Wright Engineers is pleased to announce the promotion of Erik Anderson, PE, SE to principal. Erik works in our Las Vegas office and has 10 years of experience with projects in the commercial, hospitality, health care, and industrial sectors. He has been with Wright Engineers for 3 years. In other big news Erik is getting married to his lovely fiancee, Kate (pictured above), this summer in Oregon! Being a graduate of WSU he is an avid follower of their football and basketball teams. When he isn’t working he enjoys golfing, traveling with his fiancee, and rooting on the Vegas Golden Knights!

 

AISC ANALYSIS OF NEW STEEL TARIFFS

According to the American Institute of Steel Construction or AISC, the impact of the newly implement steel tariffs on the construction industry may not be as bad as some have feared. According to AISC, domestic steel mills currently have the steelmaking capacity to supply the demand in the US. The tariffs will not impact construction cost of federal projects since all federal projects have already had “buy America” requirements. AISC also claims that fears that private building construction will go up drastically are unfounded. For a typical steel building, the steel material cost is approximately 3.6% of the total construction cost. If the tariff caused the cost of that steel material to go up by the exact 25% tariff amount, the total cost increase of the building would only be about 0.9%. Due to competition in the marketplace, AISC feels it is likely the increase would be less than the 25%–AISC anticipates it may be closer to a 0.5% increase.

Looking at the worldwide environment there are advantages to US steel production. US structural steel production uses 90% recycled content, and CO2 emissions of structural steel produced in the US is one third of steel produced in China.

Feedback that Wright Engineers has received from those in the steel industry has been mixed. Some have cited recent spikes in steel prices at the wholesale level perhaps based on the fear of the impact of the tariffs on future import steel prices. Time will tell. A link to the recent AISC webinar on this issue can be found here.

PRECIOUS LIFE SHELTER

Homeless pregnant women in Southern California now have additional residential and supportive services thanks to Precious Life Shelter’s “Cherry Street Residences” which recently opened. Wright Engineers was honored to donate all of the structural engineering services for the project. HomeAid Orange County, a charitable arm of the local home builders association (BIA), teamed with Precious Life Shelter to help fund and build the project. Wright has donated services for HomeAid several times in the past. Both HomeAid and Precious Life Shelter are incredible organizations doing a lot of good in Southern California. Precious Life Shelter commemorated the grand opening of the Cherry Street Residences in their Spring 2018 Newsletter.

Pictured above representing Wright Engineers are Liz Cera (third from the left) and Wright Engineers’ VP and Director of Wright’s California Operations Scott Jones (holding the plaque