Reliable Contracting

Construction Industry News: EPA Trying to Pass New Stormwater Rule

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:32:49 +0000

The Environmental Protection Agency recently created a general permit for stormwater runoff from construction sites. The new permit – titled the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) - went into effect on February 16, 2012.

For more information, refer to the following: FR Notice (PDF) (8 pp, 180K).

The 2012 CGP replaced the 2008 CGP, which expired on February 15, 2012. This new permit will provide coverage for eligible new and existing construction projects for a period of five years.

Features of the 2012 Construction General Permit (CGP)

• The 2012 CGP includes a number of modifications to the 2008 CGP, many of which are necessary to implement the new Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards for Construction and Development point sources, known as the “C&D rule.”

• Does not include turbidity limits.

For background on the EPA’s original rule and related legal wrangling, see EPA to Reconsider Key Aspect of Construction Stormwater Rule, by attorneys Meline MacCurdy and Russell Prugh of Marten Law (September 30, 2010).

If you have any questions about the EPA Proposed Stormwater Rule or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

Reliable Contracting maintains a reputation as a leader in the construction industry. Our clientele includes builders, developers, individuals and government agencies. With projects ranging in cost from $10,000 to over $10 million, Reliable can be seen working on Maryland’s roads, highways, airports, office parks, shopping centers, hospitals, churches, and residential neighborhoods earning our reputation by providing clients with consistent quality and dedication to their projects.

Reliable Contracting Company serves the following and surrounding Counties: Annapolis, Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Howard, Prince George, St. Mary’s, Talbot, and Washington D.C.

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Sources:

EPA Pushing for New Construction Stormwater Rule

EPA Submits Permit for Construction Sites Minus Turbidity Limits for Stormwater Runoff

Concrete Contractor Safety :: Reliable Contracting of Baltimore, Maryland

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:54:24 +0000

When it comes to any sort of construction project, safety should be a top priority. The same goes for concrete contractors and the wide range of services these contractors offer, including site development, concrete finishing, and everything in between. The combination of heavy machinery, large building materials, traffic, etc. makes each and every job site dangerous. This is why it is important to have a construction safety plan in place.

Still, countless construction workers are injured or even killed every year because of job site accidents.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a sub-cabinet of the US Department of Labor, over 5,700 people were fatally injured in the workplace in 2008 alone. Of these 5,700, the construction industry accounted for nearly 1,000 lives, 17% of all workplace fatalities.

How does this concern you?

It is important to review the safety records of any commercial concrete company before considering that company for any project you may have. Hiring a concrete contractor that places safety first will avoid unnecessary delays, fines, and worker injuries.

Concrete contractors with solid safety records – like Reliable Contracting – will have no problem providing their safety records.

If you have any questions about Concrete Contractor Safety or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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Sources:

Commercial Concrete Contractor

Baltimore, Maryland’s Premier Construction Company :: Reliable Contracting The name says it all!

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:06:48 +0000

For over 80 years, Reliable Contracting has been providing high quality service that is second to none. And today, we are Anne Arundel County’s largest site-work contractor, with more than 400 employees, 100 trucks, and 250 pieces of earthmoving equipment.

Interested in scheduling Reliable Contracting for a job?

We currently have crews available for work. Contact us today to schedule your estimate before we are completely booked solid!

Reliable Contracting’s Services Include:

-Asphalt and Aggregate / Paving and Concrete: Reliable Contracting Company is a full-service commercial and residential asphalt paving contractor, offering the production and installation of hot and cold-mix asphalt, asphalt patching, milling, seal coating and crack filling. Reliable Contracting operates three hot-mix asphalt plants in Anne Arundel County, affording us unequalled reach for commercial asphalt projects in the Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas. By controlling the raw paving materials, asphalt production, trucking, and installation, Reliable can provide complete single-source solutions for your Maryland asphalt paving project.

-Grading and Excavation: Utilizing state of the art equipment and experienced operators, Reliable’s Grading and Excavation Division performs a full range of earthmoving services to prepare commercial and residential development sites in the State of Maryland for the construction of buildings, roads, parking lots and many other uses.

-Utility Division: Reliable’s Utility Division is responsible for installing water and sewer lines, storm drains and storm water management systems – creating strong foundations for efficient and environmentally-friendly commercial and residential land development in Maryland.

If you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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EPA Emissions Regulations (Tier 4) and Compliant Systems

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:37:51 +0000

Meeting the growing need around the world to replace and expand sewer and clean-water infrastructure is tough, especially when you take into account the new United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Emissions Regulations, also known as Tier 4. The EPA Tier 4 standards are designed to reduce emissions by as much as 90 percent or more, according to the EPA.

Thankfully, there is a solution: the AXIS guided boring system by Vermeer.

This trenchless system eliminates many of the steps associated with traditional opencut installation techniques, speeding up installation and requiring fewer operators.
“This new system came to market because methods used in the past were rudimentary and slow,” says Ryan Erger, product specialist for the AXIS system. “We integrated several technologies into one system that allows contractors to install underground pipeline with extreme accuracy at a fast rate, all the while helping to reduce the environmental footprint.”

Benefits of the Axis System

The system integrates a closed-circuit camera into the drill head, allowing the operator to constantly monitor the drilling process.
The excavated material is removed by a high-powered liquid-ring vacuum driven by a John Deere PowerTech PVX 6068H Interim Tier 4/Stage III B engine. These engines feature cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) for NOx control and an exhaust filter for reducing particulate matter.
Excavated materials are collected in a vacuum tank, eliminating the hassle of manually handling the spoils in the launch pit.

“The cooled EGR and exhaust filter technology approach provides a simple and proven solution requested by our customers,” says Doug Laudick, manager of product planning at John Deere Power Systems. “We believe cooled EGR provides our customers with the best value for Interim Tier 4/Stage III B.”

If you have any questions about Tier 4 Compliant Systems or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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Sources:

Interim Tier 4 Equipment That’s Up to the Underground Challenge

EPA Emissions Requirements for Construction Equipment

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:35:48 +0000

In 2004, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set new emissions standards – Tier 4 Standards – for non-road diesel engines. These standards are designed to reduce emissions by as much as 90 percent or more, according to the EPA.

Since 2004, construction equipment manufacturers have been working diligently to meet these Tier 4 standards by developing new, greener solutions including:

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR)
Cooled exhaust gas recirculation (CEGR or EGR)

Many construction equipment manufacturers are using SCR, CEGR or EGR, or a combination of the two to meet Interim Tier 4 standards.

The Difference Between SCR and CEGR/EGR

-SCR is an after-treatment only system. It creates a chemical reaction by adding diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), transforming the NOx into nitrogen and water, which occurs naturally in the atmosphere.

-In a CEGR system, exhaust gases are cooled and blended with fresh air, then returned into the cylinder. This helps lower combustion temperatures and drastically reduces NOx. However, the cooler combustion temperatures produce higher PM levels, which require an after-treatment diesel particulate filter (DPF) system.

Tier 4 technologies will not add any complexity to the operation of construction machinery. In fact, operators should find it easy to check DEF levels on SCR-equipped machines, and to check the diesel particulate filter on machines featuring the CEGR technology.

If you have any questions about EPA Emissions Regulations (Tier 4) or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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USING A MIX OF EMISSIONS TECHNOLOGIES

Subsurface Utility Mapping

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:24:45 +0000

One of the most critical bits of data needed before any urban or suburban construction project can begin is the whereabouts of underground utilities. Contractors must be aware of water trunk lines, sanitary tap-ins, power lines, and gas line for several reasons.

Contractors need to know where these utilities are in order to tap into them.
Contractors need to know where these utilities are in order to avoid them during excavation and other intrusive construction activities.

If these utilizes are not located before a construction project begins, the results can be extremely damaging and costly.

For precisely measuring underground utilities, several different tools are needed, including:

Metal Detectors: These devices can locate utilities and compute depths by using magnetic field measurements.

Gradiometers: These devices measure magnetic field gradients (changes) instead of total field strength.

Optimal Ranging’s Spar Utility Locator (FieldSens): This new technology computes the effects of ground conductivity and field distortions in real time, combining this information with GPS map utilities in 3D.

Acoustic Technologies: A sensitive acoustic reader is used to read background sounds, such as water flowing. This is perfect for locating leaks or other damage in water lines or other lines with a flow.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR): This method utilizes radar pulses to image the subsurface, producing a geological cross-section of the soil based on the electrical properties of the ground. GPR uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and detects reflected signals from subsurface features.

As you can see, there are several options available to contractors to help find the locations of subsurface utilities.

If you have any questions about Subsurface Utility Mapping or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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Sources:

Virtual Stringline: Exploring Subsurface Utility Mapping

How Construction Workers Can Stop Storm Water Pollution

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:50:22 +0000

Construction sites can result in the discharge of significant amounts of sediment and other pollutants. Because of this, a well thought out Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) is key in controlling runoff and sediment while also minimizing erosion.

As part of this plan, Best Management Practices or BMPs describe the controls and activities used in storm water pollution prevention. BMPs can be divided into two categories:

Structural BMPs: These include silt fences, sedimentation ponds, erosion control blankets, and temporary or permanent seeding
Nonstructural BMPs: These include picking up trash and debris, sweeping up nearby sidewalks and streets, maintaining equipment, and training site staff on erosion and sediment control practices.

Furthermore, most SWPPPs are more than just suggested practices; they are actually written documents describing each step of a construction sites pollution prevention and implementation. These plans include:

• Descriptions of the site

• Major phases of the planned activity

•Roles and responsibilities of contractors and subcontractors

• Inspection schedules and logs

•A place to document changes and modifications to the construction plans

•Associated storm water pollution prevention activities

The Clean Water Act and Associated Federal Regulations (Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations)

These regulations require all construction site operators performing clearing, grading, and excavating to obtain coverage under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for their storm water discharges.

If you have any questions about Storm Water Runoff and Pollution Prevention or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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Sources:

Developing Your Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan

Impacts of Storm Water Runoff

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:14:52 +0000

Simply put, storm water runoff, which occurs naturally, is rain or snowmelt that flows over land and does not percolate into the soil. Manmade surfaces, such as roads, sidewalks, and parking lots, can greatly alter the natural hydrology of the land by increasing the volume, velocity, and temperature of runoff and by decreasing its infiltration capacity.

In nature, storm water is absorbed by the soil, which acts as a natural filter, removing harmful toxins. Then, the now harmless storm water seeps into streams, ponds, lakes, and underground aquifers.
In urban areas, storm water falls directly on cement and asphalt pavements and has nowhere to filter out harmful contaminants. As a result, those contaminants are washed into waterways without undergoing natural filtration.

This is a very serious problem that can result in severe stream bank erosion, flooding, and the degradation of the biological habitat of these streams.

Other Ways Storm Water Runoff Impacts Us

Reducing infiltration can lower ground water levels
Reducing infiltration can affect drinking water supplies
As storm water runoff moves across surfaces, it picks up trash, debris, and pollutants such as sediment, oil and grease, pesticides and other toxins.
Changes in ambient water temperature, sediment, and pollutants from storm water runoff can be detrimental to aquatic life, wildlife, habitat, and human health.

Storm Water Runoff and the Construction Industry

The soil exposed by construction is especially vulnerable to excessive erosion. In fact, runoff from an unstabilized construction site can result in the loss of approximately 35–45 tons of sediment per acre each year (ASCE and WFF, 1992). This excess sediment clouds the water and reduces the amount of sunlight that is able to reach underwater plants, clog fish gills, smother aquatic habitats, etc.

If you have any questions about the Storm Water Runoff or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website. And be sure to check back here next week to learn how construction workers can stop storm water pollution.

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Sources:

Developing Your Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan

Highway Construction: Safety Tips for Drivers

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:51:11 +0000

Highway construction is an incredibly dangerous industry. Just check out the following statistics:

-The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported that one in ten construction site workers are injured every year.

-The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there are roughly 150,000 construction site accident injuries annually.

-In 2009, there were 667 work zone fatalities National Work Zone Car Crash Statistics.

-According to the National Work Zone Car Crash Statistics, approximately one work zone fatality occurs every 10 hours (2.3 a day) and approximately one work zone injury occurs every 13 minutes (110 a day).

-Crashes in highway work zones have killed at least 4,700 Americans – more than two a day – and injured 200,000 in the last five years alone (National Work Zone Car Crash Statistics).

-Still, about 85% of people killed in work zones are motorists, not workers (National Work Zone Car Crash Statistics).

To better ensure the safety of both motorists and workers, speed limits are decreased in construction zones and heavy fines are imposed for any motorists exceeding those speed limits. Still, accidents happen.

The problem is that driving conditions drastically change when entering a highway construction zone. These conditions are worsened by poor visibility brought on by adverse weather and nighttime construction.

To better protect yourself and construction workers, be sure to do the following when entering a highway construction zone:

slow down and use caution
Observe and obey all signs
Make sure your lights are on (even during the day) to increase visibility
Do not brake suddenly
Maintain a safe distance with the vehicle in front of you
Be prepared to change lanes as directed
Keep an eye out for construction workers

Remember to do your part and stay safe in highway construction zones!

If you have any questions about the Construction Industry or if you have a construction project that you need completed right the first time, please contact Reliable Contracting by calling 410-987-0313 or visit our website.

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Sources: Why you should Slow Down for Highway Construction

Associated Equipment Distributors Study on Infrastructure Investment

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:51:06 +0000

A new study, commissioned by the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) and conducted by researchers at the College of William and Mary’s Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, provides concrete evidence as to the positive impact infrastructure investment has on the economy and government tax receipts.

AED Study Findings

• One dollar spent on infrastructure construction produces roughly double ($1.92) the initial spending in direct and indirect economic output.

• A dollar in aggregate public infrastructure spending will generate $3.21 in economic output (GDP) over a 20-year period.

• Each dollar spent on infrastructure generates roughly 35 cents in indirect economic activity for manufacturers, 20 cents for professional and business services providers, and 10 cents for the finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sector.

• Over 20 years, one dollar in aggregate infrastructure spending generates 96 cents in taxes.

o Each dollar invested in highways and streets returns approximately 35 cents in tax revenue, of which 23 cents accrues at the federal level.

o Investing $1 in sewer systems and water infrastructure generates $2.03 in tax receipts ($1.35 for the federal government).
“The bottom line is that there’s a big difference between investment and wasteful spending,” said Associated Equipment Distributors President and CEO Toby Mack. “When the federal government pays to build a road or sewer, it’s like a business buying a bulldozer or computer. It’s a productive asset that will spur economic activity and generate revenues for years to come.”

The full report is available at The Economic Impact and Financing of Infrastructure Spending.

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Sources:

New AED Study Shows Infrastructure Investment Aids Economy