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Date Posted: July 8 2005

Contractor barred from state jobs
Lanzo Construction LLC is the first Michigan company to be barred from doing business with the state for ignoring safety standards and causing the 1999 trench collapse that killed a worker installing sewer pipe.

According to the Southeast Michigan Council of Occupational Safety and Health, Lanzo was found guilty in October 2004 of ignoring safety standards and causing the 1999 trenching collapse which killed Robert Whiteye.

Then-Attorney General Jennifer Granholm brought criminal charges against the company, which was found guilty in October 2004. The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth said the judge in the case put the company on two years probation and fined the company the maximum, $10,000.

"Workers have a right to go home healthy and whole every day. This is the basic tenet of the MIOSHA program," said DLEG Director David C. Hollister. "Lanzo Construction Company has habitually and recklessly placed their workers in harm's way. This sentence sends a message to all companies that there are serious consequences for employers who refuse to protect their workers."

SEMCOSH had a harsher view of the sentence. "Given the low penalties for killing workers some corporations conclude it is 'cheaper' to kill workers than to provide safe work places," it said on its website.

Now, SEMCOSH said, under Granholm's 2003 executive order barring "corporate bad actors" from getting state business, Lanzo has been barred from doing business with the State of Michigan for the maximum eight years.

U.S. construction dips, but is 'healthy'
New U.S. construction starts dipped 1 percent in May from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $591.5 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction.

The report said nonresidential building "settled back" after its improved performance during March and April, and nonbuilding construction (public works
and electric utilities) also retreated slightly.

Residential building edged upward in May, helped by a brisk pace for multifamily housing. McGraw-Hill said during the first five months of 2005, total construction on an unadjusted basis was $241.8 billion, a gain of 2% relative to last year's January-May period. By region, the Midwest saw a 6 percent drop in construction during that five-month period compared to a year ago.

"Overall, the construction industry in 2005 continues to show a healthy volume of activity," stated Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction. "Single family housing to this point remains very strong, and multifamily
housing has been boosted by the heightened amount of condominium projects now underway. Public works is being lifted by further growth for its environmental categories.

"After a slow start to 2005, nonresidential building seemed to be regaining upward momentum. At the same time, May's nonresidential decline suggests that renewed expansion for this sector may be hesitant, as developers continue to adjust to higher costs as a result of last year's sharp run-up in materials prices."