Courtesy of Capital Beltway Express LLC Virginia's $2.1-billion Capitol Beltway Express is near its midway point. Public-private partnerships are gaining an extra boost in the United States as cash-strapped states increasingly grapple with how to address critical public-works infrastructure needs amid dwindling public funds. And the U.S. could learn a thing or two about P3 deals from its northern neighbor.That's the consensus of construction professionals with mature experience in P3 delivery systems who gathered at a recent related conference in Washington, D.C. Canada is widely seen as a decade ahead of the U.S. in P3 delivery of major highway and
Data courtesy of SMPS White Paper: "The Client's Use of Social Media and Social Networking" (August, 2011) Data courtesy of SMPS White Paper: "The Client's Use of Social Media and Social Networking" (August, 2011) Related Links: VHB/Eng-Wong, Taub and PB: Building Client Relationships with Social Media In Social Media, Some Conversations Are Best Kept Private Corps Finds Facebook Excels for Flood Emergency Communications Social Media Reshape Job Hunting and Recruitment at Smith Group, CH2M Hill Water Social Networking Site Matches Water Providers With End Users Writing the Social Media Policy Handbook at Burns & McDonnell, HOK For any construction firm
Physics problem or engineering challenge? Wireless networking company LightSquared argues that, with some technical engineering work, its $14-billion plan to expand wireless broad-band to millions of consumers can work without disrupting the majority of the industry's global positioning systems.But on Sept. 8, during a hearing in the House, major U.S. government agencies that rely on GPS disagreed, calling the company's plan a major physics problem that essentially would create too much signal noise in spectrum bands adjacent to sensitive GPS networks, causing widespread disruption.For example, the U.S. Geological Survey's David Applegate told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Related Links: Tablets Take Off in Construction Q&A: State of the Slate Technology adoption in the construction industry is growing, especially with field management software and tablet computers that are helping firms control costs and manage risk on job sites.But for some firms, technology pain points can turn into sunk costs with no demonstrable return on investment, construction executives agreed during a conference sponsored by field management software firm Vela Systems. How to manage ROI in what can be a thicket of adoption complexity such as user training, tech support, and data security?“You have to communicate your overall plan and
Conferences are driven by themes, and the most telling themes are expressed by succinct quotes. Presenters at ENR's FutureTech conference, held in New York City in early April, offered plenty of both as they outlined key takeaways about construction and tech. Photo: Art Credit Here “Government didn’t put the data up. It just started to appear,” said Duncan Wilson, describing the radiation reports flowing from personal Geiger counters in Japan and appearing on the site www.failedrobot.com. A quotation from science-fiction writer and visionary William Gibson—“The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed”—was referenced more than once. That quotation
