We have written several times about the value of tuned mass dampers in the construction of tall buildings as counterweights to the tendency of tall things to sway in the wind making the occupants most uncomfortable.Nowhere is that more important than in a hurricane, typhoon or harmattan when winds reach 130-175 mph and pummel everything in its path. Recently, Typhoon Soudelor hit Taipei 101, the fourth tallest building in the world, and the value of the tuned mass damper was proven to the structural engineers, designers, owners and occupants of the building.Not only did the damper do its work, but also Popular Mechanics and Arch Daily captured the actual movements of the building during the onslaught by the typhoon.
The Semi-Automated Masonry (SAM) system from Construction Robotics is a bricklaying robot designed to work alongside a mason. As SAM lifts and places the bricks, the mason focuses on site setup, tooling joints, and finishing/quality control.
August 17, 2015
The construction industry is rapidly changing and the introduction of new project management software makes it imperative that you stay informed, up-to-date, and ahead of your competition if you want to stay in business for the long haul.Our friends at Software Advice, the Gartner Company that provides information on a broad range of software, including project management, have just published an eBook titled How Much Does Construction Software Cost? that compares the three major licensing strategies: perpetual license, subscription, and open source. Janna Finch, Senior Research Associate with the company discusses those common strategies, the short and long term costs, often over looked costs, as well as the pricing of the top systems available today.
August 14, 2015
For those of you who follow the state of the oil and gas business at all, you will probably know two things by now. First, Houston based Cheniere Energy has been aggressive in the development of six LNG trains on the Gulf Coast at Sabine Pass in anticipation of being able to export LNG to overseas markets as soon as Congress and the Administration finally decide on a strategy that opens those markets to US companies. Cheniere was the first company to obtain approvals from the government to construct the facilities and to export the LNG. Even though the company has been aggressive in the construction of those multi-billion dollar facilities, it has lost money. To correct those issues, the board has made several key changes to its executive team in the most recent expansion phase and that has caught the attention of a number of major investors.
August 12, 2015
We have written about the work of Software Advice, a Gartner company that helps buyers build short lists of various types of construction software, including HVAC, several times in the past. They have just released a survey that addresses a long-standing problem in every office, including in the construction industry.Whether in the job shack or in the high-rise office building we have all said or heard – “Why is it so ****(Hot) (Cold) in here?” “Where is the thermostat?” “Who turned the thermostat up so high?” We have all heard the complaints. Now with the new smart systems and the software that runs them, we have an opportunity to make a positive change, especially with the “internet of things.”As part of the process of reviewing new climate control software, Forrest Burnson at Software Advice conducted a seven-day online survey that solicited 252 responses (129 women and 123 men) to assess the issue of “occupancy comfort” among office workers, both young and old. Their findings were interesting to say the least.
August 07, 2015
KPMG International, the accounting and consultancy firm, has published its Global Construction Owner’s Survey for 2015 entitled “Climbing the Curve”. This is the ninth edition of the survey in which the KPMG construction specialists survey 100 project owners worldwide to determine their current and emerging issues in their interactions with construction firms and their contractors on their projects.According to Construction Dive, one of the most interesting findings in the study is that “only a third of owners responded that they have a high degree of trust with the contractors on their projects.” That reinforces the concept that trust is primary in the owner contractor relationship, especially on larger more complex projects. The survey reports that, “…there is, however, another way of looking at the results. Owners may want to stay closer to contractors because they do not fully trust them. Only a third believe they have a ‘high’ level of trust in their contractors, with 60 percent describing the degree of trust as merely moderate."
July 28, 2015
This is a “heads up” for those of you who track possible new restrictions on your construction projects. The Tennessean reports that the residents of Nashville will vote on August 6th for or against the requirement that 40% of all construction jobs on publicly funded projects be reserved for local workers in the Nashville area.This law is modeled on the Cleveland model that has already been enacted and is currently being challenged in the courts. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has published a white paper on the enforceability of the “local” worker preference requirement that is informative, especially with so many transportation projects underway or in the pipeline.With the current shortage of skilled craft workers in the major cities of the US, we wonder whether this movement might slow down an already slow construction industry recovery.
July 24, 2015
“Jill Wells, an official of Engineers Against Poverty, an advocacy group in Britain, described the guidelines issued by CH2M as commendable. But, she said, the company’s actions were unlikely to have much practical impact because construction companies passed responsibility for worker welfare down to subcontractors.“What the main contractors do is pass the risk down the subcontracting chain, and it is the workers on the bottom of the chain” who bear it, Ms. Wells said.” (New York Times) The New York Times reported this week that the 2014 DLA Piper report on the mistreatment of workers on the construction sites for the 2022 World Cup has resulted in few changes even though the FIFA scandal and the concerns of Qatar were thought to bring about major changes.
July 22, 2015
The administrator of the Department of Labor’s wage and hour division, Dr. David Weil, this week issued an administrative guidance document aimed to curb the misclassification of workers as 1099ers or independent contractors rather than employees. We would urge that you review it carefully, especially those of you in the construction industry.This document comes out in the middle of an on-going argument over the misclassification and mistreatment of workers as reported on here in previous posts. The document entitled, “The Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “Suffer or Permit” Standard in the Identification of Employees Who Are Misclassified as Independent Contractors” is sure to create a number of new questions especially in the new economy workforce.The document begins by defining Misclassification.
July 17, 2015
It is the middle of summer and we thought that you deserved a break from nailing, hanging, drilling, welding and all of those tasks you do in your day jobs. We noticed in a recent Fast Company post by Daniel Terdiman that Autodesk has an Applied Research Lab, and the team is playing with three industrial robots to look at the future uses of Autodesk products with industrial robots.The research team learned, much to their delight, that Bot & Dolly, the San Francisco based tech firm behind the dynamic projections in the film Gravity, were using Autodesk products for these projections.Two things fascinate me. First, Autodesk is pushing the robotics software in their lab, and second, Bot & Dolly are doing amazing things. Oh and yes, Google bought Bot & Dolly to add to their portfolio of companies and to expand their reach.
July 10, 2015
