Take a second to imagine the worst construction project that you ever worked on. Chances are, it was either over budget or finished behind schedule. Now, imagine working on a project that is not only a year behind schedule, but $1 BILLION over budget. No, not $1 Million…$1 BILLION. With a big ole fat “B” right at the beginning of it. That’s a pretty good reason to name a project the “Biggest Construction Failure Ever.”
Read moreMilwaukee’s ONE-KEY Inventory Management Released: Here’s How to Use It
Contractors Dig Up 200,000 Year Old Fossils, Wooly Mammoth Bones During Excavation
Screen shot of Fox 5 News in San Diego, CA
There has certainly been a lot of interesting things dug up in preparation for construction recently, including a 121 year old time capsule and a mass burial site (yikes). This time, contractors have uncovered dozen of Ice Age fossils that are between 50,000 to 200,000 years old.
Read moreOklahoma Contractor Uses Clever Technique to Catch Construction Site Thieves
Photo by Surrey County Council News, CC BY ND 2.0
Construction sites are prime targets for theft, there are thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and material at each location and cannot be manned 24/7. In the past, if a thief was not caught in the act of stealing, there is little to no chance of your item being recovered or the person being caught. Many contractors put cameras up on their sites, but even that only increases your odds of recovery slightly.
Read moreYou Won’t Believe How Much Money Southern Australian Construction Laborers Are Making
Melbourne, Australia skyline. Photo by Steve Davidson. CC BY 2.0
A recent study by the Master Builders Association of Victoria has evaluated the annual earnings of hourly non-managerial employees in the construction industry and analyzed the impacts on the Australian construction industry and economy as a whole. The report’s findings highlight the enormous labor wage increase of construction workers under union contracts in Victoria, Australia and compared those earned wages to other major salaried workers in the area.
Read moreReport: New York Construction Injuries Are Already 34% Higher Than Last Year
After two recent construction worker deaths and a steep rise in construction injuries in New York City, the Department of Buildings is preparing to crack down on those companies not keeping their workers safe.
Read moreConstruction Workers Uncover 121 Year Old Time Capsule and Bottle of Whiskey in Scotland
A view from the bridge in Ruthvern, Scotland. Photo by summonedbyfells, CC BY 2.0
A couple weeks ago, a Pennsylvania construction crew was startled to dig up a century old mass grave site. This week, a Scottish construction crew uncovered something much less disturbing: a time capsule from the 1800s.
Read moreDrone Being Used for Progress Tracking on Sacramento Kings’ New Stadium Construction
Drone footage of the Golden 1 Center construction, video below.
Typically, progress tracking on a job site involves a supervisor walking around a job site with a note pad and a camera, but technology is slowly changing the way that process is being done. Drones have been all the rage in construction recently and a team of contractors and software developers have made them an ultra-powerful tool, but some workers are not too thrilled about it.
Read moreThe Best Apps for Language Translation for Construction Workers
We’ve said it over and over again, communication is key to an on time, on budget and safe construction job site. One of the things that makes that difficult is the fact that our industry employs one of the largest percentages of foreign born workers, which can make proper communication very difficult for some. According to the Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety & Health, 25% of construction workers were foreign born in 2008.
Read moreDeWalt’s ToolConnect App and Bluetooth Batteries are Now Available and They Both Look Awesome
Back in early June, DeWalt announced the release of the first ever Bluetooth rechargeable battery, which would allow the owner to track performance and location of their inventory of batteries. On many job sites, rechargeable batteries are the unsung hero of the job site, they give workers flexibility and mobility to work in remote areas of the job site, but are often abused and misplaced. The ToolConnect app can alert the owner if a battery goes too far out of range, if it’s too hot or too cold, and even track the battery usage to keep workers productive.
Read more