Author: Constructech Editors
Restricted flow of cash within the construction industry has had a domino effect, making it difficult for contractors to fund new jobs or pay their employees promptly. Learn how non-bank, non-debt capital for contractors and their subcontractors helps to address these problems. General contractors know it all too well: In 2023, construction labor demand has far outstripped supply. The latest data from CBRE shows the construction labor force has shrunk throughout the last year, while unemployment continues to rise. This in spite of construction wages actually increasing 9% since late 2020. Subcontractors are struggling to meet the needs of their…
Housing is expensive across the nation. In many areas, rental housing is out of reach. Even in rural and other areas with a generally low level of costs, rentals are too expensive for too many families. Why focus on rentals? In reports from a variety of associations and the federal government, rental cost is used instead of purchase cost since, while mortgage payments are a similar drain on funds, the house purchased is also an investment. Rentals, meanwhile, are similar to food, fuel, and other essential purchases. This is the thrust of a report by the NLIHC (National Low Income…
Nothing lasts forever, as the saying goes, but some things last a very long time. Equipment used for construction, however, is not usually one of the long-lasting assets. The damage, wear, and general poor maintenance such equipment sustains leads to a shorter-than-hoped-for existence. Most construction equipment and tools are expected to last for 10,000 hours of usage, according to Asset Panda. Certainly, it depends on what the item is, what parts are used, and on many other factors. Some pieces of equipment or tools stop working at just 2,000 hours, while others can go for 25,000. The construction industry has…
Surveying construction sites, especially large infrastructure projects like roads and bridges, requires accuracy. The more accuracy, the better the project. The classic case of poor accuracy is the bridge that was started from both banks of the river and…failed to meet in the middle. Of course, that was just a joke, a cartoon, or movie comedy point. Or was it? Technology companies have been providing positioning tools for decades using commonly available satellite signals from all four GNSS Systems (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo) to determine absolute position and orientation. Major players in the location/positioning market, including Topcon Positioning Systems…
Artificial intelligence—the AI everybody is talking about—has been around for a while now, in forms ranging from child-like to robust, and many people are focused on finding something for AI to do besides write college term papers. And misdirect people seeking advice on the internet. The current AI generation being talked about is the “chatbot” variation. Basically, a search engine on steroids—and employed as such by search site like Bing and Google—and employing LLM (large language models), chatbots have become the face of AI in the minds of many. A large language model consists of a neural network with many…
The impact of the Canadian wildfires on the air in New York and Chicago, among many other places, shows how interdependent the world environment is. The air we breathe is the same air that circulates everywhere in the world. The proof of the chaos theory’s “Butterfly Effect” is all around us. Indeed, what happens in Africa and Latin America has an impact on the U.S. environment and vice versa. As scientists around the world research the causes and affects of climate change, industries are taking the lead in mitigating the most generally accepted causes including carbon in various forms. As…
Construction projects are becoming more complex and more detailed, and today’s projects generate a great deal of data. This information can be a competitive advantage for construction companies that incorporate construction workflow automation. Construction workflow automation refers to the implementation of technologies and processes to streamline and optimize various tasks and activities involved in construction projects. By automating workflows, construction companies can enhance efficiency, reduce manual labor, minimize errors, and improve overall project management. Construction companies need to automate and integrate their workflows and create a closed loop that relies on data. Picture the series of activities that construction companies…
As infrastructure development is critical to the environmental and economic sustainability of every nation, governments are investing in infrastructure to support economic recovery, ensure energy security, and address climate change. The stakes have never been higher for the firms responsible for delivering infrastructure solutions. Recent studies show the stress of an insufficient supply of skilled staff and trades are top concern for contractors in 2023. In the 2023 Construction Outlook survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and software company Sage, 83% of those surveyed said inexperienced skilled labor and labor shortages are impacting project performance and safety.…
The IoT (Internet of Things) gets a lot of play in technical and trade-focused resources, pointing out its value and growth among the advances toward the smart building, city and, eventually, nation. But there is another Io, the IoE, that is projected to be the end game, well beyond IoT. First coined by Cisco about 2012, the Internet of Everything expands on the concept of the IoT world. Cisco defines the Internet of Everything as the networked connection of people, process, data, and things. The benefit of IoE is derived from the compound impact of connecting people, process, data, and…
The name LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser device emits a beam of light through optical amplification. Spatial coherence keeps the beam within a narrow and tight path over long distances, allowing the energy produced to be used in applications as simple as a laser pointer or as concentrated as laser metal cutting. Albert Einstein is credited with being the first to theorize about what makes lasers possible, stimulated emission. He detailed this theory in “On the Quantum Theory of Radiation.” Today, lasers are used in a wide range of technologies including optical disk drives, laser printers, barcode scanners,…