Author: Laura Black
Let’s talk safety in construction—for women. We all know PPE (personal protective equipment) is one of the best ways to heighten safety in the construction industry, and yet so much of the PPE is designed to fit men. It is time for a candid conversation about safety. The construction industry continues to see the greatest numbers of fatalities. Falls, slips, and trips accounted for more than 39% of all construction fatalities. In 2023, 260 fatal falls to a lower level within construction were from a height of between 6 and 30 feet, while 67 fatal falls were from a height…
Safety is paramount in the construction industry—something that has evolved throughout the years and has become more prominent in the past few decades. But are there still areas where we can improve safety? April is National Safe Digging Month, but let’s review a little bit of U.S. history first. The Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 required all utility services to have abbreviated numbers for locating underground utilities. In 2005, the United States Federal Communication Commission made a universal number for the 71 regional services, simplifying the process even further. That number is still 811 today. CGA (Common Ground Alliance)…
Last night, I was in a heated debate with some friends from my women’s club about none other than ChatGPT, and I think it is applicable for any construction professional who is currently or who is planning to use ChatGPT to write emails, briefs, or other documentation for either work or personal purposes. We were reading applications for our scholarship committee and tried to spot when an applicant used ChatGPT. It wasn’t against eligibility to use ChatGPT on the application, but we were just noticing that it was pretty apparent when ChatGPT was being used. And then, someone brought up…
As we have been reporting here at Constructech, the construction industry is ripe for innovation and growth, and in order to achieve this, we will need more workers in the years ahead. Let’s narrow in on this job growth to get a better picture of the opportunities that exist today and tomorrow in the construction industry. The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) suggests overall employment in construction is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations from 2023 to 2033. For a number of different reasons, the bureau anticipates 663,500 openings projected each year on average. The median…
Infrastructure has been a hot topic in the past couple of weeks, as ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) has released its Infrastructure Report Card—something Peggy Smedley has reported on here on the blog and on The Peggy Smedley Show in depth. There has been much progress made, and yet there is still much work to be done. Let’s review the foundation, the facts, and the future of infrastructure. The Foundation Infrastructure is the foundation and the lifeblood of communities. It helps us move, live, and work, and without it, we can falter. This is precisely what NUCA (National Utility…
If we want to rebuild our infrastructure, we must consider a few key factors, chiefly innovation, which is something I explored in-depth last week. However, another key factor we must consider as we are rebuilding infrastructure and cities is resilience. The statistics are telling. We know of the 10 years with the most natural disasters, nine were in the last decade. Building on this, we also know the number of natural weather disasters with damages of more than a billion dollars has increased in the last forty years, from an average 3.3 per year in the 1980s to 17+ from…
Today, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) announced the launch of its 2025 Infrastructure Report Card, and it has me thinking about innovation in infrastructure and what that means for the construction industry in the years to come. For those who follow the report card, it is released every four years, and 2021 was the first time we saw the overall GPA out of the D range. Achieving a C- in 2021 was progress, and now in 2025, the overall GPA is a C. Peggy Smedley is doing a deeper dive of the report card over on The Peggy Smedley…
Here at Constructech, we have written a number of times about shakeups in the construction-technology space including M&As (mergers and acquisitions), companies closing, companies going bankrupt, partnerships, and more. M&As in particular seem to come in waves, some waves faster and larger than others. Now, we see the next steps one company is taking to spin-off one of its divisions. Earlier in March, Hexagon AB announced how it is preparing to spin-off one division. The board of directors, after a comprehensive assessment, has directed management to prepare for the separation of its Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division and related businesses through…
Home automation is on the rise, driven by the need to make homes more secure, energy efficient, and to provide greater convenience to homeowners. GlobalData estimates global spending on automated home devices totaled $119.5 billion in 2023 and it will reach $200.8 billion by 2028, which is an 11% compound annual growth rate. This trend is driving builders to make decisions about what types of products, devices, materials, and appliances to put into new homes—and there are three big categories to watch. The report suggests there are three top automated home subcategories that will make up the lionshare of the…
Welcome to March. Later this month, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) will release its 2025 Infrastructure Report Card. Released every four years, 2021 achieved a C-. Will the score be higher or lower this year? No matter the score, what is needed is progress—and we are beginning to see new innovation aim to do exactly that. Let’s consider an example out of Texas A&M Engineering. The researchers have developed a method for bridge construction that will hit the trifecta: reduce time, cut costs, and improve performance. The 42-month, $1 million project will explore more efficient methods of anchoring steel…