Must see TV

Those in the building industry know there’s plenty of drama during construction of a 23-story building. Add in the earthquake factor along the Los Angeles skyline and you’ve got a hit television show.

At least that’s what the folks at National Geographic are looking for.

In August, the National Geographic Channel aired “L.A. Hard Hats,” a six-part series that tells the story of Evo, a 23-story, eco-friendly, high-rise structure, from the viewpoint of the tradesmen who built it.

The first five one-hour episodes follow a specific trade from the first day on the job until completion of that phase of the project. The sixth show recaps the finishing touches and gives viewers a first buyer’s look at the unopened and uninhabited building.

The program was filmed during a two-year period and tells the story of ironworkers, concrete crews, electricians, plumbers and glaziers.

The show finished airing in August, but it’s a distinct possibility the National Geographic Channel will make the show available on DVD. Check www.natgeotv.com for updates.

Sign of the times

With new construction slowing down industry wide, mechanical contractor J.F. Ahern Co. seized another avenue of revenue: retrofits.

The Fond du Lac firm recently formed an energy solutions department that analyzes energy consumption of existing buildings and proposes solutions to reduce utility usage.

Steve Rohde, a former Johnson Controls Inc. account executive picked to head the new department, said Ahern previously completed retrofits but only when asked. The formation of the new department, he said, is an effort to proactively seek retrofit business.

Rohde said rising energy prices transformed the market.

Owners of industrial buildings, he said, need savings because they can no longer pass costs to customers.

Rohde also said rising energy prices turn five-year return on investments into two- or three-year paybacks.

“The opportunity on the industrial side is really coming to the forefront,” he said, “because of the rapid increase in the cost of utilities.”

Rohde predicted at least 80 percent of all businesses would take some approach to reduce or maintain energy consumption in the next five years.

Looking for a leg up

Wolslegel

Miron Construction Co. Inc. earned a leg up on the rest of the state’s general contractors by forming a relationship to potentially build a first-of-its-kind project in Wisconsin: a paper products biorefinery.

But the Neenah-based general contractor could take a big risk to do so.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Flambeau River BioFuels a $30 million grant to build a biorefinery at an existing pulp and paper mill in Park Falls.

Bob Byrne, president of Flambeau River BioFuels, said the plant will be the first in the United States to use a gasifier that turns wood products into diesel fuel.

If successful, the project could serve as a model for construction of several more multimillion-dollar biorefinery plants in Wisconsin, which is the nation’s largest producer of paper.

Byrne said he chose to work with Miron after speaking with several of the state’s largest contractors because the construction giant was the only firm willing to guarantee the project would be completed on time, within budget and would result in working technology.

Because the wood gasifying technology never has been used on a commercial scale, Chris Wolslegel, vice president of industrial business development for Miron, said a performance bond could create a large risk for the company.

Miron, he said, has yet to sign a contract though.

“The technology is something new that no really knows about,” Wolslegel said of the project. “That’s why we are taking due diligence to work with them up front so we can factor that in.”

Byrne said the construction will involve process piping, and Miron is working with Town and County Electric, a division of Faith Technologies, Appleton, and Jamar Construction Co., Green Bay, on the project.

Roundabout roundup

Roundabouts are drifting to the center of the road construction world in Wisconsin.

Engineers haven’t shown such excitement for oscillation since they spun the bottle as teenagers.

But not all Wisconsin residents feel all warm inside when they think about playing ring around the median.

Despite the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s argument that roundabouts reduce fatal traffic accidents and lead to a more continuous flow of traffic, many taxpayers feel the circular intersections encompass too much land and spin project costs out of control.

Still, roundabouts and proposals for the circular intersections continue to pop up like dandelions in municipalities of all sizes across the state.

In Green Bay, construction work began in July on a roundabout for a major intersection near Highway 43. To the west in River Falls, a roundabout is being proposed that will cut into the town’s Halverson Park.

Farther north in Ashland, WisDOT officials are considering a roundabout for the intersections of highways 2 and 13, where dozens of collisions occurred during the past 15 years.

But perhaps no more circling has been done around the roundabout issue than in Prairie du Chien, where a citizen’s group forced a referendum to decide whether three roundabouts are needed along the city’s main thoroughfare.

Mayor Karl Steiner, who was elected on an anti-rotating platform, said business owners along the street feel the roundabouts will cut off the circulation of customers into and out of their stores.

It’s possible Prairie du Chien residents in favor of the roundabouts will turn to the village of Howard’s Web site to rebut Steiner’s anecdotal evidence. In a recent online poll conducted by village officials, 111 of 133 respondents said they favored roundabout intersections over stop signs and traffic signals.

Maybe they can make this commission work

Mielke

After more than 30 years of consulting municipalities on how to manage development, William Mielke served on at least a few statewide commissions that promote efficient government.

But the president and chief executive officer of engineering firm Ruekert/Mielke Inc., Waukesha, said most consortiums fail because somebody’s opinion — usually those of smaller municipalities — always gets left out of the equation.

Mielke recently was named to a committee he said will resolve that problem.

The Local Government Institute of Wisconsin Inc. was formed to represent municipalities of all sizes, including the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, the Wisconsin Towns Association and the Wisconsin Counties Association.

Mielke will serve on the board of directors for the nonprofit, which aims to be a place where governments can meet to develop state policies and administrative codes that promote efficient and equitable government.

Mielke said associations of this kind typically fail because only big city problems get considered. That usually results in opposition from small towns, leaving legislators confused about which direction to go.

The goal of the Local Government Institute of Wisconsin is to form a unified voice among all participating agencies.

“It’s good to get a consensus from groups that haven’t always agreed on big policy issues,” Mielke said.

The group is still in its infancy stage, Mielke said, and it will be some time before issues start getting dealt with.

“Right now we are just getting all the issues to the table,” Mielke said.

Mielke will serve on the board of directors withformer Gov. Anthony Earl and three others yet to be named.