Quote Originally Posted by Chubminnow View Post
Hey Dac....judging from your last post I can tell you're a decent guy...anyone (almost anyone) who spends considerable amounts of time in the construction industry, like yourself, me, DJD and others weren't able to put in as many years as we have by being lazy or not pulling our weight, union or non-union either one....we've put in this amount of time because we work hard and we enjoy what we do. So anyway....here's your online handshake.

Now....looking at the level of constuction dollars it takes to utilize the wage rates, which as things stand today are 100K per project in Indiana and 250K per project in Kentucky, these rates have not changed at all since they were enacted. Seems to me like the wage system needs to be reviewed, maybe it's time to set new levels....I can't remember how long it's been since I worked on a government project in Kentucky that was less than 250K. If a project entails substantial systems upgrades at all it's going to go over the 250K mark easily, this doesn't even count interior/exterior renovations and modifications. Honestly I'm not sure where they came up with the 250K number to begin with in the first place...but it's been set at that level for a long time, the cost of all materials have shot through the roof since the 250K number was put into place. Maybe it's time to raise the bar to 500K or 750K? It sure would help save the tax payers a lot of money.
Dang Tim we talked about the same thing earlier in the year. That figure does seem out of date. Your right on with the cost of materials.....whew conduit and wire are crazy high and climbing more all the time. If I bid a job with alot of cable I put a disclaimer in there for a certain amount of time so I don't get stuck eating 20K because some OPEC nation has civil unrest. Heck some of the supply houses won't honor prices more than a day!
Much worse for electrical trades as they could have run after run of the big feeder cables. Can you imagine having to honor pricing for hundreds and hundreds of feet of that?? Conduit? Tough times out there and if prices keep rising the perceived economic recovery will sloooow way down. Can you imagine paying $5 a gallon for 10-20 service vehicles?