ConstructConnect Blog

“I can pull up by the curb. I can make it on the road. Goin' mobile. I can stop in any street and talk with people that we meet. Goin' mobile. Keep me movin'.” – The Who

ConstructConnect partnered with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Hanley Wood Media and industry volunteers to revitalize the Jacquelyn House at the Santa Maria Hostel in Houston, Texas as part of AEC Cares’ eighth annual “blitz build.”

This past July, Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer and health advocacy group, submitted a petition to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requesting the agency create a new safety standard to protect workers from exposure to excessive heat. In their petition, they claim that many workers, including those in construction, have to work in extreme heat with no protection from heat stress or heat-related illnesses.

Concrete is one of the oldest and most versatile building materials known to man. The Ancient Romans used concrete to build aqueducts, roads and structures that still stand today like the Colosseum and the Pantheon Today, concrete is used in practically every type of construction due to its strength, durability and versatility.

Wage theft is a serious problem in the United States that affects workers in many industries. The construction industry, both residential and commercial, is not immune to the growing epidemic of wage theft. Wage theft occurs when a worker is denied full payment of the wages and benefits they legally owed by their employer.

There’s a rare opportunity to work on a construction project located at the bottom of the world in a location few have ever visited. McMurdo Station, the largest of three U.S. Antarctic research stations, is about to undergo a massive construction and consolidation project over the next several years.

If cash flow is the lifeblood of the construction industry, then most are in desperate need of a transfusion. In a recent survey of construction firms, 84% reported that they had problems with cash flow. Almost 19% stated that they dealt with cash flow issues on a constant basis.

Building product manufacturers are no strangers to technology. Manufacturing robots, IoT, automation, Industry 4.0, and integrated digital supply chains are just of few of the tools employed by manufacturers to improve efficiency, boost productivity and ensure the quality of their products. Over the past couple of years, an unexpected technology has started to make its way onto factory floors: augmented reality.

Construction projects create a lot of data. In the past, much of that data was unstructured and siloed. Data was collected, often on paper, and filed away once a project was completed. That’s been changing over the past several years as construction companies are realizing the benefits and insights that big data, predictive analytics and real-time data sharing can unlock.

OSHA has determined that there are four main safety hazards, excluding transportation incidents, that account for a majority of all construction worker deaths each year on the jobsite. Dubbed the “Fatal Four” by OSHA, they include falls, electrocutions, being struck by objects, and getting caught in or between hazards. In 2016, 63.7% of all fatalities at construction sites were from one of OSHA’s Fatal Four.