Nasty Boston

Archive for the ‘Commercial Construction’ Category

The medical and pharmaceutical industries are among the few industries that continue to manufacture domestically rather than overseas. Complexity of product, stringent quality requirements, certification and documentation requirements are some of the reasons that companies choose to keep manufacturing in the US. Medical Device OEMS need to have maximum assurance that their supplier is conforming to exact product specifications and standards. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is ideal for medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing for the following reasons:

• Convenient location
• Supportive of high technology manufacturing
• Local resources with demonstrated capability to meet stringent quality requirements
• Adequate supply of a technically competent work force
• Cost effective manufacturing

The Twin Cities is centrally located in the US and has a major airport with access to light rail. There are plenty of hotels that will meet any taste or price within 10 miles of the airport. The airport is rated the 15th busiest airport in the nation yet convenient as it has plenty of flights, but not the overcrowding issues that the larger airports have. In general, airline costs to fly in and out of Minneapolis is well below the national average.

Minneapolis is considered one of the hot bed locations for Medical and Pharmaceutical manufacturing. Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Upsher-Smith Laboratories and Cargill are just a few of the major companies located in this area. Rochester Mayo Clinic is located about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities and the University of Minnesota is located right in the heart of Minneapolis. There are 100s of ISO certified and FDA registered suppliers in this area that can support any medical device manufacturing requirement. Any manufacturer who locates in Minneapolis/ St. Paul area will have a vast network of world class local suppliers and resources to support their needs

As incomes and tax revenues decline, and Congress continues its push to reduce spending, government departments are being forced to find ways of doing more with less. Efficiency reigns supreme. Though some processes are difficult to pair down, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently began experimenting with a creative way to simplify some of its application processes.

Last summer, HUD announced a unique partnership between itself, the U.S. Department of Rural Development, and the state of Michigan to streamline application processes for affordable housing developments. HUD signed on to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the USRD and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to offer a single-submission application that is shared among the three entities. The new process pairs down what had been a very cumbersome application for affordable housing developers, and it is already receiving very positive feedback from applicants.

In keeping with HUD’s goal of reducing inefficiency across the country, it has entered into a similar partnership with the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. The OHFA agreement is a little different in that it addresses duplications in the housing inspection process, rather than the application process that was highlighted in Michigan. The three agencies are drafting a Memorandum of Understanding that will enable them to consolidate physical inspections of affordable housing that’s built using federal money.

Much like each agency was responsible for receiving and evaluating its own applications in Michigan, each agency in Ohio is currently responsible for conducting its own housing project inspections. In addition, inspection requirements vary by department. The duplication results not only in unnecessary burdens on agency staff that are already overworked, but it also creates additional burdens on housing developers and property managers who must make themselves and their staff available for the multiple inspections.

The differing regulations not only slow down the process, but also increase construction costs for low-income housing. The construction timeline is slowed as well, which creates uncertainty and adds more cost to the project. Under the new process, all three agencies will agree on uniform inspection requirements and methods for addressing non-compliance issues. Only one inspection will be conducted, and the results with be shared between the agencies

The earliest versions of concrete and rock crushers involved the use of two rocks being slammed against each other. An anvil was formed by one rock, while the weight of the other was used through manual power to achieve the necessary crushing. A crusher that was called the Cornish stamp was developed in the 19th century for breaking up tin and was used in mining. The early years of the 20th century led to portable rock crushers being developed.

The design of such crushers were static for almost six decades. The cone crushers that then developed were of high speed and were very reliable. A cone crusher of 48 inches developed in the 1960′s had a capacity to crush 170 tons of rock. The present development in technology has led to the same size of crusher being able to crush 300 tons of rock. The design of the cone crusher remained the same, but higher speeds and stronger chambers used in the crushers helped to increase the output.

The breakthrough in crusher design came from the hydraulic relief system that is a comparatively recent invention. This has helped to increase the life span of the crusher and also reduce its down time when repairs are necessary on the equipment. This in turn increases profit as well as productivity. Hydraulics is an invention that allows hard material like concrete to be crushed without any damage to the machinery and made for a major breakthrough in equipment for crushers.

There was a time when concrete that was retrieved from old buildings, roads and bridges that had to undergo demolition all made its way to landfills. Now it is more expedient to use the concrete crusher to break up the concrete and convert into material that can be reused. So the crusher arranges to clean and grind old concrete and make it available for the same customer’s new projects. If the crushing is done on the site itself, the removal process becomes that much simpler. Old concrete is recycled and used as material for highways or other uses that are compatible with this crushed material.

There are many types of concrete crushers that also come in a variety of sizes. You can find mini concrete crushers that are self contained or others that are portable in nature. Stationary crushers are mainly used in facilities that only carry out such crushing work. You will also find certain construction equipment that is equipped with attachments that allow for concrete to be crushed. In these, the jaws can be interchanged depending on the nature of the crushing work to be undertaken.

Portable concrete crushers have become very popular, because they can be taken to a job site, and help to reduce the waste and debris that a construction site generates. The larger ones have capacities that can crush 600 tons of concrete every hour, while the smaller ones that are able to squeeze into smaller locations can take care of 150 tons during the same period. There are mini crushers that can even be hauled to the site by a pickup truck or even a car. Then there are attachments that need to be mounted on other construction equipment and can easily process 100 tons every hour

Believe it or not, despite the high demand for affordable housing, some Federal funding that’s available for housing construction goes unused every year. On an annual basis, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assesses housing needs and allocates tax credits and other funding to local and state governments based on its assessment. Some of the awards are returned unused, and are made available for redistribution.

The process begins when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) receives refunds, credits and abatements of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). The IRS processes these requests as they come in, then aggregates all of the information once credit deadlines have passed. Typically, once all of the requests have been processed, the IRS has unused or returned housing tax credits it can redistribute. State agencies are notified of the available credits and given an opportunity to submit applications to receive some of them.

The reasons why states return or don’t use tax credits vary. In some instances, the credits are allocated for projects that don’t get approved. Other times, the scope of a project is reduced or a developer finds some unexpected cost-saving measures. Unfortunately, there are also instances when states and local government are ready and eager to award tax credits, but they don’t receive any requests. No affordable housing projects are even submitted for review.

As with any government program, the use of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits is tricky. On the one hand, agencies absolutely want to use the credits effectively and efficiently, and don’t want to award credits to projects that don’t meet certain criteria. On the other, however, the amount of tax credits used in one year is a determining factor for how many will be issued in subsequent years. Consequently, many state agencies actively recruit developers and request affordable housing plans.

Despite states’ best efforts, sometimes plans fall through, or never present themselves at all. The result is that agencies return millions of dollars in unused tax credits every year. Approximately $3.66 million of LIHTCs made available during 2011 were either returned to the IRS or never claimed. In keeping with Section 4.06 of IRS code 92-31, a bulletin was published outlining how the credits were reallocated. Nearly 30 state agencies received additional credits, which were used to further promote affordable housing development

Sri Lanka always had a huge number of playwrights and stage drama actors and actresses. What they brought in front of us always took us into the very imaginary worlds and emotions of the writer without any difficulty. The performing arts sector always had the shortage of a well equipped and well “technically fortified” theatre for their practices, rehearsals, and for grand scale occasions which required the service of state of the art sound systems, advanced lighting systems and a considerable amount of seating facilities. In other words, we didn’t have a place to be called the crown jewel of performing arts, until the Lotus Pond was opened on the 15th December 2011, for the Sri Lankans.

The Lotus Pond, or the general Sinhala Translation; “Nelum Pokuna” was an idea of the President Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa. The idea was to build a theatre to suit all the above mentioned needs of the performing arts sector. The objective of presenting and exchanging the performing arts of Sri Lanka with other countries and nationalities was also in the priority list. The Lotus Pond is the realized dream that will bring the performing arts sector to new heights and open doors to newer paths and variations of the sector rapidly.

The visible structure is similar to a lotus of five petals in bloom. The construction of the theatre was a breakthrough in the Sri Lanka real estate development sector and Sri Lanka engineering technology. The Lotus Pond was a result of Sri Lanka and China friendship program which reached the expense height of 3.8 million Sri Lanka rupees upon completion. The Unique design somewhat resembles the Opera House Australia or the Bird’s nest China itself was a design of the Beijin Institute of Architectural Designs. China provided with 2.4 million Sri Lanka rupees out of the total cost.

The construction started in the year 2006 and the land used for the theatre was the former Nomad ground on at No.110, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07 and took four years to complete. The theatre was opened by the President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse and the China’s Vice President of the Chinese Republican Committee, Sang Chiang.

The building has two floors below the ground and five floors above the ground. The theatre covers an area of 15562 square meters and the main auditorium provides seating capacity to 1228 spectators. The theatre is also loaded with rehearsal rooms, two more stage performing halls, a library and an open air stage has to seating capacity for about three hundred spectators on the top floor.