Proactive

While companies should always be proactive it is even more important to do so in an ever-changing economy. To prepare for rising inflation, companies should:

• Analyze their market position and identify what prices should increase to align with competitors’ pricing.
• Scrutinize product and service offerings to ascertain the highest cost increases with the lowest revenue potential and margins.
• Minimize supply chain risk by diversifying orders based on the import source.
• Research and detect products that have long lead times and strategize best practices to prevent products from being unavailable.

CREED LA is a non-profit coalition of labor organizations concerned about sustainable development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

While robots will never eliminate the need for human workers in the construction industry, many robot applications can be used to make work on the construction site quicker, safer, easier, more stress-free, and less labor demanding. By utilizing robots to handle more repetitive jobs, such as bricklaying, hanging drywall, and moving heavy materials, construction firms can reduce the quantity of labor they need for a project. Since robots can typically complete their jobs faster than their human counterparts, work gets done quickly and with fewer errors.

Five Ways Robots are Helping Construction Companies

Addressing the Labor Shortage

The National Center for Construction Education & Research, reports that “41% of construction workers on the job today are planning to retire by 2031.” What makes matters even worse is that fewer younger individuals are pursuing careers in the trades. “The construction industry will need to attract nearly 650,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2022 to meet the demand for labor,” according to a model developed by Associated Builders and Contractors. It is also important to note that autonomous robots don’t require breaks, don’t get a paycheck, don’t require worker’s compensation, and can work continuously overnight.

Cost Savings

Since most construction companies are already operating with razor-thin margins, every opportunity to lower costs makes a big difference to the bottom line. While autonomous robots do require ongoing maintenance, the amount of work they can produce compared to the recurring costs balances out on the plus side.

Improving Worker Safety

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 21% of all workplace deaths in 2018 occurred in the construction industry. Repetitive motions put stress on the human body. Conversely, robots can make the same motion 24 hours a day. Many of the applications of construction firms deploying autonomous machinery are focused on these types of tasks, conserving their human labor for jobs that require more finesse and thinking.

Flexibility

Any disruption in a construction company’s worker availability can create a chain reaction that throws off an entire project schedule. Using automated robots to complement their workforce allows companies greater flexibility.

Efficiency Improvements

Some tasks in construction work traditionally require multiple human workers tied to assigned tasks until a given stage of the project is complete. A good example of this is the use of drones with a single human operator performing survey work.

A Few Real World Examples

TheBricklayingSAMSystemeliminates strenuous work by lifting the brick, applying mortar, and placing each brick in place. The mason is accountable for ensuring accurate placement of the bricks, cleaning up the surplus mortar, and overseeing the overall project is completed properly.

Canvas, a company that builds robots using artificial intelligence, has developed a four-wheeled robot the size of a kitchen stove that scans the unfinished walls of a construction site using lidar, then gets to work smoothing the surface before applying a near-perfect layer of drywall compound. The device was employed in the new Harvey Milk Terminal at San Francisco International Airport and an office building connected to the Chase Center arena in San Francisco.

Komatsuuses San Francisco-based Skycatch drones to survey job sites from the air and then upload images to computers to create 3D models of the terrain.

TheArroyoBridgeis a perfect example of what is possible. The innovative 80-foot pedestrian bridge perched over a ravine in the mountains of Los Angeles was designed by architecture students at the University of Southern California with 3D software and was fabricated out of hundreds of recycled steel parts by an advanced six-axis robotic arm.

Again, robots will never eliminate the need for human workers in the construction industry, but there are many applications robots can be used for!

Wikipedia defines a Smart City “as a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. The information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources, and services efficiently; in return, that data is used to improve operations across the city.”

What Makes a Smart City?

Empowering Technology
The fast-tracked development of new technologies including 5G, AI, cloud, and edge computing is helping to drive the evolution of Smart Cities.

Decarbonizing Building and Construction
The Paris agreement, an international treaty on climate change, adopted in 2015, requires all buildings to be net-zero carbon by 2050. Today, commercial buildings account for 20% of energy use in the US, 30% of which is wasted. Smart solutions can convert them into energy-efficient and sustainable buildings while automating the way they are managed.

Energy Efficiency
Transitioning to lower carbon energy systems is a priority. Analysts at Barclays Investment Bank expect to see significant financing in smart grids, next-generation energy transmission, and distribution networks that can automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in supply and demand accordingly.

Other systems expected to drive the adoption of low-carbon energy will include smart meters, which allow utility companies to introduce price differentiation, microgrids for local sources of energy, and encourage lower consumer usage

Smart Water and Waste Management
Digital water technologies will innovate and drive new solutions in the water and wastewater industries. That’s according to an IDTechEx report titled “Digital Water Networks 2020-2030.”

Data provided by smart water meters will deliver real-time consumption patterns. Water demand response will be faster and thus help with pressure regulation throughout the network. In addition, sensors can measure a wide range of chemicals and pollution in real-time.

Smart Cities
Internationally Singapore, Zurich, Oslo, London, and Copenhagen topped the list of the world’s smartest cities on the 2021 Smart City Index. U.S. entries include New York, Boulder, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Fresno, Cedar Rapids, Austin, and Louisville.

One example is found In Fresno’s CitiStat model to share and track data and improve transportation through an adaptive intelligent transportation system. Another is San Francisco’s many “green” initiatives for its smart parking system. On Austin’s dedicated smart city page on the website, they describe their transportation plans, which involve automated and connected vehicles, intelligent sensors, open data, and real-time traveler information. Fighting a decreasing population, the city of Pittsburgh has proposals in place for reinventing its infrastructure. They have developed MOVEPGH, their transportation improvement plan, which will make the city more bike and pedestrian friendly. The steel city also plans to rejuvenate the Almono steel site with a microgrid of solar and geothermal energy and render the city greener with LED streetlights and electric vehicle charging stations.”

Construction is one of the most dangerous professions. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that one in ten construction site workers are injured yearly.

Mitigate Safety Hazards

Employers and construction workers need to work together to mitigate safety hazards. This requires:

• Awareness– Ensuring the safety of the construction workers and everyone on the site should be the number one priority of any construction manager. Understanding the perils of a construction site and sustaining a perpetual state of alertness is perhaps the number-one best way to prevent accidents.
• Training– The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other organizations publish resources to help businesses train new laborers on standard safety and security practices, including pamphlets, guides, training videos, and even on-site training.
• Communication– Construction firms should equip workers with devices, like smartphones, walkie-talkies, or headsets, which allow fast and efficient communication among team members.
• ProperEquipment– Not only should each piece of equipment on the job site be ideally suited to the task at hand, but construction firms need to ensure that all machinery and material are properly maintained.
• ProperSupervision– Every construction site must have a strong supervisor who is willing and capable of enforcing safety standards with no exceptions. This construction supervisor must keep track of all site employees throughout the day and immediately correct those who fail to commit to proper construction site safety procedures.

OSHA’s Most Frequently Cited Standards in Construction

• Electrical (wiring methods, design, and protection) – Check all electrical tools and equipment regularly for defects.
• Excavations– Use a protective system for trenches of one foot deep or greater. A worker should never enter a trench that is unprotected.
• Fall Protection – Consider using aerial lifts to provide safer working surfaces for elevated platforms.
• GeneralSafetyandHealthProvisions– Construction workers should wear work boots with slip-resistant and puncture-resistant soles.
• Hazard Communication – Make information accessible to employees at all times in multiple languages and formats.
• Hazardous Substances — Use an effective employee training program for handling hazardous substances.
• Head Protection – Use hard hats, safety nets, and body harnesses at all times.
• Ladders – Avoid ladders with metal components near electrical work and power lines.
• Scaffolding – Fall hazards can occur when scaffolds are not deployed properly.

The best way to reduce the number of construction accidents is to keep workers aware of safety issues, train them on safety, communicate safety plans, and continuously discuss innovative ways to improve safety. In addition to these steps, workers must be provided with the right equipment and proper supervision.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on mitigating construction safety hazards in your community visit https://creedla.com.