Author: Constructech Editors
Environmental concerns often drive innovation and technology advances. As an example, consumer demand for new products in new packages has been one factor in the proliferation of plastics in many different formulae. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes, plastic is everywhere: In our home, office, school — and ocean. Among the top 10 kinds of trash picked up during the 2017 Intl Coastal Cleanup were food wrappers, beverage bottles, grocery bags, straws, and take out containers, all made of plastic. While it’s tough to say exactly how much plastic is in the ocean, scientists think about eight million metric tons of plastic entered…
The so-called “gig economy” took off with Uber and Lyft drivers working freelance and getting referrals from an app on smartphones. Need a ride? Home delivery of dinner? An app will locate you and the nearest driver and match you up. But what if a ride—or food delivery—isn’t your immediate problem? If you are on a new construction jobsite, wondering where your nearest supply store might be, an app that can arrange delivery of additional material or tools might be a good thing. Well, someone thought of that app. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, startup Sitedropp is recruiting customers, suppliers, and…
The GCCA (Global Cement and Concrete Assn.) might be a little biased when it claims that concrete is the most used human-made material on the planet with 14 billion cubic meters produced every year for use in everything from roads to bridges, tunnels to homes, and hydropower installations to flood defenses. But then again, it’s hard to deny that concrete is used a lot to build our world. And there is no bias in saying that concrete is an essential element of construction, with no other material widely available equaling its resilience, strength, and wide availability. However, the downside is that…
Where will the entry-level workers come from to bring construction employment back to historic levels? Apprenticeship programs and community colleges are part of the equation. Construction-oriented specialty schools is another potential source. Construction companies and suppliers alike are vested in getting employment back up so there are enough workers to handle the upcoming construction economic improvement. The Do School is a nonprofit organization in North Carolina that focuses on building economic mobility in underserved sectors of the city. It pioneered an innovative approach to skills training in the construction industry, providing it for marginalized residents of low-wealth neighborhoods. Do School’s…
If you are a general contractor with projects underway, you probably don’t need to be told that prices for construction materials have gone up and available supplies in many cases have decreased. Prices of construction materials jumped more than 20% from January 2021 to January 2022, according to an analysis by the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America of government data. The association recently posted a new edition of its Construction Inflation Alert, a report to inform project owners, officials, and others about the challenges volatile materials costs, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages posed for construction firms. The producer price index for inputs to…
When January comes around, people make predictions and resolutions for the coming year and analyze the previous year’s ups and downs. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, construction work has been hard to predict and even harder to look back on. But as they say, someone has to do it. We’ll leave it up to the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America to report on 2021 and the first part of 2022. First, a look back to December 2021, and some good news. Construction spending increased in December compared to both November and December a year ago thanks to…
The next big thing? Like rust, technology never sleeps. Innovation comes in waves, it seems, and the next wave to crash over us started seriously in 2019. Called Fifth Generation networking, 5G for short, this latest standard for cellular networks began deployment that year, slowly replacing the common 4G networks that have been around for a decade or so. Being implemented across the world, 5G offers some advantages—and a few drawbacks—over current technology. For example, Intel sees some of the biggest benefits of 5G as its high capacity and minimal lag. With up to 5x the bandwidth available with 4G, 5G will…
They say only superheroes don’t need training to be good at their jobs. Even then, some stumble along the way to success—Tony Stark in his Ironman suit for the first time, for example. Maybe what he needed was a different approach to learning his job than jumping right in. Apprenticeships have helped build America from its early beginnings to the present day. Among the early apprentices who went on to national distinction were George Washington (surveyor), Benjamin Franklin (printer) and Paul Revere (Silversmith). Thousands of others – carpenters, masons, shipwrights – did their part in developing and supporting the economy…
Artificial intelligence—AI—is becoming a well-known technology even if few people understand its science. Applications that use AI and machine learning, for example, are starting to be introduced to various industries including construction. Finding the right niche is the problem. One segment of the application universe, estimating, is a good starting point to see how AI can provide benefits to contractors. In this function, PataBid has developed an AI powered, cloud-based construction estimating software, Quantify, that is specifically designed to provide small- to medium-sized mechanical and electrical contractors with an effective cost estimating tool. PataBid Quantify stands out from other estimating…
Railroads have a long and controversial history in the U.S. In some states, railroads were welcomed from the earliest days while in others they were thought unnecessary. Ohio, for example, depended on the vast canal system—the fabled Erie Canal and others—for moving people and products. The first railroad completed in Ohio connected Toledo, Ohio, with Adrian, Michigan, a total of 33 miles. The trip between the two communities took three hours. Many people deemed railroads as risky, and some investors feared that they could lose their investment in railroad companies. Still, by 1850, the Ohio legislature had chartered 76 railroad…