Trade group ABC says contractors hitting project capacity is one reason for slight downward trend in May.

The Washington-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) trade group says national nonresidential construction spending fell by 0.6 percent this May compared with April. Its chief economist says many contracting firms are unable to take on additional work.

Spending was down in May compared with April in 10 of the 16 nonresidential subcategories, according to ABC and United States Census Bureau statistics. Residential construction spending, on the other hand, was able to rise a slight 0.2 percent during the month.

Private nonresidential spending was down 0.4 percent while public nonresidential construction spending was down 0.8 percent in May. Nonresidential construction spending remains up 1.0 year-to-date compared with the first five months of 2021.

In the nonresidential sector year-to-date, the best performer is manufacturing, a segment in which construction spending is up 26.3 percent on a year-over-year basis.

“Many contractors continue to report that they are operating at capacity despite a lack of strong nonresidential construction spending recovery,” says ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “That juxtaposition provides solid evidence that the supply side of the U.S. economy remains heavily constrained by worker shortages, domestic and global supply chain disruptions and resulting high prices.”

Continues Basu, “Since the early months of the pandemic, contractors have reported that they are able to pass along their cost increases to project owners, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index. But there are growing concerns among industry leaders that the ability to pass along cost increases will dissipate during the months ahead as financial conditions tighten and confidence in economic performance wanes.”

Going forward, “There is also a growing risk of a significant number of project postponements in both private and public construction segments due to high materials prices and labor costs,” states Basu.

“The key to sustaining nonresidential construction’s recovery will be slower inflation,” he continues. “As long as inflation remains elevated, monetary policy will continue to tighten and project owners will be less willing to move forward with projects in an effort to preserve cash. Less inflation and more favorable construction materials prices would create a foundation for renewed construction spending vigor.”

While construction tied to manufacturing space has been the brightest spot in 2022, the Census Bureau figures indicate the lodging sector has cooled off the most this year. Year-to-date, 11.7 percent less has been spent on building hotels compared with the same timeframe in 2021.

Demo financing reportedly arranged to take down hospital vacated in 2005.

A parish (county) government in Louisiana will reportedly soon seek demolition contracting bids to bring down a hospital in Eunice, Louisiana.

An early July news item posted to the website of The Eunice News, based in that Louisiana city, says the Acadia Parish government will be seeking bids to demolish the former Moosa Hospital building. The newspaper says the structure has been vacant since 2005, when hospital operations were moved to the Acadian Medical Center.

The Eunice News says Acadian Medical board chair Newton “Chip” Thibodeaux Jr. confirmed to it the bidding process is about to be underway, adding that “the finances for the demolition finally came together.”

A bid notice for unspecified pre-demolition abatement work to be performed at the hospital already has been posted to a bid clearinghouse website.

The posting does not specifically mentioned asbestos, lead or any other material, but states merely, “This project consists of the abatement of former hospital.” The notice then spells out how bid documents can be obtained, and that a pre-bid conference will be held July 20. The bid notice also indicates Lafayette, Louisiana-based Ritter Consulting Engineers is involved in the bidding process.

A (possible) footnote concerning the hospital’s history can be found in books written concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The 2021 book “The Murder Trial of JFK,” written by James O. Chipman, claims a woman named Melba Christine Marcades accepted a ride with two men from Miami to Dallas in November 1963. During that trip, the three went to a nightclub in Eunice.

Marcades later claimed the men told her about a plan to assassinate the president, and then threw her from a moving car near Eunice. Several days later she was questioned about the incident while a patient at Moosa Memorial Hospital, according to Chipman.

Another author covered the incident eight years earlier. “A Rose by Many Other Names: Rose Cherami & the JFK Assassination,” by Todd C. Elliott, bases its 98 pages of text around statements given to police by Marcades (aka Rose Cherami) after her reported incident in Eunice.

German shredder producer says it now employs about 190 people to serve the global recycling market.

Leimbach, Germany-based shredder manufacturer Arjes GmbH says in just 15 years it has grown to become a leading supplier of industrial shredders for the recycling industry, “meeting growing global challenges of the numerous mountains of waste of a wide variety of materials.” In the United States, Arjes shredders are distributed by Michigan-based Bandit Industries.

The company was founded in 2007 by Norbert Hammel, whom Arjes describes as a pioneer of twin-shaft crushing and shredding. He bought the site of an old concrete factory in Leimbach and converted it into a shredder production facility that started with 19 employees.

Today, Arjes describes the headquarters site as “a buzzing operation with just about 190 employees.” The company, which started with a shredder for scrap wood, continues to develop, optimize and expand its machinery to be able to shred a wider variety of materials today, including metal, mixed materials and concrete.

“The thing that makes our machines so unique is their mobility, their wide range of applications and the fact that they are very easy to handle,” says Martin Priewe from the Arjes marketing department. “We are a relatively young company, but we have been able to grow very quickly over the last 15 years due to our commitment and willingness to innovate. Every machine we develop is a progression of the previous one. Hence our motto ‘Innovation is what keeps us thriving.’”

In 2016, Arjes launched the Impaktor 250, its first machine designed to crush stone and concrete. It also was also the first machine to be equipped with an Arjes quick-change system for shafts.

“With the development of the Impaktor 250, we wanted to clearly stand out from our competitors," says Christian Hennig, operations manager at Arjes. “We researched the market and questioned the needs of our customers. Many stated that it was difficult to change the shredding shafts and that this affected the daily work output.”

Arjes says healthy demand for its mobile shredding plants means it will continue to develop its product line “in order to be able to maintain the successful course in the future.”

Producer of aggregates, sand and debris washing systems introduces two machines at United Kingdom event.

United Kingdom-based Terex Washing Systems (TWS) has debuted for the wider public two new machines in its product line, which is designed to clean and prepare aggregates, sand and C&D debris to produce marketable materials. The machines were debuted at the Hillhead equipment exhibition in the U.K.

The company describes its FM Pentium model as “a completely new machine with the capability to wash one grade of sand and one aggregate on a single chassis.” The FM Pentium is a static sand and aggregate washing unit and part of its existing FinesMaster product range.

The machine combines a collection tank, centrifugal slurry pump, hydrocyclone(s) and a dewatering screen, says TWS. With a feed capacity of up to 150 tons per hour of pre-screened material, the FM Pentium can produce up to 120 tons per hour washed sand.

The second machine launch was for what TWS calls a new and improved AggreSand 206. Some of its new features include an increased feed hopper size option to allow for greater feed capacity, a redesigned Cyclone underflow box and dewatering screen to give what TWS calls “much sharper cuts in blending and enhanced end product.”

States TWS, “Pit and quarry operators can look forward to more intelligent ways to wash sand, gravel, aggregates, and C&D waste thanks to Terex Washing Systems’ high-performance solution.”

Demolition of abandoned Dorado Mill in Rhode Island is likely to begin this month.

Demolition work on an abandoned Rhode Island textile mill that needed both asbestos abatement and pest control measures is reportedly poised to start in July.

An online report from the Providence Business News (PBN) says the abandoned facility in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, may start to be dismantled the week of July 11. The news organization cites Woonsocket mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt as its source.

With the asbestos and pest control work finished, demolition followed by redevelopment of the property are poised to get underway, says the mayor.

According to the PBN article, AAA Asbestos Abatement Co. of Johnston, Rhode Island, performed the asbestos and pest abatement work. The demolition contract has been awarded to AAA Asbestos’ sister company AA Wrecking. That firm anticipates completing the demolition work in just 60 days, according to the news service.

In a May cleanup grant application filed by the city of Woonsocket, the city refers to the El Dorado plant as consisting of “four individual and adjacent parcels of land [that] common ownership, history, use and contamination.”

A piece of attached correspondence included in the grant refers to the presence of five underground storage tanks (USTs) on the site as well as a “plume of petroleum-containing soil.”

Regarding redevelopment, the city of Woonsocket indicates “the Dorado property has the most potential to be a catalyst for a signature mixed-use redevelopment consisting of a blend of industrial, commercial, and residential uses,” according to its grant application.