Photo courtesy of Google Fiber Demand for gigabit internet across the U.S. and Canada is stirring up the need for thousands of construction jobs, such as this boring crew clearing a path for Google Fiber in Austin. Related Links: American-French Venture Starts Construction of First US-Brazil Undersea Cable Link Google Fiber contractors are laying thousands of miles of cable in Austin, Texas, to support the broadband company's second major gigabit build-out. Customers there will start to sign up for the ultra-fast internet service in early December. Meanwhile, AT&T is busy preparing contractors in Cupertino, Calif., for what will be the

Related Links: Collaboration Technology for Construction Sees Rapid Improvements Arid Lands Institute In drought-wracked California, efforts to conserve every bit of available water are prompting ambitious solutions. But while the state looks to major infrastructure projects to meet future demand, researchers at the Arid Lands Institute are working on a software mapping tool, Divining LA, to give urban planners, architects and engineers a better view of a region's water profile to maximize use.Combining information gleaned from digital terrain models, geotechnical data sets, multi-spectral satellite imagery and historical surveys, Divining LA may one day provide a model of a region's stormwater

Image Courtesy of UrbaWind Related Links: Energy Plus DataBase Free Envi-Met CFD Tool Acomputational-fluid-dynamics software update helps architects to avoid building designs that are too blustery for the comfort of pedestrians walking through urban areas."The main benefit of UrbaWind is the graphical display of results," says Shannon Testart, CAD technician for microclimate at Novus Environmental Inc., Ontario, Canada, who uses the software. "The graphics of wind comfort are an efficient way to display results and are easily understood by our clients."UrbaWind 2.2 by Meteodyn, Nantes, France, accounts for the angles of buildings, trees and other cityscape features to calculate pedestrian-level

Related Links: JBKnowledge 2014 Tech Survey Infographic Construction firms are squeezing out a little more cash on technology investments, but many still cling to the use of spreadsheets for project management, a new survey says.Technology consultancy JBKnowledge queried over 1,000 construction firms of all sizes about their technology investments for the 2014 survey, which it will release in full in early December. The respondents included engineers, estimators, C-level executives and project managers; 74% of all the respondents identified commercial construction as their main business, with every discipline, such as civil, federal and highway construction, also represented."We were really pleased to

Photo by Jeff Rubenstone/ENR SketchUp product manager John Bacus demonstrates the 3D tool's new features at Trimble Dimensions. Related Links: Trimble Acquires Gehry Technologies, Forms Alliance With Frank Gehry Trimble Steps Into Facilities Management With Manhattan Software Acquisition The latest version of the '3D modeling for everyone' application SketchUp was demonstrated at the Trimble Dimensions conference held in Las Vegas November 3 to 5. In addition to a few notable improvements under the hood, the latest version of the popular 3D design tool is compatible with Trimble Connect, Trimble's cloud-based platform which can share design files across a range of

Related Links: Independent Project Analysis Profile of Ed Merrow Author Ed Merrow, founder and president of Independent Project Analysis Inc., which studies complex megaproject performance, offered cautionary advice to constructors to test project fundamentals before committing to a project, as failures often are preordained by flaws in "the sequencing of information early on."MERROW"Failure almost never starts in the field," Merrow said, in a keynote presentation at a Bentley users conference in London in early November. Errors and omissions in the planning process will generate surprises in construction and lead to project-management challenges. But those problems are only compounded by earlier

Photo by Tom Sawyer for ENR Founder and CTO Keith Bentley spoke at the software company's user conference this week in London. Related Links: Long Courtship Ends as Bentley Buys Site Options Analyzer Bentley Water System Tools Gain Enhanced Access To Real-Time Data Bentley Systems has taken the wraps off a major upgrade for all of its many project lines, including a total remake of its MicroStation design platform and ProjectWise collaboration tools.The new capabilities, especially with data integration and extensibility, reach across all of its product lines but still function in a so-called hybrid environment that honors some customers'

Related Links: Aconex Connected BIM PROBUILD Construction A cloud-based project-management system has added building-information-modeling management to its 2D-based workflow. Aconex has an eye on enriching models with life-cycle data by giving access and annotation capabilities to project participants via their browsers.The firm's new "Connected BIM" feature now is integrated with Autodesk Revit. Other integrations with Trimble's Tekla and Bentley's MicroStation are in development. Revit users can publish models from the design software directly into the Aconex ecosystem for management within the context of the common data environment and project collaboration workflow. As the project evolves, subcontractors can attach information about

Photo Courtesy of Bartlette Cocke/Plangrid Jobsite and office communication regarding issues and answers is synced with RFI feature. Related Links: PlanGrid RFI Workflow Navigant Construction Forum Study on RFI An app designed to automate sharing and version control of construction documents has added a new functionality and now can capture issues and generate, circulate and post requests for information (RFI) within the same application.The PlanGrid tool is a cloud server-based system that stores and manages project documents for access by tablets on the jobsite. It is used as a collaborative platform for sharing information, such as field markups, progress photos

There is a lot going on in the area of asset management that portends dramatic change in our approach to resource management in the near future—and it’s about time.The adjustments that will be required of the A/E/C/FM industry to move it to disciplined asset management systems will force it to develop new workflows and measures of value, just as the gradual embrace of building information modeling has done, but the changes are necessary and the payback will be large. The simple premise is that physical assets should be evaluated, first of all, on their contribution to desired organizational outcomes. Asset