Texas Firms Earn Top Safety Awards

POH partners with TSU to create new maritime degree program; also, SpawGlass, Brookstone and Fretz Construction among firms selected as safest construction companies in America and Charter Builders wins safety award.

TSU, Port Create Maritime Transportation Management & Security Degree

Texas Southern University and Port of Houston Authority have created a new degree program in maritime transportation management and security, designed to address logistics, security and environment.

The degree program is the first of its kind in Houston and the first program at any Historically Black College and University in the country, according to TSU.

The goal of the program is aimed at boosting the regional economy and helping meet future workforce needs of the Port of Houston and in the maritime industry.

PHA has committed $2 million to the program over a two-year period. The funds will be primarily allocated to develop, promote and recruit students from the Maritime Transportation Management and Security Program at Texas Southern University.

The new program allows the university to partner with the public component of the Port of Houston while creating a program that will also expose area high school students to maritime employment opportunities, including a high school maritime academy program that PHA is developing.

“We’re already beginning to receive a great deal of interest from students about the new degree program,” says Eva Pickens, TSU spokesperson. “We have set a goal to educate nearly 300 students in the undergraduate and graduate degree programs in five years.”

The partnership demonstrates that the parties share a mutual interest in fostering and enlarging educational opportunities in the maritime industry, Argentina M. James, director of public affairs for POHA, told Texas Construction.

The Port of Houston is ranked first in the U.S. in foreign waterborne tonnage, second in the U.S. in total tonnage, and is home to the second-largest petrochemical complex in the world. According to a third-party report released in 2007, the Port of Houston annually generates more than 785,000 jobs and nearly $118 billion in economic activity in Texas.

Charter Builders Wins State, National Safety Excellence Awards

Dallas-based Charter Builders Ltd. won first place in the 2009 Construction Management 100,000 to 500,000 labor-hours category of the Construction Safety Excellence Award from the Associated General Contractors of America.

In 2008, Charter performed more than 307,497 man hours, earning the 2009 Dallas Chapter of the AGC award for Excellence in Safety for the seventh time in nine years. Having won the chapter’s division, Charter’s program, along with safety program winners from 94 other AGC chapters, was submitted to the National AGC Safety and Health Committee. Charter was chosen as one of three finalists to compete for national honors at the National AGC safety competition held in San Diego this spring.

Judges for the AGC’s CSEA look for evidence of company management commitment, active employee participation, safety training, on-site hazard identification and innovative control and safety programs. Each company’s commitment to safety and occupational health management and risk control is closely examined.

Three Houston Firms Named Nation’s Safest Construction Companies

SpawGlass Construction Corp., Brookstone, LP, and Fretz Construction were named as some of the safest construction companies in America this year. The companies won first place in the building division, second place in the building division, and third place in the construction management division, respectively, of the Construction Safety Excellence Award from the Associated General Contractors of America. They were recognized for the strength of their safety programs and overall safety performance during 2008.

The Construction Safety Excellence Awards winners were announced during AGC’s 90th Annual Convention. Award winners were selected by a panel of construction safety professionals from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

BNSF Named One of World’s ‘Most Admired Companies’

Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway Co. was named one of the World’s Most Admired companies for 2009 by Fortune magazine.

Fortune’s survey partners at Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, started with about 1,400 companies including the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue by Fortune; non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more; and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S.

They then selected the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry.

The survey covers 64 industries: 25 international industries and 39 primarily U.S.-market industries. Hay Group asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. A company’s score must rank in the top half of its industry survey to make the list.

PBS&J Named to Trenchless Technology Top 50 Design Firms

PBS&J, with corporate headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and several locations in Texas, was named to Trenchless Technology’s 2008 Trenchless Top 50 Design Firms. Trenchless technologies allow underground utilities to be installed with little disruption to their surroundings.

Trenchless Technology selects the top 50 firms based on the firm’s overall billings and trenchless billings for the previous year, the number of trenchless professionals and the total number of trenchless projects the firm has completed in the past five years.

ARRA Prompts Simonton to Add Employees at Oklahoma Location

Simonton Windows, a windows and patio doors manufacturer, plans to hire employees at its Oklahoma facility after rehiring employees at other national locations.

At Simonton’s McAlester, Okla., facility, new employees are being hired to fulfill production needs. The company is seeing great interest from homeowners in window replacement projects based on tax credits for energy-efficient windows as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The legislation allows homeowners to gain a tax credit of 30% of the cost of qualifying energy-efficient upgrades to a maximum of $1,500 per household for 2009 and 2010.

Balfour Beatty’s David Preston Inducted into Constructor Hall of Fame

David Preston, vice president at Balfour Beatty Construction, was recently inducted into Texas A&M University’s hall of fame as an industry leader who has significantly influenced the university’s construction science program. Since 2001, the university has honored leaders in the construction industry with its annual Constructor Hall of Fame Award.

The Hall of Fame Award was created by the Department of Construction Science and the Construction Industry Advisory Council to honor non-alumni who have made a difference in the industry and have helped advance the construction science program at Texas A&M.

A member of CIAC for more than eight years, Preston participated in several of the CIAC’s sub-committees, advising administrators and faculty on contemporary construction issues and influencing the department’s strategic direction and course content.

Marek Brothers Systems Earns Accredited Quality Contractor Designation

Marek Brothers Systems of Coppell — a member of ABC’s TEXO chapter in North Texas — was awarded Accredited Quality Contractor status. The AQC program recognizes and honors construction firms that document their commitment to excellence in four key areas of corporate responsibility: safety, employee benefits, training and community relations.

A company that meets the criteria set forth in the program, and has earned Safety Training Evaluation Process Gold or Platinum status at least once in the past two years, is formally designated an “Accredited Quality Contractor.”

KBR Donates Child Care Facility to United Way of Central Alabama

Houston-based KBR donated a child care facility to United Way of Central Alabama in Birmingham recently. The facility had been previously owned and operated by BE&K, a KBR subsidiary.