All posts by SEO Team

Tesla Considers Expansion at Texas Gigafactory

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. The Tesla Gigafactory Tesla’s existing manufacturing hub in Austin, Texas also serves as the company’s global headquarters. It encompasses 10 million square feet located on 2,5000 acres along the Colorado River. That’s the size of 100 football fields. But plans are in the works to expand what is already an enormous footprint. Construction of the first of several new buildings started in January 2023, with completion expected in mid-February of 2024. At 693,093 square feet, its cost is estimated at $368 million. Based on Tesla’s most recent filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration, the company’s total investment in its Texas Gigafactory is estimated to reach as high as $750 million. A Driver of Economic Growth Tesla tripled the growth of Austin’s workforce in 2022. Building new factories or expanding existing ones drives job creation in the surrounding areas, but not only for those manufacturing companies. Workers and their families need housing as well as goods and...

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Rising Construction Labor Costs Causing Concerns in Industry

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. The Construction Labor Shortage Construction costs in general have been climbing for several years. Labor costs are not the only factor contributing to the increase, but they top the list, followed closely by the cost of materials. The shortage of labor, particularly skilled labor, has been described as the single greatest challenge construction companies face and is largely responsible for driving up construction labor costs. The reality is that there simply are not enough construction workers to meet the current demand. In fact, there are roughly twice as many job openings as people seeking construction jobs. Surveys reveal that 70% of contractors consider their staffing low relative to their backlogs. While there has been a construction labor shortage for years, it has grown with the easing of Covid-19 precautions and the passage of the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act. The Home Builders Institute estimated in 2022 that more than 61,000 new hires would be needed each and every month...

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How to Use Delay Analysis Methods in Construction

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. Time Is Money There are few industries in which the old saying, “Time is money” holds as true as it does in construction. Construction delays can have a significant impact, which raises immediate concerns about how long, how much, what went wrong, and who’s responsible. The answers to questions like these are not always clear-cut, and thorough analysis may be required to resolve delay claims—a process referred to as forensic delay analysis. Critical vs. Non-critical Activities The starting point is determining whether the delayed activities are critical or non-critical. That determination is based on how many days an activity can be delayed (the “float”) without delaying the entire project. Critical activities have zero float, meaning a delay of even one day will delay the whole project. Non-critical activities only become critical when a delay exceeds their float. Common Causes of Construction Delays Causes of construction delays generally fall into these categories: Contract errors or omissions (e.g., missing, incorrect, or...

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Top 10 Reasons for Construction Project Delays

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. The potential causes of construction project delays are many and varied. This article highlights ten of the most common or problematic causes and provides some ideas for preventing them. 1. Inaccurate Budgets Mistakes made when budgeting can cause cash flow crunches that result in project delays. Problems are most likely to occur when data is not reported between the field and office on a timely basis, so job progress and billings do not match project costs. The best solution is to use cloud-based integrated construction management software that gives field and office staff access to real time data. 2. Inadequate Planning Construction projects are all about planning. There are plans at every phase of every project. When viewed as a whole, the plans for a given project are all about managing the human and other resources that serve as inputs to the process to produce the optimal project outcome. Failing to involve the right people who possess the necessary...

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10 Tips to Manage a Construction Backlog

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. What is a Backlog in the Construction Industry? A construction backlog exists when a contractor has been awarded contracts that have not yet been initiated. A backlog typically is measured in terms of the number or the aggregate value of all projects in the pipeline but not started. It can also be described in terms of how far out into the future that projects are already scheduled. It’s good to have some amount of backlog because it ensures you will have money coming in for a certain foreseeable period. With no backlog, you would be worrying about where and when you will find your next job. Too much backlog could mean you’re underbidding to win contracts, which could leave you with an inadequate profit margin or even cause you to lose money on a project. And it could make potential clients question your project management skills and experience. This article presents 10 proven ways to help you find the...

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Qcells to Build $2.5B U.S. Plant

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. The Demand for U.S. Energy Independence The Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Coalition (SEMA), a group of top U.S. solar companies, was formed in early 2021 in recognition of the growing demand for renewable energy. A key aspect of SEMA’s mission was, and remains, to lobby and advocate for a domestic solar energy supply chain and the creation of incentives for domestic solar panel manufacturing. (In 2022, less than 20% of the solar panels installed in the United States were made in the U.S.) A stable domestic supply chain is essential to reducing or eliminating our reliance on China for key materials (particularly polysilicon and glass), components, and finished solar panels. SEMA’s inputs helped shape the clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law on August 16, 2022, by President Biden. The White House has described the IRA as the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s...

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Predicting Asphalt Pricing in Construction: The New App

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. The Problem One of the most difficult aspects of running a construction contracting business is estimating costs with enough accuracy to submit a winning bid that provides a comfortable profit margin. The challenge is that the prices of building materials are dynamic, often changing in ways that are difficult to predict. The price of asphalt is one such moving target. It’s easy enough to figure out how much the asphalt for a certain project will cost at the time a bid is submitted. But months can go by between the time a winning bidder is chosen and the time the project breaks ground. And during those intervening months, the price the contractor must pay for asphalt may have changed significantly. The Solution One person with more than 30 years of experience in highway and heavy construction decided to do something to make it easier to predict the price of asphalt. Brian Lawrence recognized the inherent difficulty of predicting what...

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The Growing Need for ESG Reporting in Construction

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. What is ESG? ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance,” specifically corporate governance. The abbreviation refers to the standards that enable organizations of all kinds to measure and track progress toward ESG-related internal and external initiatives, such as net-zero carbon goals. Today, ESG standards are most commonly used by investors looking for socially conscious companies to invest in. ESG standards help them determine a company’s: Commitment to safeguarding the environment and preserving the natural world Consideration of people and their interdependencies, including treatment of employees, management of supplier relationships, and impact on the communities within which they operate Logistics and process for operating the business, such as leadership practices, executive compensation, financial transparency, and shareholder rights Taken together, these factors reflect a company’s commitment to sustainability and accountability, which are growing concerns for all organizations, including those in the construction industry. Why Is ESG an Issue in Construction? Project owners, investors, lenders, developers, and building contractors all have good...

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HUBZone Contractors: Advantages and Federal Opportunities

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. What Is the HUBZone Program? The Small Business Administration (SBA) operates the HUBZone program, which was created to enable qualified small businesses to compete for set-aside contracts and receive preferential consideration in competitive, open contract bidding. What is a HUBZone? HUBZones are historically underutilized business zones. The SBA designated them as such based on the most recent census data. HUBZone designations are re-evaluated and updated every five years. The previous review was in 2018, and the newly revised map will be released on July 1, 2023. The next review will take place in 2028. What Are the Qualification Criteria for the HUBZone Program? To become certified for the HUBZone program, your business must meet the SBA’s definition of a small business. It must also be at least 51% owned and controlled by U.S. citizens, a community development corporation, agricultural coop, Alaskan Native corporation, Native Hawaiian organization, or Native American tribe. Your principal office must be located within a HUBZone,...

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