Gary Chock is the inspiration, driving force and leader of an American Society of Civil Engineers' committee that began work in January 2011 on a new addition to the society's engineering standards.
While working in his family's plastic molding business making traffic signals and LED crosswalk lights, 31-year-old Daniel Lax decided to start a new division that would make jobsite lighting units for subway track work and construction.
A federal executive committee has reported to the Federal Communications Commission that a proposed national, hybrid satellite and terrestrial broadband network to leverage repurposed satellite spectrum cannot work without significant disruption to existing global positioning system devices.In a Jan. 13 letter, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee, which was asked to evaluate proposals for the network offered by LightSquared LTE, said, "Based upon this testing and analysis, there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering
One of the perks of being an editor at ENR is that we finish each year with a favorite project: the issue displaying the winners of ENR's annual photo contest.
Slide Show Ray Sepesy, Woodward Building, Ballantyne Corporate Park, Charlotte, N.C. ENR's 2011 Photo Contest Winners Related Links: Judging the ENR Photo Contest: Hows and Whys View Slideshow The 2011 Runners-up All 2011 submissions ENR’s annual photo contest brings attention to inspiring construction photographs and the workers and projects they depict. But the contest is also designed to show appreciation for the people who take their cameras onto jobsites, often under difficult conditions, and capture great images.The construction industry simply wouldn’t have these pictures otherwise.So we thank photographers like Veronica Romitelli, who slogged through the mud of a cold riverbank
Photo courtesy of Inthinc Technology Solutions Cellphone Nanny is installed either over, or under the driver's seat to monitor just that area. When integrated with a telematics fleet management system, if the driver uses a phone to call or text while driving the system warns them to hang up, and if they do not, it reports them to the boss. Related Links: NTSB Report Federal Rule Banning Cell Phones While Driving Contractors Support Bans on Distracted Driving Into the debate over whether all drivers in the U.S. should be banned from texting or talking on cell phones comes a new
The new year will be the year of mobility; construction's Technology Spring, when the constraints on the flow of data into and out of the field, and the use of mobile devices to collect, share and present it, give way for good.That is one of the expectations of ENR technology editors and they prepare for the year ahead by trying to anticipate where current trends will lead. Expect to see field deployment of technology gather steam at companies as a driving force to efficiency gains and process innovation.Watch for wireless networks, technology kiosks and pads, and tablets to sprout on more
GRAPH COURTESY OF CURT A survey conducted by a committee of young professionals in the Construction Users Roundtable offers a profile of technology use, adoption and attitudes across four age groups in the industry, suggesting strong engagement among the youngest but also the oldest, with a sag in the middle.The results of the 30-question survey, conducted by CURT's Young Professionals Committee, are being analyzed. A report will be available on the CURT website soon, but a peek at the data is provocative.Of 304 respondents, the largest number, 110 (36%) came from the cohort 51 years old or older. The second
Normally, assessing wall thickness in a pressurized water or sewer line and main requires shutting down the line and cutting into it. But broadband electromagnetic scanning is finding increasing use as a viable, non-destructive testing alternative that does not interrupt utility service.This fall, BEM scanning contributed to a condition study of a 1970s-era force sewer main for the Metropolitan Sanitation District of Greater Cincinnati. Malcolm Pirnie, the water division of ARCADIS, Highlands Ranch, Colo., is the assessment contractor.The consultant hired InfraMetrix LLC, Tampa, Fla., to use BEM to scan select locations in the line where analysis and other tests predicted
With a boatload of announcements about acquisitions, new products, agreements and promises delivered over several days beginning on Nov. 7, the provider of a suit of software and services widely used for infrastructure design, construction and management unveiled a raft of moves that, taken together, help define its technology strategy, especially with respect to 3D information model files and point clouds.During the three-day conference, users from many disciplines and sectors that employ Bentley Systems software reacted with approval as the announcements rolled out at the company's annual "Be Inspired: Thought Leadership in Infrastructure" conference, held in Amsterdam."We are at the
