Category Archive

Posted by David Bradbury, AssuredPartners Throughout history, all enduring progress in our world began with a vision, was refined by a concept, and was created based on a solid foundation, teamwork, and a plan to grow and prosper. Along the way, our industry has learned the valuable lesson that interdependent and interdisciplinary relationships, earned trust, and adherence to solid core values, ethical standards, and consistently adopting innovative construction and risk solutions, become the necessary foundation for sustaining success in the 21st century. To that end, contractors today require much more than traditional insurance, surety, risk management and claims services from their broker. The complexities of the present construction environment demand the engagement and services of a professional business partner/broker who will make …

By Sarah Licata for AssuredPartners The price of surety bonds can vary greatly, and many people are unclear of why this is. When determining premium, surety companies are looking to determine the amount of risk there is with an applicant by considering at a variety of indicating factors. Below are some key factors that may be considered when determining bond premium. Type of Surety Bond There are many different types of surety bonds and the type of bond required can vary in price. This is due to the fact that each surety bond guarantees a unique risk, and the level of risk the surety company is taking on is factored into the premium. In short, the higher the level of …

By Ballard Spahr for “JDSUPRA” The White House released a 53-page framework on Tuesday setting forth its legislative goals for rebuilding America’s infrastructure (the Infrastructure Plan). The Infrastructure Plan is intended “to lead to at least $1.5 trillion in investments to rebuild our failing infrastructure and develop innovative projects” through $200 billion in federal funding to promote state and local governmental and private sector investment over the next 10 years. This would largely shift funding for infrastructure away from the federal government to state, local and private sector funding sources. Read the article >>>

In the U.S., commercial drone use has accelerated across many industries. In the last two years, one million new pilots have registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, and by 2020, experts expect seven million drones to be in use. The 2017 Drone Market Sector Report found that construction (design, building inspection or monitoring) is in the top three uses for commercial drone-based services, behind aerial photography, surveying and mapping, and geographic information systems (GIS). The number of construction and engineering companies using drones is expected to continue to grow, as use cases emerge that offer further business value and competitive advantage for companies with drone programs. Read more here >>>

Behind the gleaming glass façade of LaSalle’s new civic centre lies a tangled mess of construction liens and lawsuits still making its way through the courts three and a half years after the building opened to the public. Battling in the civil courts are Piroli Construction, the general contractor on the $13.8-million project, and the Town of LaSalle, as well as several subcontractors who claim they were never paid for work they completed. Tuesday, a Superior Court judge ordered that seven separate lawsuits be dealt with together when and if they ever go to trial. They include Piroli’s $319,000 claim against the town, the town’s counterclaim of $75,000 against Piroli for breach of contract and six construction liens totalling $613,604 naming …

Groundbreakings on several mega projects late last year lifted ConstructConnect’s 2017 total U.S. starts to +11.1% versus 2016, more than the +7.9% set out in the previous quarterly forecast. The out-front timing of those mega project starts also caused trimming of ConstructConnect’s expectations for 2018, which is now being projected at +3.0% year over year versus the prior projection of +4.8%. Read more about the forecast >>>