STAND. COM. REP. 2436

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2379

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Science, Arts, and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2379 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH PROGRAM,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the construction research program within the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Engineering; and

(2) Appropriate funds to be used for the center's programs and functions.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from an associate professor at the University of Hawaii Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the head of the Purdue University Division of Construction Engineering and Management, and a private individual. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Director of Finance.

Your Committees find that the implementation of construction research promises immense dividends for the largest industrial sector of the national and state economy. The University of Hawaii offers an excellent location for the conduct of such construction research. Construction research spaning the entire life cycle of projects - from inception to maintenance, covering the important stages of design, procurement, and construction, including dispute resolution and risk mitigation – could result in considerable cost savings and accumulation of best practices data.

Your Committees have amended the measure by:

(1) Eliminating almost all of an unnecessarily verbose purpose section;

(2) Adding a provision requiring the center to collaborate with the construction industry on specific projects; and

(3) Eliminating a specific appropriation amount.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Science, Arts, and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2379, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2379, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Science, Arts, and Technology,

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DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

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NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair