Photo Courtesy of Turner Construction Co. All three shifts of Turner workers at Madison Square Garden paused for on-site talk. Related Links: Frank Gilbreth's Bricklaying Ergonomics Harvard Business Review: Lean Service Machine To drive home the importance of lean construction practices in project delivery as well as jobsite safety, Turner Construction Co. paused its 45,000-person staff and subcontractor workforce in North America for 30-minute to one-hour tutorials, delivered company-wide on Sept. 4 to all shifts. This year's "safety stand-down" is the eighth annual post-Labor Day event the contractor has held to push the message of job safety."This was a chance

Researchers at Oregon State University have successfully lab-tested a new microbial fuel cell that can produce 10 to 50 times more electricity, per water volume, than other approaches.

Courtesy Trimble Trimble's Digirod can measure grade from a rotating laser without ever touching the ground. From the "groma" with its right angles and plumb bobs used 3,000 years ago to modern-day grade rods, surveyors have been using some type of rod in their work. A new grading device claims to eliminate the need for grade rods when checking grades with a rotating laser. It compounds a laser distance meter, laser receiver, tilt sensor and digital readout to get grade readings without touching the ground at tilt angles of up to 30 degrees.Trimble Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., calls its grading instrument,

Photo courtesy of ikeGPS The ikeGPS integrates multiple tools into one package, allowing for accurate measurement and geolocation of objects from 1,000 meters away. Related Links: Engineering News-Record Architectural Record A handheld device, ikeGPS, is finding new fans in the U.S. as it performs the work of a digital compass, a camera, a laptop and a laser range-finder. Created by Surveylab, Wellington, New Zealand, it is saving utility companies hours of data collection and entry work and appears to have the potential to do even more."We're seeing a 30% reduction in time spent collecting data," says Ed Gray, director of

Elizabeth Cox walked the site of the Houston Dynamo stadium wearing new sunglasses her brother gave her. When she got back to the work trailer, she had a high-definition video of her site walk.

In an experiment to sort out the differences between manufacturers' claims of individual component performance and the real-life delivery of installed photovoltaic collector arrays, one California electrical contractor has built a test facility on top of its headquarters.

Image courtesy of Warranty Hotel Danish company's new cloud-based warranty management site, which has apps for data acquisition, is available on a white-label basis for integration with other asset data-management systems. A new consumer-oriented Android app that lets users upload and manage an unlimited amount of warranty information on products for a onetime, 99-cent fee has crossover potential for construction, which could use it just as easily to track the same information for equipment, tools and materials.The app is associated with warrantyhotel.com, a website that gives users a free cloud-based account. Using the account, they can upload and track warranty

The sun is rising on northwestern North Dakota, casting mottled light across the prairie and the faces of an army of oil workers.

The sun is rising on northwestern North Dakota, casting mottled light across the prairie and the faces of an army of oil workers.