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Homebuilders face many challenges to turn a profit in the current housing market: higher labor costs, potentially rising interest rates, reduced land supply and softening buyer demand. While many costs are outside the control of builders, one way they can control expenses is through improved construction efficiency, especially in structural framing. A home's structural frame accounts for one of the largest parts of construction costs, and more builders are looking for dealers with design tools, equipment and expertise to help them get the most for their framing dollar. iLevel by Weyerhaeuser introduces iLevel NextPhase site solutions, a range of products, proprietary software, and services that allow builders to walk into dealer locations with architectural plans and walk out with an integrated framing solution.
A metal manufacturer estimates the cost to remove a 30-foot-high pile of low-grade radioactive waste from its property is $20 million more than an offer made by a Utah disposal facility. Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. is at the center of a controversy involving more than 52,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste sitting at the rear of the company's 67.7-acre property. Shieldalloy wants to seal the pile under a specially manufactured cap for 1,000 years. But residents and politicians are demanding the low-grade radioactive rock pile be removed to a Utah-based disposal facility. EnviroCare -- a radioactive decommissioning facility in Clive, Utah -- has released figures estimating the cost to remove the entire pile at between $35 million and $38 million, spokesman Al Rafati said.
Nor was the “House of Vettii," a replica of an ancient Roman edifice now under construction in a Lawrence High School courtyard. For a couple of hours each week — and on some weekends — students are shoveling, hammering, drilling and painting their way to recreating elements of the famous home of a well-to-do resident of ancient Pompeii. Pompeii was destroyed in a volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. But in the late 19th century, homes such as the House of Vettii were uncovered, revealing the art and architecture of the era. The LHS courtyard project began about a year and a half ago, when the interior was painted. But more progress will come this year, including adding a small Roman-style granite pond, walkways, columns, fresco-like paintings and a stage portico for poetry recitations or small plays.
October 10, 2006 - Model DS500 MOBILELOCK(TM) GPS Locator and Anti-Theft Alarm sends alert by phone or email, allowing contractors to locate unit in real-time using Internet-based street maps or satellite imagery. Portable, wireless system mounts to equipment using heavy-duty magnets or screws, and runs off rechargeable Li-Ion batteries. Tamper, door, vibration, and temperature sensors can be programmed individually through phone or MOBILELOCK website for monitoring of assets. .
You've asked for your friends' recommendations. You've checked out some of their work. But now you want to know if your home builder or remodeler has any black marks before you sign a contract.
By PURVA PATEL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle .
Seven years after a virtual halt to Native subsistence hunts was thought to have put a depleted stock of Cook Inlet beluga whales on a path to recovery, marine mammal scientists counting the bright white whales from the air last summer spotted fewer than ever. Scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service say the aerial surveys in June and August are not always the best evidence of how many belugas are there. A harder "abundance estimate" that takes into account whales observers didn't see because they were below the surface, or juveniles with gray hides that are difficult to spot in the silty Inlet, is still under development. But the roughly 150 belugas counted this year are not reassuring, particularly coming after 2005, when the agency's abundance estimate for the number remaining in Cook Inlet was set at 278, the lowest figure since NMFS began the annual beluga surveys in 1993.
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