Beacon News

It's hard to believe that Memorial Day weekend is here already. It's a great time of year, with graduation parties, barbecues, baseball games, and all kinds of outdoor sports and activities. After a long winter in the Northeast, the hot weather seems to come up all at once. The temperature in Boston hit 88F this past weekend and in New York City it topped 90F on Saturday! Wherever you will be this coming holiday weekend, I hope you have great weather and a great time.

This time of year is extremely busy in the construction industry. Beacon's team members have been out in the field working on projects across the U.S. This year we are seeing a number of trends in the construction field. A shortage of skilled labor continues to be an issue. Commercial construction is once again on the rise, as is inflation. Of course, very high fuel prices are having a big impact on costs for some projects (particularly heavy highway construction, where lots of diesel fuel is needed). As of this writing, average retail diesel prices in the U.S. are up 71% compared to one year ago (and prices have doubled in some places).

The U.S. construction industry has been hit by high material costs (particularly lumber, steel, aluminum, and asphalt) and supplier delays for more than two years now (since shortly after the start of the pandemic), but the rapid rise in fuel prices (and prices for construction materials) highlights the importance of closely reviewing construction estimates and bids received to ensure that contractors are factoring in the current realities when bidding on new projects. For this reason, Beacon's team is paying extra attention to supplier costs and material delivery lead times when conducting bid reviews, cost-to-complete analyses, and scheduling.

This month's E-news features a bio about Kieran O'Connor who has been with Beacon for nearly 11 years now and has been an invaluable member of our team from the start. For the past year, Kieran has been heading up our presence in Florida where he is now Beacon's Vice President, Southeast U.S. Congratulations go out to Kieran and his fiancée Erin. The couple got engaged at the end of 2021 and we couldn't be happier for them!

Beacon also welcomes a new project manager to our team, Josue Rivas Bermudez. Josue will be reporting to Kieran in our Florida office. Josue holds a degree in mechanical engineering, has extensive construction management experience, and also speaks 4 languages. Welcome Josue!

As always, please Contact Beacon if we can help with any construction-related or surety consulting matter. On behalf of everyone here at Beacon, I hope you have a relaxing and fun holiday weekend.

Sincerely, Dennis O'Neill
President, Beacon Consulting Group, Inc.