Between COVID-19 and presidential politics, slowed economies and shrinking end markets, 2020 has garnered more than enough attention for what has gone wrong during the calendar year.

While discussing these issues is an inescapable part of reporting on the C&D sector these days, I’m happy to report something more positive in our final issue of the year—our biennial Top Demolition Contractors List.

This list, which ranks the nation’s top contractors by revenue for 2019, highlights those businesses and professionals working day in and day out to tackle the country’s demo needs.

Notably, many of the contractors on our list show elevated revenues for 2019. While this is, of course, a positive, it inevitably leads to wondering what may be in store when we crunch these numbers again for the 2021 iteration of the Top Demolition Contractors List.

According to National Demolition Association (NDA) President Chris Godek, there are both positive and negative signs for the industry heading into 2021. On the positive side of the ledger, Godek notes that construction employment numbers have been climbing over the last several months and demo contractors have been, by and large, working through their backlogs, with some securing abatement and remediation work related to COVID. Additionally, a recent NDA survey shows two-thirds of members have not laid off workers or instituted a hiring freeze as a result of the pandemic.

On the negative side, backlogs have slipped for construction contractors year over year. Moreover, half of the respondents to NDA’s survey indicated a 0-10 percent decrease in their operating budget because of COVID, a quarter of respondents reported seeing a 20 percent drop, and a quarter saw a 30 percent drop in revenue.

Godek says, bigger picture, he anticipates project cancellations to lead to job losses on the nonresidential side of the business absent federal funding for infrastructure. He also says constricted state and local budgets may hurt the demo sector by leaving less money to finance infrastructure projects.

To combat some of these issues, Godek says NDA has started a grassroots campaign to encourage Congress to include significant infrastructure investment in Phase IV of the stimulus package. He also says a greater focus on deconstruction, implementation of technology to ensure safer work sites, and the availability of power plant decommissioning work portend some bright spots on the horizon for the industry.

As the industry, and the country, crosses its fingers for a rebound in 2021, it bears remembering that even the toughest years end—even if some seem longer than others.

Check out “Top 40 Demolition Contractors in the US” to see who made the list.

CDRA is looking for nominations for annual awards program

The Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) announced its annual awards program is now open for submissions. Awards are given to individuals and companies involved in construction & demolition (C&D) recycling who have made significant contributions to the industry.

Nominations are due by Jan. 15, 2021, and submission forms are available on the CDRA’s website. Nominations are reviewed, and winners will be determined by a CDRA committee. The awards will be presented at C&D World, the association’s annual membership meeting, which is being held March 22, 2021 in Austin, Texas.

The following are the descriptions of the different awards.

The Construction & Demolition Recycling Hall of Fame honors those individuals whose careers have best served the industry and the CDRA. Recyclers and vendors are eligible for the award. This institution honors those prominent leaders and pioneers in the C&D recycling industry who have made extraordinary contributions to their community, both personally and professionally, and have earned the respect of the industry. It serves to recognize the achievements of those who have exemplified the importance of promoting and defending the environmentally sound recycling of C&D material through innovative processes and have encouraged and supported others to build a career in the industry. Finally, the Construction & Demolition Recycling Hall of Fame recognizes leadership in advocating for environmentally sound practices with the regulating agencies and legislative bodies that govern waste regulations.

Construction & Demolition Hall of Fame:

Requirements for the Hall of Fame include:

1. Candidates must exemplify leadership, defined as outstanding and enduring contributions to the success of the industry and to improving the processes, efficiencies and/or the human relations of the industry in an active capacity for a minimum of 10 years.
2. Candidates’ business actions and personal behavior should demonstrate courageous thinking and actions as well as vision and innovation.
3. Candidates can come from the industry as an owner, operator or vendor.

CDRA Recycler of the Year: The CDRA Recycler of the Year recognizes the individual or company that exemplifies excellence in the C&D industry. The award is meant to honor those recycling operations in the C&D recycling industry who have made an extraordinary contribution to the industry through one or more of the following criteria:

• Advancing business operations that result in increased recycling percentages
• Developing novel methods of marketing and conducting business
• Innovating practices in employer/employee relations
• Ensuring safer operations
• Protecting the environment
• Developing industry standards

CDRA Member of the Year: The CDRA Member of the Year is presented to the board member or committee member who has most served the association in the previous year. The Member of the Year is selected by the CDRA president based on extraordinary service to the mission of the organization and the C&D recycling industry through the following criteria during the previous 12-month period:

• Candidates must exemplify leadership, defined as outstanding and enduring contributions to the success of the association and to lending quantifiable contributions to the association.
• Candidates must either serve on a CDRA committee or the CDRA board of directors.

Any questions relative to the awards can be sent to info@cdrecycling.org.

Survey finds contractors fear long-term business implications of COVID-19

More than 85 percent of contractors have been negatively impacted by COVID-19, according to the results of an August reader survey conducted by Construction Executive (CE) magazine, which is published by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). Supply chain disruptions, prolonged municipal permitting processes and delayed inspections due to office closures are all factors contributing to the increased rate of postponement and/or cancellation of construction projects.

While many contractors have not yet seen drastic impacts to their business, as construction was in many areas considered an “essential” service, the long-term implications are concerning. Seventy percent of contractors did not expect the construction industry to stabilize until at least 2021, while an additional 10.4 percent say they believe it may never reach pre-pandemic levels.

“While the survey respondents’ concerns about market viability and the health fears of the virus itself will remain in place for the duration of 2020 and into next year, contractors did report bright spots, such as a widespread adoption of technology after the outbreak of COVID-19,” said Lauren Pinch, editor-in-chief of CE. “That said, as the pandemic continues to change the landscape of the U.S. construction industry and state and local economies, contractors are continuously trying to assess the near- and long-term effects.”

While an uptick in office renovations to meet social distancing guidelines and to implement other COVID-19-related precautions was expected, 76.12 percent of respondents stated that they have not found this to be the case.

Looking toward economic recovery, three-quarters of contractors believe that there will be more interest in construction education programs as people seek out new types of work. Specialty trades, apprenticeship programs and more tech-focused construction jobs were all listed as areas that contractors believe will see high levels of interest.

AECOM restructures with integration of Design and Consulting Services business

Los Angeles-based AECOM recently announced it has advanced the next stage of its strategy with the integration of its Design and Consulting Services (DCS) businesses into one global organization to be led by Lara Poloni, AECOM’s president.

This initiative further simplifies the operating structure of the company and will enable greater connectivity and collaboration across the enterprise, AECOM says.

“Our greatest opportunity is to fully capitalize on the expertise that is inherent across our organization by thinking and acting as one global company—and in order to do that, we need to be structured as one,” says Troy Rudd, AECOM’s CEO. “[This] announcement is a critical step in the advancement of our strategy to best position the business for success, to ensure that we continue building on our momentum towards our vision of establishing a new standard of excellence in the industry, and to, in turn, create exceptional value for our stakeholders.”

Separately, Randy Wotring, AECOM’s COO, has announced his retirement and will continue to serve as a senior advisor to the company through the end of December. Wotring has served in numerous leadership positions within AECOM and its legacy companies throughout a nearly 40-year career. He has been a leader in the advancement of several of the company’s value-creating initiatives, including the development and growth of the management services business prior to its sale in January.

In addition, with Poloni’s expanded responsibilities and oversight of operations in her new role as president, and to be consistent with the organization’s focus on continuing to simplify its operating structure, Steve Morriss, AECOM’s group president of its DCS Americas business, has stepped down effective immediately. To ensure a seamless transition, Morriss will remain available in the near term to provide transition-related services to the company.

How COVID is impacting C&D recycling

While COVID-19’s impact pertaining to amplified residential and diminished commercial volumes has been well-documented, its specific effect on the C&D material stream hasn’t garnered as much attention.

At a Sept. 15 WasteExpo Together Online session titled “C&D and COVID-19: Where do we go from here?” a panel of industry experts discussed how ramifications from the pandemic have influenced the industry at large.

Moderated by Clark-Floyd Landfill LLC VP of Engineering & Environmental Affairs Bruce Schmucker, the session also featured Interior Removal Specialist Inc. (IRS) Director of Environmental Affairs Richard Ludt, Dem-Con Companies President Bill Keegan, and AMP Robotics founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz.

“Demo got hit hard when the governor of California announced a Safer at Home order for the state,” Ludt says regarding IRS’s operations, which focus on interior demolition of commercial spaces in the Los Angeles area. “We lost about 90 percent of our work overnight. And then in the coming weeks when it was determined construction was an essential activity, we got a fair amount of it back, but there are still some pretty significant issues going on with construction right now.”

Ludt says that IRS has embraced the Recycling Certification Institute’s certification, which evaluates recycling facilities by not just the percentage of weight diverted from landfill, but also the percentage by commodity diverted from landfill.

Ludt says that one way COVID has impacted operations is by forcing recyclers to reduce the number of manual sorting personnel in their facilities due to the inability to social distance staff. Because this reduced efficiency is hindering facilities’ ability to meet LEED diversion mandates, he says the USGBC is taking a facility’s diversion numbers from the 6 months prior to COVID into account when giving credit to those using these sites.

Keegan says that Dem-Con’s Minnesota-based C&D recovery facility, which specializes in recovering wood, metals, cardboard and aggregate, processes approximately 50,000 to 60,000 tons of C&D per year. The site’s operations were declared an essential service in late March and subsequently were allowed to continue, but the facility looks much different today in how it operates, Keegan says.

“Our response to the pandemic has included creating a COVID action plan, and we’re getting all too familiar with terms like social distancing, but we’ve implemented that,” he says. “We have hygiene and respiratory practices so we have mandatory face masks, regular cleaning of the facility multiple times a day, we’ve added breakroom and lunchroom areas, … we’ve also set up worker pods [that group smaller numbers of workers together rather than have them commingled] and created those so we’re limiting exposure at the facility.”

Keegan says while Dem-Con hasn’t had any workers test positive for COVID yet, it’s a matter of “when” not “if.” Nonetheless, he notes the company has been vigilant in adapting to a new way of doing business.

At Dem-Con’s facility, Keegan says volumes of C&D tons were up 20 percent year over year into July. He attributes this to ongoing projects continuing operation, while acknowledging that the third and fourth quarters aren’t looking as favorable and he projects volumes to be down overall into 2021.

Although he notes that Dem-Con has strong local end markets for wood, the wood tons recovered at the facility have been down this year, which threatens the company’s bottom line being one of the more high-value commodities. He did say, however, that he couldn’t attribute this directly to COVID.

Going forward, Horowitz says he thinks investment in AI and robotic sorting technology can help mitigate some of the unpredictable staffing issues C&D recyclers are seeing, including safety-related ones unique to COVID.

He also says robotics can help facilities better distance workers without sacrificing throughput.

While these systems were initially designed for single-stream applications, Horowitz notes they are now coming online to help facilities with both staffing and cash flow issues stemming from commodity swings in C&D facilities.

“Initially our focus had been on all these different types of single-stream materials, but now, we’ve found that pretty much the same technology is able to learn and distinguish a large fraction of materials in the construction and demolition world. This can be anything from aggregate to wood, and this shows the promise of the technology.”