Building Projects

The Marple Newtown school board has reviewed the progress of capital improvement projects throughout the district. Board vice president Jonathan Freeze, who also sits on the board's building committee, Tuesday night distributed a report of projects completed or under way in the district. Among the projects expected to be completed next month are the roofing of district buildings, fuel tank replacements and the installation of playground equipment at Russell Elementary School and a sound system at the high school.

The state Senate voted 47-0 yesterday to issue bonds to pay for construction projects whose funding had been stalled by debate over the proposed Center City convention center. The General Services Department had been forced earlier this month to write letters to about 500 contractors working on state projects asking them to continue to work even though the state could not pay them. The delay had, or could have, affected projects for Graterford Prison in Montgomery County, SEPTA, and Temple University, among about 60 projects statewide.

In an era of rising tax rates, West Chester school board member James Davison knows his proposal will not be popular. Davison is recommending that the school board create a special capital construction fund to be used to pay for building projects at the district's 15 schools after the current capital fund is used up. "I know this would be an unpopular idea," he said in an interview last week. Tax revenues would be shifted from normal school operations to finance the fund.

Despite the ferocious wind, the torrents of rain and the peals of thunder, U.S. Rep. James Greenwood said God was looking favorably on the group that had crowded under the white tent yesterday. "He's bestowed his favor on this project by making the ground as soft as possible," exclaimed Greenwood to chuckles from the group of about 100 who gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony for the aerospace firm Lockheed Martin and Holy Family College. In October, after months of heavy lobbying, Lockheed Martin bought 52 acres from the college to build a Communications and Power Center.

There are two pieces of information that are excellent starting points in any discussion on the use of minority workers in constructing the Eagles stadium and the Phillies ballpark: 1. According to the African American Chamber of Commerce, over the last several years, less than 1 percent of the construction dollars spent in Philadelphia have gone to minority-owned firms. 2. It has been reported that within the building trades unions, none, with the exception of the laborers, has a minority membership of more than 10 percent.

When the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce totals up all the significant construction projects on the horizon for the area, as it has each of the last three years, one fact stands out. Most of the big jobs out there are being paid for from the public purse. "I think that the consensus across the three years is a disappointment with the lack of private-sector work," says Thomas Widing, the chamber vice president who compiles information for the chamber's annual construction seminar.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the area's leading social-service provider, is in the midst of a major wave of construction projects to upgrade its human-services operations. The work, costing $41 million, is being financed largely through an unprecedented bond package that the archdiocese negotiated with the Chester County Industrial Development Authority. The projects are under way as the archdiocese is considering cutting its administrative budget by about 20 percent. Msgr.

The Maple Shade Township Council rolled up its sleeves and got down to business last week, nipping and tucking nearly $480,000 from the school budget that voters defeated in the April 7 election. Some school board members, however, fearing the cuts will affect the quality of the district's education, said they may file an appeal asking the State Commissioner of Education to reinstate some of the deleted items. They have until May 13 to file. Under the new 1992-93 school budget that council proposed, the owner of a home assessed at $89,700 would pay an additional $72 in property taxes this year instead of the additional $135 the defeated budget called for. The tax rate would increase from the current $1.25 per $100 of assessed property value to $1.33.

Taxpayers will be the ultimate beneficiaries of recently announced plans by the state commissioner of education to speed up the approval process for school building projects, according to school officials in Camden County. "We are very happy to know that the commissioner is trying to make arrangements," said Howard Phifer, superintendent of the Pennsauken School District, where $17 million worth of building projects at five of its schools is pending. "Every month that goes by the cost goes up due to inflation," Phifer said.

The damaged stone veneer at the entrance of Camden's Lanning Square School at Fetters is enough of a hazard that repairing it is among 76 projects designated a high priority Monday by the state Schools Development Authority. But the seemingly welcome news was met with anger and suspicion by some city residents and activists, who wondered when Lanning Square children will get the new school they have awaited since 2002. The old Lanning Square Elementary was demolished in 2005, and its students were divided between Fetters and another century-old school - temporarily, residents were told - while a replacement was to be built.

SOCHI, Russia - If he were alive today, Joseph Stalin wouldn't recognize the place. This subtropical Black Sea resort of nearly 350,000 residents at the foot of the snowcapped Caucasus Mountains is on the verge of becoming a major international destination since being designated the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup. More than 100 building projects are under way, as a capitalist fervor grips the city, fueled by...

Private construction companies hope to slap tolls on I-95, U.S. 422, and other crowded freeways. They're using the antitax, spending-cut mood gripping voters and state capitals, after three years of recession, to push for private highway, bridge, and building projects. Companies would replace governments in financing these projects up front, and collecting tolls from users, to reap future profits. A proposal gaining steam in Harrisburg would set up a "Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board," appointed by the governor and state legislators, to decide what to build and which builders to hire.

For eight years, Gov. Ed Rendell trumpeted a program that shelled out $2 billion for building projects, including sports stadiums, museum wings, hospital additions, and factory expansions. The goal: Create jobs, stir the economy, and preserve Pennsylvania's heritage. Legislators pitched many of the projects, and the governor chose which got funded - typically without any debate or public discussion. Now, a looming state deficit, a swelling debt load, and criticism of some of Rendell's last grants - $10 million each that was initially alotted for an Arlen Specter Library and a John Murtha Public Policy Center, for instance - have unleashed a new round of scrutiny on the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, called R-Cap.

When it comes to building projects, this one's a monster. The construction zone is essentially the entire country. The builders are a variety of specialists, including architects, plumbers, masons, and lighting, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning experts. Since July, they have been meeting in cities - they were in Philadelphia last month - to construct not with bricks and steel beams, but with words. The goal: a code to guide all development of green commercial buildings in the United States.

Building a bridge takes knowledge, preparation, and the melding of many separate pieces to forge a connection between two ends. A football team is similar, and linebacker Chris Gocong is one of those pieces on the Eagles' defense. Yesterday, Gocong, who has a degree in engineering, lent a bit of sporting celebrity to a sixth-grade class lesson in applied science. Gocong was at Berlin Community Middle School yesterday as part of a contest sponsored by the New Jersey Education Association.

Two developments that promise profound changes to neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city moved forward in City Council yesterday. Council gave final approval to a lease with Fairmount Park that will allow Fox Chase Cancer Center to begin an $800 million expansion. And Council got a first look at a proposal to build a 15-story condominium tower and six-story hotel on the NewMarket site in Society Hill. Both projects, however, remain controversial and could still be derailed.

The state needs to create a new agency and revamp management practices to restore credibility and accountability to New Jersey's distressed school construction program, an advisory panel appointed by Gov. Corzine said yesterday. The panel recommended that Corzine abolish the School Construction Corp., established in 2002 to oversee school projects, particularly those in 31 special-needs districts where the state is under court mandate to update educational facilities. In its place would be an authority within the Treasury Department.

A $40.7 million Army Reserve Center - the first major project in the region to come out of a national reorganization of military bases - will be built at Fort Dix within the next few years, U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton said yesterday. Bids to build the center, where more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians will be employed, are expected to be solicited in June. A contract is likely to be awarded by August, followed by groundbreaking in November. "This is the largest construction project I have ever seen on Fort Dix," said Saxton (R., N.J.)

The Philadelphia School District's ambitious $1.7 billion school-building program has hit a series of roadblocks that have put some projects years behind schedule. Even its flagship project - construction of a $62 million "School of the Future" in partnership with Microsoft Corp. - may miss its scheduled September opening. The school, which has attracted international attention, is supposed to open this fall with 170 ninth graders. It may have to make do with a temporary building, although district officials are pushing hard to finish the school on time.