New York Post, September 20, 2017

Yes, unions already provide substantial mandatory safety training, much of which is covered in the bill.  This training is paid for by the employers and the unions themselves.  Many reputable non-union contractors also provide safety training, but the training is not universal.  It is not an unreasonable expectation that construction industry employers have a trained workforce.  Putting worker safety first is what it is important.  It is not a union vs. non-union issue, and it is not a minority-or women-owned business issue.  It is about the workers, and any employer of any demographic should want to make the investment in the training that keeps their workers safe.

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Crain’s New York Business, August 8, 2017

The General Contractors Association of New York Executive Director Denise M. Richardson responds to report Cuomo took cash from troubled contractor.

There are entire government departments and floors of procurement professionals who report to work each day to review, analyze, audit, critique and reject the submissions of contractors who seek to participate in the construction of public infrastructure projects. It can literally take a year for a construction firm to go through the review and vetting procedure before a contract is awarded and that is just the start of what will be a lengthy, exhausting and daily inspection process that examines every aspect of a company’s performance.

So to suggest that contracts are awarded because an individual or corporation exercises its right to support a particular candidate (“Cuomo, who once hit rival for taking cash from troubled firm, did so himself”) ignores the reality of how and who awards contracts for city and state infrastructure projects. Perhaps no other sector is so scrutinized by so many independent third parties as the heavy construction company for the purpose of ensuring that competence is the sole criteria for selection.

Denise M. Richardson

Executive Director

The General Contractors Association of New York

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A new Bloomberg National Poll was released revealing that fifty-five percent of Americans would support an increase in the federal gas tax.  Raising the gas tax would provide the revenue needed to fix America’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

The federal gas tax has not been raised since 1993.  Accounting for inflation since that time, this means the purchasing power of the money has decreased by approximately 40 percent. In addition, the improved fuel economy of cars means more miles traveled, and more wear on tear on roads, without as much money being spent on gas to support maintenance. Without any additional funding, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Highway Trust Fund, which is how states receive money from the federal gas tax, will run dry by 2021.

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NYS Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan gave the green light to approve the MTA’s $2.9 capital program amendment which includes $1.9 billion for the LIRR Third Track Project.  This historic decision sets the stage for this critically needed design-build project to move forward.

The Third Track project addresses many of the communities concerns.  Seven dangerous grade-crossings are eliminated, property takings have been minimized if not entirely eliminated, and parking, noise, and pedestrian access issues have all been innovatively addressed.

This investment will improve the LIRRs reliability, and help ensure the long-term economic health and well-being of Long Island and the entire metropolitan region.

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New York Post, April 28, 2017

Washington, DC’s Metro may have to give up its crown for having the most neglected rail system in the nation: Amtrak’s record at Penn Station now takes the prize.

There are lessons for Amtrak in how the Metro went from a bicentennial centerpiece to yet another woeful example of our national infrastructure. Chronic breakdowns, derailments and electrical failures led to station evacuations. Staff, seemingly indifferent to safety, ignored the red flags, putting the public at risk.

Sounds a lot like Penn Station now, doesn’t it? New disasters of epic proportions are coming virtually every week.

Over half a million commuters on three railroads, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit — and the busiest,  the MTA-run Long Island Rail Road — are being penalized as a result.

And so is the economy of the entire Northeast — a region that generates 10 percent of the national GDP.  New York state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli puts the loss of productivity from Penn’s dysfunctionality at $60 million a year, and that’s just on the east side of the Hudson.

What is particularly disturbing is that Amtrak knows and acknowledges that it has ignored Penn Station maintenance.

It is true that Amtrak, like Metro, has historically been starved for resources. Shame on Congress. But Amtrak deserves blame for closing its eyes to basic safety-related maintenance and upgrades at Penn, never mind the condition of the tunnels.

It’s time to put Penn Station and its infrastructure out of our collective misery and put in place a structure that will actually work to improve conditions for the commuting public. It’s time to turn the station and its infrastructure over to a private entity.

This restructured corporation would be funded by Penn’s tenants (the railroads  and private real-estate tenants) with a bottom-line mission of ensuring that Penn Station is well funded to meet commuters’ needs. If it doesn’t, it will  risk losing the railroad-provided income.

This entity will have an incentive to provide a clean, safe, efficient public space for its retailers in order to command top rental income. The result will be more reliable rail service, a better environment for everyone using the station, a strategic asset for the city — and accountability if things go wrong.

Some argue that such public-private partnerships sacrifice accountability for profits. But that doesn’t hold in a situation when three public entities are engaged in a public blame game while their commuters suffer.

Having an entity whose revenue will depend on the reliability of the train service passing through the station will clearly be an incentive to make safe, reliable service its top priority. This partnership would also be consistent with the White House’s view that a dose of business sense can go a long way to improving service from government agencies.

Clearly, the region can continue to rely on the existing patchwork management, with its indifference to necessary investment in vital infrastructure.

Whatever the new mechanism that takes over this transit hub, every commuter knows this much: It’s time to resolve the Penn Station debacle. Amtrak, NJT, the LIRR and their executives have lost the confidence of the riding public, harmed our regional economy and displayed a casual disregard for the nation’s busiest rail-transit address.

Once upon a time, a landmark Penn Station was demolished because of failed vision. Let’s not now destroy its role as the city’s most important transit hub by failing it once again.

Denise Richardson is executive director of the General Contractors Association of New York.

Published in the New York Post, April 28, 2017

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Congratulations to the Skanska Kiewit ECCO III team on a successful public opening of the Kosciuszko Bridge on April 27.  The celebration began with a ribbon cutting ceremony in the afternoon where Governor Cuomo drove FDR’s refurbished 1939 Packard across the bridge, and followed up with Governor Cuomo kicking off a light show set to New York themed music at a festive event alongside the bridge in the evening.

The original bridge, built in 1939, was rated one of the worst bridges in New York City, a fact highlighted by the GCA in 2009. Indeed the Kosciuszko Bridge is emblematic of the difficulties advancing major transportation projects in the U.S.  It took 16 years to bring this project from planning to fruition.  The EIS process lasted almost 10 years.  Lack of federal and state funding and a series of short term federal transportation bill extensions resulted in deferred project delivery and splitting the project into smaller components over multiple capital plans.

Work still remains to be done on the first half of the bridge, including the “energetic felling” of the original bridge and the ramp connections and site work.  Bids for the second half of the bridge are due in May.

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When we talk about what GCA members build, we refer to our roads, bridges, tunnels and transit projects as forming the foundations of the greatest city on earth. But the truth is that many of our members build the foundations that support New York’s signature skyscrapers.

Building on the unearthed depths of unparalleled bedrock, our members, who have over a hundred years of history to look back on, are now looking forward as part of an equally historical and monumental movement to rezone and reshape East Midtown.  The first salvo in that effort is laying the groundwork for the construction of One Vanderbilt, a 65 story tower adjacent to Grand Central that, once completed, will be the second tallest building in New York City.  Its benefits go beyond what the eye will see at street level.  Below will be improved access to Grand Central Terminal, as well as the Times Square Shuttle and the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 Lines.

Building such a massive office tower amidst one of the most demanding and dense locations in the world and immediately adjacent to Grand Central, requires the skill and expertise that could only be brought to bear by one of GCA’s members.  In fact, the foundation work alone has already set the project apart.  A record-breaking concrete pour was accomplished in a little over 16 hours, using 8,500 tons of concrete, 1 million pounds of steel reinforcing bar, and 420 trucks.

This video captures that effort in details and highlights the skill and expertise of GCA members in building the very foundations of the greatest City in the world!

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January 29, 2016

“Governor Cuomo is correct, investing in New York’s infrastructure is essential to the future of our state’s economic success. It is long overdue that  New Yorkers regained the confidence and competence to implement a grand vision for New York’s infrastructure future. The GCA members are  ready to start work on the JFK airport redevelopment – along with the transportation network that connects it to the rest of the City – thereby increasing capacity and creating a more seamless experience for travelers.”

About the General Contractors Association

The General Contractors Association represents the unionized heavy construction industry in New York City that constructs New York’s building foundations and public works infrastructure. Our 300 members employ 20,000 hardworking professional and trades workers across New York State. In addition to New York City, our employees come from 702 New York State zip codes, as far east as North Haven, as far north as Champlain and as far west as Chautauqua.

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Crain’s New York Business, March 14, 2017

Every weekday, 8 million commuters rely on New York’s mass-transit network, driving an economy worth billions of dollars to the state. Yet despite its vital importance, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been the frequent target of underfunding, budget raids and broken promises from state government.

This year is no different. Even in the face of subways’ frequent overcrowding and growing delays, the executive budget proposed a 21% decrease in the payroll mobility tax replacement funds—a cut of $65 million to the MTA.

The payroll mobility tax, originally passed in 2009 to provide much needed funding to the transit system, was modified in 2011 when our elected leaders voted to exempt many small businesses. Recognizing, however, that the tax was a core source of MTA revenue, a promise was made at the same time to replace any funds lost by the change.

Every year since, just over $300 million has been appropriated to keep the funding level. Until now.

Despite having included the funding in its budget projections for years, the MTA now says that it does not need the money. While it might seem shocking that the MTA doesn’t care about losing $65 million, it’s less surprising when considering that the agency is beholden to Albany politics. But to the average New York transit rider it’s fairly obvious that this budget proposal has gone off the rails.

The MTA needs the funding now more than ever. Transit service continues to deteriorate: delays have increased, crowding is worse, trains are breaking down more frequently and riders are starting to look to Uber and other alternatives. Keeping funding commitments to the MTA so it can address these alarming trends should be an obvious priority.

Albany’s legislators now have the opportunity to make this right. As the budget is negotiated, the state must uphold the promise and restore the funding to the MTA.

A promise should be a promise, even if it is made in Albany.

John Raskin is the executive director Riders Alliance, Denise Richardson is the executive director of the General Contractors Association of New York, and Carlo Scissura is the president and CEO of the New York Building Congress.

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The General Contractors Association of New York hosted a lively discussion with the Commissioners of New York City’s infrastructure agencies on June 13^th. The panel featured DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, DDC Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora, and DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza and was moderated by Denise Richardson and Mitchell Moss, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy & Planning and Director of Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management at NYU.

The conversation focused on the current projects the agencies were working on, improvements that could be made to the City’s procurement process, and the importance of partnership between the city’s agencies and its contractors.

Current Projects and Priorities

“Our short-term work remains particularly focused on vision zero,” said Commissioner Trottenberg when asked about current priorities for DOT projects. DOT is working with the MTA to create better bus lanes and improve camera analytics for traffic and parking, particularly in light of congestion due to the City’s rapidly growing population.

Commissioner Peña-Mora also spoke of meeting the needs of the city’s growing population and outlined some of the major projects DDC was working on including the Passerrelle Bridge and the reconstruction of Queens Boulevard Phase 2.

Perhaps nothing is more essential to the City’s growing population than a reliable water source, and Commissioner Sapienza focused on the work that was being done to complete Water Tunnel 3.  According to Commissioner Sapienza, the tunnel will be ready for activation, in case of an emergency issue with one of the other two tunnels, by the end of 2017 and fully in service by 2030. In discussing DEP’s capital plan of over $18 BB, Commissioner Sapienza noted that the massive commitment from the Mayor was a double edged sword as it creates more of a procurement bottleneck and that it’s up to all of us, the agency and its contractors, to get those projects moving.

Frustration with the procurement process

All three commissions expressed frustrations with the City’s procurement processes and agreed that allowing for the registration of contingency budgets would eliminate delays for infrastructure projects.

When speaking out the ways the procurement process has influenced who bids on projects, Commissioner Sapienza said “a lot of smaller companies are disincentivized from bidding on city projects because they can’t handle those delays. I think there’s recognition now that if we want to encourage smaller firms and MWBE firms to bid on our projects, we need to take a look at how long things take to move along in the procurement cycles.

Commissioner Peña-Mora agreed with Commissioner Trottenberg and Commissioner Sapienza that more needed to be done to hasten the procurement and change-order process, and that contingencies should be built into the contract to begin with, so that each change does not require its own lengthy approval, thereby slowing down the entire project. In regards to Commissioner Sapienza’s point about delays discouraging smaller companies and DMWBE’s from bidding, he said the City should be trying to be able to provide lower interest rates to even things out.

Working Together

A recurring theme from the discussion was partnership. All three commissioners said that it was key to have both interagency coordination between themselves and with private sector contractors.

“We want your honest feedback,” said Commissioner Trottenberg. “We can’t fix problems if we don’t hear from you.”

“We want to work well with you,” said Commissioner Peña-Mora. “We want to be the client of choice.”

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