Related Links: Information Mobility Research Press Release Information Mobility Construction Market Research & Intelligence Mobility tools such as tablets and cloud services are yielding investment benefits for contractors and specialty contractors, according to a new research study by McGraw Hill Construction. But for many of the 300 contractors surveyed for the report—58% general contractors, 42% specialty contractors—significant gaps need to be addressed to leverage the tools for a better return on investment.Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of building-information-modeling tools among contractors, integration of BIM with mobile apps is still in its infancy, said Harvey M. Bernstein, vice president
Bad schedule example: Descriptions that are too vague can cause confusion, such as repeated activities with no distinction. Good schedule example: Project activities are given details that help the user scan it quickly and distinguish activities from one another. Related Links: Dearth of Scheduling Software Expertise Still Bedevils Many Legal Cases From the Archives: Critics Can't Find the Logic in Many of Today's CPM Schedules How To Make CPM Tools Human-Friendly, Truthful Project Management Institute Home Page Construction project schedules have come a long way since the 1950s, when the critical path method of graphing milestones, activities and logic ties
Related Links: Autodesk's Acquisition of Get The Point Technology Weds Field Layout to Design Files Autodesk Ramps up Cloud Strategy with 'Simulation 360' Launch Thanks to the rise of cloud computing and web-based software, firms in the AEC sectors are facing even more complex decisions in how to deploy traditional desktop software for mission-critical design and construction projects.Autodesk, for example, is releasing more web-based versions of its traditional desktop tools and offering cloud-based options for renting as many core processors as a project may require. During an investor conference on Oct. 2, the firm announced that, starting in 2015, most
Photo by ENR/Tom Sawyer The City Hall renovation in New York City includes a fuel cell near the building that will be generating most of the its daily load of electricity. Tricky tunneling work paved the way for the box, which has also attracted controversy. Photo by Tom Sawyer/ENR A trench helps bring in upgraded ConEd electrical feeds before it turns about 30 for a 200-ft run to City Hall, which was part of construction management firm Hill International's plan to build new power lines while working around the archaeological hotspots in lower Manhattan. Related Links: Fuel Cells Finding Their
Photo courtesy of Hill International The utility chose the Red Lion substation because of its proximity to major transmission lines that deliver Bloom's electricity to its grid. Related Links: Cover Story: Fuel Cells Find Their Niche Delaware PUC Report Approving the Bloom/Delmarva Power Deal Delaware State Assembly Bill SB 124 Bloom Energy website Hill International Delaware's campaign to entice Bloom Energy to build a new manufacturing plant in the state and then source energy from a fuel-cell farm to the grid went through a political minefield.Consumer and environmental groups opposed the plan; ratepayers would have to shoulder some of the
The USACE's mission with the $14-billion LPV 3.2b West Return Floodwall project was to construct the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System as the region recovered from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
During a press conference in 2012, Bauer explains the work on the third phase of the Golden Gate seismic retrofit project. Related Links: Main Feature: Industry Women Weigh In on the New Normal Golden Gate Span Undergoes Complex Seismic Revamp (2005) As a youngster growing up under a communist dictatorship in Poland, Ewa Bauer's aspiration to be an engineer was inspired in part by her architect father, who fought the Nazis after they invaded Poland in 1939, then survived as a prisoner of war under Joseph Stalin."My father encouraged us to do what we wanted and not to think about
Related Links: Critics Can't Find the Logic in Many of Today's CPM Schedules The Future Of Forensic Schedule Analysis: The Good, the Hard and the Scary Successful construction projects live or die by the quality of the schedule, yet some 20 years after scheduling software became the dominant tool for tracking a project's critical path, experts say it's still not to be trusted.Andy Ness, a construction attorney for law firm Jones Day, often talks to industry groups about the trouble he finds at the intersection of law and project scheduling software. In his opinion, legal disputes that rely on forensic
Related Links: Autodesk's Brian Mathews Introduces ReCap (video) Autodesk's Suites 2014 Announcement (YouTube) Autodesk is launching a new suite of products designed to bring point-cloud scanning data into building information models with greater precision and clarity. Chief among them is a new product called ReCap, which is designed to incorporate 3D point-cloud technology into BIM with greater ease.The San Rafael, Calif.-based company says ReCap works with traditional design-based desktop software as well as cloud-based applications to create intelligent 3D models from laser scans and captured photos. "If you don't have a laser scanner, you can use your [camera] phone," said
Related Links: Top Apps Recommended by FutureTech Readers and ENR Editors AEC App Showcase by Case/SOM Nine Noteworthy Apps for Construction Something big is happening in construction technology. It goes beyond the recent rampant growth of smart devices on jobsites and the explosive development of apps around the globe. It even goes beyond the growth of cloud computing, helping to manage large project files with faster networks that connect far-flung work crews.As big as these trends are, an even bigger shift is happening: Collaboration and web services are becoming the norm on more and more projects and transforming how the