Related Links: Amtrak Chief Declares Highway Trust Fund 'Dead' Barely a month into the new year, several industry trade groups and no less than three widely read construction publications, including ENR, have sent up smoke signals that the battle over one of the most significant threats in decades facing the U.S. transportation design and construction market already is finished.Even more alarming, the white flag is being waved before we have had a serious fight.RUANEI am referring, specifically, to the reauthorization of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the crisis facing the federal Highway Trust
Why the Best CPM Schedulers Don't Rely on Software (All That Much) Readers of technology trends in construction are well aware that building information modeling software tools are moving from 3D to 4D in terms of merging project schedule data with a 3D model to create a 4D schedule with animation. These tools are becoming more common on mid-sized and even smaller projects of $25 million or less, experts and BIM providers say.It's also gaining in dispute claims and claims resolution, according to an expert in scheduling and construction litigation."
Related Links: House Bill Would Hike Gas Tax Over Three Years Since the 1950s, America's infrastructure development and maintenance program has depended in great part on an end-user tax on fuel. More efficient auto and heavy-truck fuel consumption, combined with an ever-enlarging and aging infrastructure system, have brought us to the limit of the end-user fuel tax as a sole source of revenue. The public has little appetite for increasing the end-user sales tax to replenish the Highway Trust Fund. Although industry and government have pushed new sources of financing and tried to cut costs, little real progress will be
One of the hot topics in the industry right now is predictive analytics. Clients are asking: “Is this a trend? Is this a paradigm? Should I be concerned about this or doing something?” The answer is: The practice of Predictive Analytics is here to stay and is important for the engineering and construction industry. Predictive analytics is the next generation of analytics. Data makes up the building blocks for analytics. But instead of using data analytics to make sense of the past — to understand what we’ve done and what trends we can pick out from our past behavior —
Photo By Steve Hill Current and former Cornell University students accept the award for Schoolhouse South Africa from Editor Scott Blair (right) at ENR's inaugural Global Best Projects awards. Related Links: Click Here to Enter ENR's Global Best Projects View Last Year's Global Best Projects Winners As the end the year approaches, it's a good time to reflect on the achievements made throughout the construction industry in 2013. In this spirit, ENR is launching its second annual Global Best Projects awards program this month. The contest expands upon ENR's successful U.S. competition by inviting world-wide participation.Entries are being accepted now
Raise the Bar, just-published by the American Society of Civil Engineers, documents and advocates why we must redefine how civil engineers are educated and prepared for professional practice in the 21 st century—and beyond.This compilation of 10 professional papers chronicles the 15-year history of the group’s Raise the Bar initiative—that will enable civil engineering professionals to meet the technological, environmental, economic, social, and political challenges of the future.A common thread within the book, and what binds the papers together, is the continued need for civil engineers to support the Raise the Bar Initiative. RussellAs the civil engineering profession evolves in
Related Links: Website of Ames & Gough Most design and construction professionals are familiar with contractual wording that could broaden their exposures, especially references to standard of care and indemnification.Today, however, you must inspect the contract more closely. Owners and other clients—and their lawyers—now use new and less easy-to-recognize language that avoids hot-button words and phrases yet still sets higher standards of care and overly broad risk transfer.HUGHESOn any given project, a design team can complete its work only when it has received some form of information and documents from the owner, such as geotechnical reports or as-builts of existent
Images Courtesy of ICA Configured in BIM and produced at CasaFlex for site delivery, Mexican companies are innovating in the delivery of correctional facilities and providing lessons for cash-strapped U.S. governments. Related Links: Casaflex website (en Espanol) ICA's 2012 Annual Report Although the U.S. has only 5% of the world's total population, it has about 25% of the world's incarcerated population. The number of inmates has tripled since 1980, and with many correctional facilities overcrowded and in poor condition, the demand for new construction and renovation projects has been strong.Annual construction starts for these project types reached $3.8 billion in
Image by Veer Related Links: Imagining Construction's Future: Science-Fiction Writing Contest First Place: Metadata Second Place: Hard Light Third Place: Canopy Honorable Mention: Of Man and Mouse Best Short Form: New World Meet the Judges Nothing original was ever built or invented unless someone imagined it first. But in the extremely practical world of construction, almost everything we set out to imagine and build is based on what is currently doable. Almost all cutting-edge industry innovations are built on the last string of innovations that proved out and paid off.Science fiction, however, earns its special place by opening a gap
RSS
