Construction sites are some of the most dangerous places in the world. Couple a job site with the general public and they’re disasters waiting to happen. According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, 579 people were killed in highway work-zone related accidents in just 2013 alone. Professor Tom Martin and Kristen Hines, engineers at Virginia Tech, hope to greatly reduce that number with their recent development of a smart safety vest that gives several seconds of warning to workers if danger is approaching.
Read moreNew App Helps You Determine the Risk of Plastic Concrete Shrinkage
Concrete, the most widely used building material in the world, can be very temperamental in certain weather conditions. Due to its poor tensile strength, concrete is almost always certain to crack, but professionals do their best to reduce the size and delay their appearance. A new app is hoping to reduce the risk of concrete, plastic shrinkage by monitoring weather patterns.
Read moreWatch this Permeable Concrete “Drink” 1,000 Gallons of Water in a Minute
As California and several other states have recently found out, water conservation is a huge deal to resident’s quality of life and the environment’s overall health. Allowing water to drain naturally is a huge part of keeping our aquifers filled with water, but our roadways and parking surfaces are mostly impermeable surfaces, causing us to redirect rainfall unnaturally into drains and sewers. Sudden and large amounts of rainfall in a short period of time can lead to extremely hazardous conditions, like flooding.
Read moreWatch Two Power Station Chimneys Crash Into Each Other in an Incredibly Controlled Demolition
Building implosions are always fun to watch, although sometimes they just don't go quite right. So when companies can accurately control a demolition and have two structures hit in mid-air, it's a thing of beauty! The Cockenzie power station in Scotland has two 487 foot tall chimneys and when it came time to demolish them, there was no better way then to have them strike mid-collapse.
Read moreCAT Builds the World’s First Moving Golf Course on the Backs of their Dump Trucks
"Our customers work hard, but they also play hard,” said Archie Lyons, Creative Director of Global Brand Marketing for Caterpillar Inc. to explain the crazy site of watching a golf course move around on the backs of several of CAT’s heavy machines. After watching the video below, it seems like the perfect encapsulation of that phrase and a whole lot of fun to try out.
Read moreSleeveNotes Lets You Take Notes Right on Your Sleeve
In the age of high technology wearables, like smart watches, glasses, and helmets, there are many in the construction industry who long for days past, when the only piece of technology they had to use, other than their tools, was a pencil and a pad of paper. We recently showed you some great phone apps to store your job site notes on, but after many of you told us that you still use pencil and paper, we decided to get a little more primitive for you.
Read moreUSGBC: Green Construction Will Account for 1/3 of All Construction by 2018
A recent study by Booz Allen Hamilton, prepared for the US Green Building Council, examined the overall impact of green building in 2015 and its projected impacts on the construction industry in future years. Its overall findings concluded that green building is growing at a pace much faster than conventional building and even predicts that it will account for one-third of all building in 2018, only a short 3 years away.
Read moreInvestigation: Liebherr Crane involved in Deadly Mecca Collapse "Technically Faultless”
Photo by Camera Eye, CC BY 2.0
Hundreds of news stories have been written recently about the tragic crane collapse in Mecca that claimed 107 lives and injured more than 200 others. The investigations into what exactly went wrong began soon after. On Tuesday, Saudi officials suspended the contractor, Saudi Binladin Group, from new contracts until all legal matters are settled, according to NBC News. Today, Liebherr released a press release statement on their findings after Liebherr crane experts visited the site of the collapse.
Read more"Biggest Construction Failure Ever" is, Unsurprisingly, a Government Project
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 more[VIDEO] Two Turner Construction Workers Help Boston PD Catch Crime Suspect
As a crime suspect tried to flee from a veteran Boston police officer, two Turner Construction workers stepped in to help the officer arrest the man.
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