Latest news with #subcontractors
South China Morning Post
21-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
10 arrested in Hong Kong in bribery case centred on CK Asset development
A CK Asset residential project in Hong Kong has been caught up in a bribery scandal after the city's graft-buster uncovered subcontractors allegedly offering incentives to site supervisors in exchange for lax oversight of subpar steel reinforcement work. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Wednesday that of 10 suspects, aged 29 to 52, arrested in connection with the case, one was an employee of the main contractor, five worked for several subcontractors and four were site supervisors at an engineering consultancy. At the centre of the controversy is CK Asset's Anderson Road project in Kwun Tong, which consists of six residential towers providing 2,926 flats, including about 1,000 that are designated under a 'starter homes' pilot scheme for residents. The ICAC said some individuals allegedly provided illicit incentives to site supervisors in exchange for lenient oversight of subpar construction practices. The perks included cash rewards ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, a large number of mooncake vouchers, lavish meals at high-end restaurants costing thousands per person, and entertainment at nightclubs costing between HK$20,000 and HK$30,000 on each occasion, the anti-corruption agency said. Those arrested are suspected to have committed offences including bribery, accepting bribes, conspiracy to defraud and using false instruments.
Geek Vibes Nation
12-05-2025
- Business
- Geek Vibes Nation
Renovation On A Budget: How 3D Home Design Software Helps Homeowners Dodge Costly Mistakes
America's love affair with renovation shows no sign of cooling. Homeowners poured more than $500 billion into remodeling and repairs last year, a figure Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies expects to climb modestly through 2025 . Yet big money doesn't guarantee smooth projects: a 2024 survey found 53 % of owners who hired contractors blew past their budgets, and nearly half suffered major delays. When every misstep can snowball into thousands of dollars, the right digital tools—especially 3D Home Design Software—can be the difference between a tight, predictable spend and a financial headache. The Budget Killers Lurking in Every Remodel Most overruns trace back to the same three culprits: Faulty visualization. Paper sketches and verbal descriptions rarely capture how cabinets crowd a doorway or where sunlight glares off a TV. Mid‑build corrections mean change‑orders, and each revision inflates labor costs by 10–20 %. Vague estimates. Contractors often bid from rough measurements. If the scope shifts, material orders balloon. Home‑improvement cost studies show that only a third of projects finish on budget. Communication gaps. Subcontractors, designers, and owners work from different documents, leading to errors that ripple down the schedule. A reliable 3D modeling environment tackles all three problems before demolition even starts. See It, Fix It, Save It—Before You Swing a Hammer Cedreo, a cloud‑based platform built for remodelers and homeowners alike, promises '2D to photorealistic 3D in under two hours.' Users draft floor plans, furnish rooms, and generate realistic interior and exterior views in a single interface. Because the software updates every elevation automatically, you can test a wall removal, try a new island layout, or swap siding materials in minutes—long before you commit real dollars to framing or finishes. The payoff is huge: early visuals reveal tight clearances, awkward traffic flow, and lighting hot spots that would otherwise surface mid‑construction. When you correct those glitches digitally, it costs nothing; on‑site, it's a budget buster. Libraries That Mirror Real‑World Costs Visualization is only half the battle; numbers matter. Cedreo's catalog holds 3,000‑plus furniture and décor items and more than 3,500 building materials. Each object carries dimensions and placement rules, so the program can calculate square footage, linear runs, and quantities automatically. The moment you swap ceramic tile for engineered oak, you see how coverage and waste factors shift—data you can export straight to your contractor for a hard bid. A Cedreo FAQ compares typical planning costs: hiring a design firm for a single house plan runs $700 and up, high‑end CAD subscriptions hover near $200 a month, while a dedicated floor‑plan platform starts around $79 monthly. That delta alone can fund upgraded fixtures or an energy‑smart appliance package. Speed Equals Savings Time is money on any work site. Cedreo users can 'create an entire set of home plans in as little as two hours,' according to its builder‑oriented feature list. For owner‑occupiers juggling day jobs and family commitments, that speed removes weeks of back‑and‑forth with a traditional drafter. More important, it keeps trades from sitting idle while waiting for revised drawings—a leading cause of schedule creep. Templates amplify the effect. Because every project you finish lives in your cloud account, you can copy a previous bath layout, tweak dimensions, and drop it into a new remodel. Cedreo says pros leverage this to 'close deals twice as fast' on construction jobs, but homeowners enjoy the same advantage: less design time means earlier permit submissions and earlier material orders, locking in prices before inflation or supply‑chain hiccups strike. Bulletproofing Communication Misaligned expectations are the silent budget killers. Photorealistic renderings produced inside Cedreo—sharpened with day‑night lighting sliders—give every stakeholder the same frame of reference. Shared cloud links let contractors walk through the model, flag framing conflicts, and suggest value‑engineering tweaks without endless site visits. Because discussions revolve around an identical 3D canvas, there's little room for the 'I thought the island was eight feet, not six' misunderstandings that drive change‑order fees. A Quick Scenario: The $25 K Kitchen that Stayed $25 K Imagine a Brooklyn homeowner targeting a cosmetic kitchen refresh on a lean $25,000 budget. A designer quote for plans alone comes back at $3,200—over 12 % of the total pot. Instead, the owner spends a Saturday morning in Cedreo: Sketches the existing galley in 2D, then auto‑switches to 3D. Tests three cabinet layouts, discovering that one option blocks the fire‑escape door—a free catch that avoids a $2,000 code fix later. Imports quartz counters and mid‑price appliances from the material library; real‑time cost metrics show the project hovering near $23 k. Shares the render with two contractors, who both price from identical specs. No hidden upgrades appear in the small print because quantities were locked down digitally. Fast‑forward eight weeks. The job closes at $24,800—within 1 % of the target—and the owner still has renderings handy for listing photos should they sell down the road. Tips for First‑Time Users of 3D Home Design Software Measure twice, model once. Spend extra time verifying room dimensions; accurate input is everything. Start with templates. Cedreo's preset room shapes and roof profiles shave hours off the learning curve. Stage in layers. Design structural changes first, then furnish, then fine‑tune materials; it mirrors construction sequencing and keeps the file tidy. Export take‑offs. Most contractors will price labor if you supply square footage and lineal runs. Use the software's export tools to hand them exact numbers. Iterate quickly. The beauty of a cloud‑based app is freedom to experiment. Try bold colors or fixture swaps early—before you fall in love with an option that busts the budget. Why the Future of Budget Renovation Is Digital With remodeling outlays approaching $466 billion by mid‑2025, every percentage point saved translates into billions freed for additional upgrades—or simply preserved in homeowners' wallets. While no software can guarantee perfect execution, platforms that merge rapid 3D modeling, built‑in cost intelligence, and easy sharing slash the classic risks: unseen design flaws, fuzzy estimates, and miscommunication. Cedreo isn't the only 3D Home Design Software on the market, but its focus on speed, integrated libraries, and budget‑friendly pricing shows how the category is evolving. For DIYers and professionals alike, the takeaway is clear: invest a few hours up front in detailed digital planning, and you'll gain weeks of schedule certainty and thousands in protected capital. In a renovation landscape where overruns are the rule rather than the exception, that might be the smartest investment you make all year.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Albuquerque mayor slams fiber firms for 'nightmare' construction
May 9—The city of Albuquerque issued a stop-work order against Ezee Fiber, saying the company has run "roughshod" over a Northeast Heights neighborhood, and promised more rules to prevent the activity in the future. The move comes as officials raise concerns about three companies permitted to develop Albuquerque's fiber optic network, something the city has touted as a key technology to improve economic competitiveness. Each company has had stop-work orders issued against them, with two of the firms currently barred from doing work underneath Albuquerque neighborhood streets. "Unfortunately, the way this is being done, especially by some of these providers," Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said, "is an absolute nightmare for our homeowners." Over the last year, the city has received thousands of complaints about the companies, sometimes totaling 200 per month. The complaints involve workers leaving yards damaged, working outside normal hours, blocking driveways, busting sidewalks and communicating poorly, if at all, with residents. In at least one instance, the city also said Ezee Fiber struck a gas line. "And so these, typically subcontractors, are just riding roughshod all over these neighborhoods," Keller said. Keller said all three companies permitted to lay fiber in Albuquerque are guilty of this. But Friday's news conference focused primarily on work done by Ezee Fiber, a Houston-based company that had been laying fiber optic cable in the neighborhoods around Ventura and Paseo del Norte NE. Keller also said Ezee Fiber had broken the law by working after a stop-work order was issued. However, a spokesperson for Ezee Fiber said that was inaccurate and that no unpermitted work had occurred. "At every point, including after the order was issued, Ezee Fiber has acted in good faith, taken immediate steps to prevent and address construction issues, and complied fully with the city's permitting and regulatory requirements," Jim Schwartz, spokesperson for Ezee Fiber, said in a statement. "We remain committed to transparency and collaboration, and we expect the same accuracy and fairness in return from City leadership." Schwartz also said that Ezee Fiber "recognizes the frustration construction brings to Albuquerque residents, and we take full responsibility for any incidents that impact landscaping or existing infrastructure buried in the right of way where we are installing fiber optic lines." "Unfortunately, even with the most careful planning and use of line locator services, construction crews will occasionally impact these utilities or disturb landscaping; however, Ezee Fiber is committed to being a good neighbor, helping to support progress for New Mexico families, and quickly resolving any issues to restore service or restore landscapes," Schwartz said. Schwartz added that Ezee Fiber continues to see Albuquerque as a partner and will continue to work with the city. The city's Broadband Office touts fiber optics on its website as a faster, more reliable and cost-effective internet service. "It'll help support our needs as the city grows into the future, and we all want construction to be quick and out of our way," the city's broadband program manager, Catherine Nicolaou, said. "We're hearing from our residents and seeing that this is too quick and quite careless, as the mayor mentioned." Still, fiber is the future, Nicolaou argued. "We're looking at how our city can remain competitive with the rest of the world in terms of access to technology," Nicolaou said. "Everyone should have equitable access to a high-speed fiber connection, and we support that by issuing permits to private companies to install these fiber optic connections in public utility easements." Nicolaou said three firms are permitted to lay fiber in Albuquerque: Ezee Fiber, Gigapower and Vexus Fiber. Both Ezee Fiber and Vexus Fiber are barred from working in Albuquerque until they show they comply with the law, while Gigapower has worked its way back from a previous stop-work order. Alan Varela, the city's director of Planning, said the companies submit project work orders. Those work orders specify what they're doing and include agreements to follow the rules, such as repairing damaged yards and communicating with residents about their work. But changes to the regulations are coming, Varela said. Those include requiring the companies to notify neighbors of impending work and workers identify the company for which they are working. Varela said the city will also start fining companies out of compliance. "We're going to make sure that we hold their feet to the fire and that they slow down and do it right," Varela said. "They shouldn't have come in the way they did. We're happy they're here, but they didn't need to come in in such a careless, haphazard fashion." Watching all this was William Schooley, one resident whose yard had been trashed by fiber optic installers. Schooley lives in a different neighborhood, but said he came to news conference to observe. For him, the problem started about 12 months ago, when workers came out and spray-painted lines as indicators for future work. He said he was given no notice beforehand and, when he confronted the workers, was given little information about the development. But the big thing for Schooley — paint left on the sidewalks and in the road. "It's in my front yard and it's been there for a year," Schooley said. Over the period of work, Schooley said that sewage service was briefly unavailable to some residents, while others had to navigate destroyed sidewalks and blocked driveways. The work is done now, Schooley said but he hopes the new rules and regulations can help mitigate circumstances like his in the future.
