California Construction Law 2023

In 2022, California passed a number of bills affecting construction law. We also saw a few notable court decisions which potentially affect contractors in the state. We will discuss these in two parts. 

Part 1:

SB674 High Road Jobs in Transportation-Related Public Contracts and Grants Pilot Program: Establishes a program to support the creation of equitable high-quality transportation and related manufacturing and infrastructure jobs, and is intended to cover the electrification in public works to accommodate electric vehicles. The bill requires high road job standards to be material terms of the final contract between a bidder and the relevant public agency.  These are standards developed and published by the Department of General Services, in consultation with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Department of Transportation,. Contractors will be required to submit information necessary to demonstrate compliance every 12 months; the contractor may be fined $10,000 for each missed report, to be deducted from final payment.

AB2232 School HVAC Requirements: Requires a “covered school” to ensure that its facilities have HVAC systems meeting specified minimum ventilation rate requirements, unless the existing HVAC system is not capable of safely meeting that standard. A “covered school” is defined as a school district, a county office of education, a charter school, a private school, California Community Colleges, or the California State Universities.  In such cases, a covered school would be required to ensure that its HVAC systems meet the minimum ventilation rates in effect at the time the building permit for installation was issued. The bill requests that University of California facilities meet the same standards.

AB2446 Embodied Carbon Emissions: Construction Materials: Requires the state to develop a framework to measure and then reduce the carbon intensity of materials used in the construction of new buildings, including residential buildings, by July 1, 2025, in consultation with specified stakeholders. The framework is to include a comprehensive strategy to achieve a 40% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of building materials no later than December 31, 2035, as determined from a baseline calculated using a 2026 report, yet to be created.

SB1422 Alternative No-Bid Contracting Procedures: Authorizes the Director of General Services (for a public entity) to use alternative no-bid contracting procedures, as established by existing law, for contracts for the installation (or purchase and installation) of carpet, resilient flooring, synthetic turf, or lighting fixtures. State and specified local agencies may contract with suppliers awarded those contracts if installation is not performed in connection with new construction, the supplier complies with the labor code, and a skilled and trained workforce is used to complete the installation work.

SB 1354 Design-Build Contracting ADA Compliance: Authorizes local agencies (city, county, or city and county) to use the design-build contracting process to award contracts for constructing projects necessary for compliance with construction-related accessibility standards.

If you have questions about the possible impact of any of these provisions on your business, Ghassemian Law Group is here for you. Please reach out to consult our construction law experts here. Look out for Part 2 discussing the newest construction laws and court decisions in our next blog, coming soon.