The Star Advertiser reports that 2 of the 3 bidders seeking to work on the rail car manufacturing portion of the rail project, did not have contractors licenses to perform necessary construction under their bids. 

According to DCCA records, the winning bidder, Ansaldo Honolulu JV, did not hold a Hawaii contractors license until October 2010. 

Pacific Business News reports Hawaii's military leaders are unclear about whether construction expenditures will fall under the collective ax hitting other federal agencies. Continued concerns about relations with North Korea and China may shield Hawaii from extreme budget cuts potentially facing other military facilities across the country.  According to the PBN, "construction and other sources of employment and money

China constructs a 30 story apartment building in 15 days.  Looks like most of the components were made in advance, but still, this is pretty amazing. 

15 days to construct and, in Hawaii, 10 years of potential construction defect liability. . .

For many years, different building standards have applied in different counties in Hawaii despite somewhat similar building conditions throughout the State.  According to the Building Code Council (http://hawaii.gov/dags/bcc), the last time the counties were in sync was in 1996 under the 1991 Uniform Building Code.  In large part, discrepancies resulted because the counties

The Ohio Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's affirmation of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority ("Airport") rejection of the bid of a contractor the Airport found was non-responsible.  The current case cite is 2012_Ohio_App_LEXIS_14 and it can be found here

Glidepath, LLC submitted a bid for construction of two buildings to be located behind the main terminal at

KITV reports the City is seeking to move away from construction awards to the lowest responsible bidder, to a more subjective selection process that takes into account the bidder's past performance.

Contractors and others in the industry may recall that about ten years ago, the State experimented with Performance Information Procurement System ( ("PIPS"), a data

On a per capita basis, Hawaii is leading the country in investments in Energy Saving Performance Contracting for state projects. An ESPC is a contract between a building owner and an energy services company.  Typically a "design-build" contract, an ESPC allows an owner to use energy cost savings to reimburse the energy services company and fund

Pacific Business News reports that the 1.4 million square foot regional shopping mall planned by Debartolo Development has received final approval upon Hawaiian Homes Commission's approval of the environmental impact statement for the project.  Debartolo Development has selected Nordic PCL as the general contractor for Phase I.  The new development is hoped to create 21,000 construction

West Hawaii Today reports that Maryl Construction has protested its apparent disqualification as low bidder on the Kaloko Housing Project in Kona.  Apparently, Maryl's $3.9 million dollar bid failed to identify all of the subcontractors it intended to use on the Project.  Maryl says the reason it did so is the Department of Public Works'

Mediation as a mandatory precursor to litigation is a common feature in construction contracts.  What happens when mediation runs afoul of the timing requirements of a bond claim?  Does a contractor's failure to pursue and complete contractually mandated mediation prior to filing its bond claim subject its bond claim to dismissal?  No, according to the