Author: Constructech Editors

Monitoring tires is an effective way for commercial vehicle fleets to reduce costs. Despite tires accounting for just 5% of fleet equipment, they can influence up to a whopping 53% of the fleet’s overall operating costs. Application of digital sensors and a monitoring system like Continental’s ContiConnect can aid fleets in monitoring the health of their tires. Continental’s unveiling of a new valve cap sensor to its lineup of Digital Tire Monitoring products and services is helping the fleet industry. Continental boasts its sensor is the easiest and fastest to install of any tire sensor, can be quickly scaled up…

Building information modeling, BIM for short, is an international construction and design process that is saving companies a lot of time and money, not only in the U.S. but around the world. For example, a Korean research team has developed a BIM-based digital collaboration platform that allows construction owners and engineers to collaborate with each other on digital design tasks. From a conventional perspective, collaboration in the construction sector is often seen as merely sharing an integrated workspace. However, this approach comes with drawbacks associated with space rents, difficulties in properly managing collaborative information, and ambiguity in defining roles and…

Three letter call signs or location codes are assigned to each airport and, contrary to frequent flyer lore, usually make sense. ATL, for example, is the Atlanta Intl. Airport (Hartsfield-Jackson) and JFK is the New York area John F. Kennedy airport. In some cases, you have to know the history of the area to understand why certain combinations are used. In the Chicago area, ORD (O’Hare Intl.), might be assumed to start with “O” for the World War II Navy aviator and Medal of Honor winner Butch O’Hare after whom the facility was named. No, in this case, the original…

Whatever flies is subject to the vagaries of weather, some more than others. Aircraft can fly through hurricanes if the planes are built for that purpose. Don’t try that with a Cessna or Piper general aviation plane. Or a hot air balloon! Design is critically important in aviation and so is construction. Stress can cause metal failure in an aircraft as well as mental failure in a pilot. Either one can cause a catastrophe. While we haven’t reached the Jetson’s level of personal flying cars, the air taxi industry is on the verge of taking flight as major companies like…

With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, one of the largest and most significant investments in rebuilding our roads and bridges since President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System, attention has been paid to updating the maps that will show where construction and long-term investments are most needed. To provide this data, the U.S. Geological Survey is tasked with acquiring topographic QL1 (Quality Level 1) LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data in support of the 3DEP (3D Elevation Program) and The National Map. The 3DEP data produces the nation’s first baseline of seamless, high-resolution topographic elevation data, which is then incorporated…

Rings have been around for a long time. The earliest existing rings were found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians primarily used signet rings with an engraved seal for the wearer to authenticate documents. In the early centuries of the Roman Republic, most rings were of iron; the wearing of gold rings was restricted to certain classes, such as those who had held high office. The Romans are also thought to have originated the custom of betrothal rings, or engagement rings, symbolizing a promise of marriage. By the 19th century, the traditional distinctions between ring types had mostly broken down.…

The word “hospitality” has a nice ring to it. Everyone would like to meet people who are hospitable, welcoming, and pleasant. Millions of employees in the hospitality industry would like to be thought of that way, certainly. Within the ranks of those workers are millions of people who are rarely seen by those they benefit, those who work in the backroom, behind-the-scenes, “below the stairs” as the British might say. Hospitality as an industry applies to nearly any company that deals with customer satisfaction and is focused on meeting leisurely needs rather than basic ones. The lodging industry segment includes hotels,…

Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman recently posted, “There’s substantial evidence that people don’t feel that they personally are doing badly.” The Federal Reserve conducts an annual survey of the economic well-being of households. At the end of 2022, 73% of households said they were ‘at least doing OK financially,’ down from the previous year (presumably because of the end of many pandemic aid programs) but not significantly below the number in 2019. This behavior spills over to other issues besides economic status. Take housing for example, or more precisely, affordable housing. The U.S. had an estimated housing shortfall of 3.8 million units as of…

The song claimed “Everything is coming up roses…” but in the real world, everything is coming up…electric. Climate concerns worldwide are making electric vehicles, for example, a high priority. States are mandating the phase-out of fossil fueled vehicles with target dates in less than a decade in many cases. The infrastructure for electric vehicles—charging stations at public and private locations, in cities and rural areas, along highways and even in off-road areas—is gaining in importance as thousands of new e-vehicles are manufactured. And it’s not just cars and trucks that are going “e” in the U.S. As an example, in…

“Net zero nets benefits” is a catchy slogan but where does the term net zero come from and what does it mean? The Paris Agreement limiting global warming was negotiated by 196 parties at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference near Paris, France. As of February 2023, 195 members of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) are parties to the agreement. Of the three UNFCCC member states which have not ratified the agreement, the only major emitter is Iran. The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2020 under President Trump but rejoined in 2021 under…