Western Builder articles from April 2008

Western Builder archives from April 2008

Doosan Infracore Portable Power Renames Truck-Related Products.(Truck-Mounted Equipment)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Staff Doosan Infracore Portable Power has renamed its truck-related power products from "Onboard Power Solutions" to "Truck-Mounted Equipment." Doosan says the new name better reflects the products being an integral part of service...

"Ground Support" Is New Brand For JLG Services.
April 7, 2008... Staff JLG Industries, Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation company, has made Ground Support the new umbrella brand for its full range of services, including parts, training, used-equipment sales, reconditioning, repair and maintenance, financing,...

Grainger Completes Largest Product Expansion In Company History.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Staff Leading facility-maintenance-product supplier Grainger has released its 2008 catalog featuring more than 183,000 facility-maintenance products. The new catalog includes 44,000 more items than last year, the largest expansion in...

Custom Equipment Has New Distributor In Western U.S.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Staff Custom Equipment, Inc., Richfield, Wis., has formed a distributor relationship with Las Vegas-based Ahern Rentals Inc. to provide rental, retail sales and service coverage for Custom Equipment's Hy-Brid aerial platforms throughout 11...

Tweet/Garot Promotes Withbroe To COO.
April 7, 2008... Staff Tweet/Garot Mechanical, Inc., Green Bay, Wis., has promoted Raymond Withbroe to chief operating officer. Withbroe was most recently vice president of Tweet/Garot's industrial division. He has served the company in numerous other...

Miron Names Dan Voss VP, Business Development, Of Northern Operations.
April 7, 2008... Staff Miron Construction Co., Inc., Neenah, Wis., recently named Dan Voss as vice president, business development, for its northern operations. Voss will direct the development of strategic alliances with clients, business partners and...

Bayer Is Miron's New BIM Specialist.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Staff Miron Construction Co., Inc., Neenah, Wis., has hired Dan Bayer as its new BIM (Building Information Modeling) specialist. His 12 years of extensive industry experience includes implementing and teaching BIM technologies in...

Coleman Engineering Announces Sprague Graduation.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Staff Coleman Engineering Co., Iron Mountain, Mich., has announced that employee Marc Sprague recently graduated from Michigan Technological University with a bachelor's degree in surveying, earned through the university's distance...

McNeilly Joins R.A. Smith 's Transportation Division.
April 7, 2008... Staff Heather McNeilly has joined R.A. Smith & Associates, Inc. - civil engineering, planning, surveying, landscape architecture, GIS and 3-D visualization consultants - Brookfield, Wis., as a civil engineer in the transportation division....

Landscaper Grows Long-Term Customers.(Growth of MJB Services)(Editorial)
April 7, 2008... By Mike Larson, Editor Skill, range of services, and focus on customers helps MJB thrive for 20 years. MJB Services, Elkhorn, Wis., has built a thriving landscape-services business in southeastern Wisconsin by skillfully attending to...

CONEXtra: More From The Wisconsin/Northern Illinois Trade Show.
April 7, 2008... Story by Mike Larson, Editor The Wisconsin/Northern Illinois CONEX show, held in Milwaukee at the end of January, offered tons - literally - of new or improved construction-industry products this year. They ranged from hand tools to...

Vermeer-Wisconsin HDD Seminar Delivers Valuable Information.
April 7, 2008... Story by Mike Larson, Editor Seminar about directional drilling definitely not boring. About 60 directional drilling professionals from across Wisconsin and Upper Michigan attended the HDD seminar put on by Vermeer-Wisconsin just west...

WisDOT Posts Seasonal Weight Restrictions For North-Central Highways.
April 14, 2008... Staff The Wisconsin Department of Transportation's (WisDOT) North-Central office has posted seasonal weight limits on state highways in its region. The restrictions are 6 tons gross load for single-axle vehicles and 10 tons gross load...

Skid-Steer Loaders Still No. 1 Theft Target.
April 14, 2008... Staff A recent study by LoJack Corp., Westwood, Mass., shows that construction-equipment thefts cost construction companies up to $1 billion per year in lost assets, and the costs are still growing. The study, which analyzed LoJack...

Construction Faces Tumultuous Year, Says AGC Economist.
April 14, 2008... Staff Nonresidential construction will experience wide variance in demand, materials cost and labor availability, according to the Construction Inflation Alert released recently by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). ...

Ready-Mixed Concrete Association Holds Convention.
April 14, 2008... Staff The Wisconsin Ready-Mixed Concrete Association's 2008 convention included education, networking and a simulated radio show. Phill Domask claimed concrete is not a commodity; Dave Gorwitz discussed collection issues in the...

Civil Engineers Extend Time For Grouting Comments.
April 14, 2008... Staff The American Society of Civil Engineers' Geo-Institute (ASCE/G-I) has extended the public comment period on its new compaction grouting guideline until May 7, 2008. Working with the belief that compaction grouting is a reliable...

R.A. Smith And National Survey & Engineering Become R.A. Smith National, Inc.
April 14, 2008... Staff R.A. Smith & Associates, Inc. and its National Survey & Engineering division, both of Brookfield, Wis., have been renamed R.A. Smith National, Inc. The name change brings together R.A. Smith & Associates, which serves state and...

PCA Report: Recovery Will Begin in 2010.
April 21, 2008... Staff U.S. construction activity and cement consumption will experience significant declines this year, according to a recent PCA economic research report. Portland cement consumption is expected to drop 10 percent in 2008, followed...

Electric Generator Safety Tips.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Staff The Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) is offering these tips for safe operation of portable electric generators: The generator should be the correct size, with a slightly larger output than the power needed to operate all the...

AB & J Contributes To United Flight 93 Memorials.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Staff Michels Corp., Brownsville, Wis., donated 40 6-foot-tall pieces of Wisconsin Red Granite that form the center pieces of the first memorial paying tribute to the 40 passengers and crew members killed when United Flight 93 crashed in a...

BASF Revises Website, Offers New Asphalt Brochure.
April 21, 2008... Staff BASF has launched new communication materials about the use of latex to enhance the performance of pavement-preservation systems and conventional hot-mix and warm-mix asphalt products. The new brochure, titled "Asphalt modification...

Wisconsin's Sondergard Elected To Board Of CSDA.
April 21, 2008... Staff Jack Sondergard, of Central Concrete Cutting, Inc., Edgar, Wis., was among the board members elected by the Concrete Sawing & Drilling Association (CSDA) at its recent convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. He will serve until 2010.

R.A. Smith National Announces Promotions And Registrations.
April 21, 2008... Staff R.A. Smith National, Inc., Brookfield, Wis., has announced several employee promotions and professional registrations. Thomas Bock , land development services division, has been promoted from project manager to senior project...

Unique New Graphics for Roman Electric Service Trucks.(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Staff Milwaukee electrical contractor Roman Electric Co., Inc. is redesigning the graphics on its large fleet of service trucks to include huge, individual photos of working electricians. Roman has redone three trucks and is working on 10...

Editor's Report.
April 21, 2008... By Mike Larson Good Samaritans On The Way To Conexpo While I was flying from Milwaukee to Las Vegas to attend the Conexpo trade show in March, I had a medical emergency during the flight. Although it was an experience I would not...

Madison's Magnificent University Square.
April 21, 2008... Story by Mike Larson, Editor Impressive $190-million mixed-use project moving ahead, on schedule. It is the largest mixed-use project in Madison, Wis., history - a 1.1-million-square-foot facility that combines retail space, housing,...

Laborer Training Center Builds Skills.
April 21, 2008... Story by Mike Larson, Editor Labor Union's 50,000-square-foot facility near Madison trains apprentices and journeymen from across state. One of the construction industry's greatest and most-discussed current challenges is how to...

Miller-Bradford Excavator Competition May 2 In Negaunee.
April 28, 2008... Staff Case equipment distributor Miller-Bradford & Risberg will hold the first annual MBR Case Challenge competition on Friday, May 2, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at its facility at 75 US Hwy 41, Negaunee, Mich. Excavator operators...

EPA To Award $5 million To Midwest Clean-Diesel Projects.
April 28, 2008... Staff U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5's Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative expects to award some $5 million in grants for diesel-emission reduction projects in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. ...

SRW Professionals Can Now Join NMCA.
April 28, 2008... Staff The National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA), a global trade association representing the concrete masonry and hardscape industry, has created new membership categories for segmental retaining wall (SRW) contractors and...

Case Rodeo Series Champion.
April 28, 2008... Staff Nick Market of Windsor, Ont., Canada, beat four other finalists to earn the title of Case Rodeo Series North American Champion. Along with the title, Market won the grand prize - a 50th Anniversary limited-edition Case 580 Super...

UW-Stout Team Wins In ABC National Contest.
April 28, 2008... Staff A team from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wis., was one of just four teams honored by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) in a recent nationwide student essay contest. The competition, held by the ABC's...

ESM Names Smith Engineer Of The Year.(2007 Engineer of the Year Award to Richard Smith)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Staff Richard Smith, president and owner of R. A. Smith National, has received the 2007 Engineer of the Year Award from Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee (ESM). The ESM Engineer of the Year award is presented to an outstanding...

Krueger Construction Earns DKI Rookie Award.
April 28, 2008... Staff Disaster Kleenup International, Inc. (DKI), Wood Dale, Ill., the largest disaster restoration contracting organization in North America, has bestowed its 2007 Rookie Award on Carl Krueger Construction, of Milwaukee, Wis. The...

Laird Retires, Pignolet Now President Of Wildeck.(Wildeck, Inc.)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Staff Wildeck, Inc., Waukesha, Wis., a leading manufacturer of mezzanines, materiallifts and safety-guarding products, has completed strategic management changes that reflect the company's continuing growth. In March, former President...

Gille Named Wausau Architectural Services Manager.
April 28, 2008... Staff Wausau Window and Wall Systems, Wausau, Wis., has named Steve Gille as architectural services manager. Gille's new role involves educating and assisting the architectural community, general contractors and construction managers,...