[Timelapse] Watch 3 Years’ Worth of Progress on the New NY Bridge

August 29, 2016 Shane Hedmond

3.1 miles of bridge does not equal 3.1 miles of on grade highway. In fact, it’s not even close. In order to build the n ew New York Bridge, which is replacing the existing Tappan Zee bridge that crosses the Hudson River, 14 miles of main span cables, 50 miles of foundation pilings, 300 thousand cubic yards of concrete, and 220 million pounds of steel are needed to complete the structure. Oh, it’s also going to take another 2 years to build, on top of the 3 they’ve already been working on it.

New Safety Tool Instantaneously Measures Noise, Particulate, and UV Exposure Levels

August 26, 2016 Shane Hedmond

We have a lot of safety rules in construction and it’s practically impossible to monitor your job site for compliance of every single rule. To complicate matters, many rules are based upon exposure limits, especially when airborne particles are involved. OSHA recently reduced the allowable exposure limit of silica dust, which is found in concrete, stone, and brick, before additional PPE or engineering controls are required. This rule change has caused a lot of grief among construction industry groups, who called the rule technologically infeasible, because what contractor is really set up to measure when 50 micrograms of silica dust per cubic meter of air is actually reached?

Contractors Beware: Twitter Can Get Your Jobsite Shut Down

August 25, 2016 Shane Hedmond

Twitter, the social media site that people seem to either love or hate, has made people more aware of their surroundings and can be a soundboard for controversy. For some companies, Twitter is used for a large part of their customer service program, responding to complaints within the 160 character limit. Now, it seems, contractors could potentially have a powerful watchdog looking over their shoulder, as long as the tweets land in the right hands.

Thinking Ahead: How Rio Plans to Reuse 2016 Olympic Structures in the Future

August 24, 2016 Shane Hedmond

Rio's Olympic Aquatic Stadium.  Photo by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0 — Rio's Olympic Aquatic Stadium. Photo by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0

Billions of dollars are spent by cities and countries to prepare for summer and winter Olympics. Many stadiums, housing and other infrastructure are built to not only be able to handle the games, but also the enormous amount of people that will eventually inhabit the city for a few weeks. But, that’s just it, it’s only for a few weeks. What happens after the games are over and there’s no longer a need for an International Broadcast Center or a handball venue? In the past, the answer has been to let the area rot away and be a hotbed of vandalism, but Rio has taken a different approach.

[VIDEO] A Sheet of Copier Paper Can Actually Cut a Piece of Wood

August 23, 2016 Shane Hedmond

If positioned the right way, paper is known to give some pretty mean paper cuts, so say to the office tethered thrill seekers of the world. Try to cut wood by running a sheet of paper against it, however, and you’ll end up a mangled piece of paper. But, perhaps we’ve been using paper the wrong way all along. Maybe it’s a metaphor for life, put an object or a person in the wrong situation and get poor results, but put them in the right situation and you’ll reap the rewards.

[VIDEO] How the Connecticut DOT Reduced a 2-Year Bridge Replacement to 28 Days

August 22, 2016 Shane Hedmond

Nobody likes traffic, especially when lane closures and construction are involved. Construction zones are prone to increased accidents, which also put construction workers in extreme danger. The best way to reduce traffic, accidents, and worker injuries is to reduce the on-site schedule, but how do you go about doing that?

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) needed to overhaul its highly trafficked Route 8 in Bridgeport, CT which included several bridges. The bridges, which were built in the 1970s, handled over 88,000 vehicles per day and had degraded to a point that the CDOT determined the bridges had reached the end of their useful life. The original estimated schedule for the bridge overhaul was 2 years, which officials determined would be way too long to displace that amount of traffic, so they looked for alternative methods. In the end, the CDOT opted for a Design-Build concept with Manafort Brothers, Inc. and Parsons Brinkerhoff which would ultimately reduce the total on-site work schedule to two 14-periods over the summer of 2016.

The $35 million project not only used Design-Build to shorten the schedule, but also employed the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) technique. To further reduce the schedule, the ABC method utilized Prefabricated Bridge Units (PBUs), which were large sections of the bridge that were fabricated off site. Once substantial completion of the PBUs was reached, the on-sire work began. Each 14 day period wound up closing one direction at a time, which shifted traffic to the opposite side. The new bridges are close to being complete now, with a finish date set for September 2016 and the DOT is hoping that maintenance of the new bridge will be significantly reduced compared to the old bridge. According to the website set up for the Route 8 construction, the bridge design incorporated “modern weathering steel beams that require no paint or maintenance over their anticipated 75 year lifespan.”

While it’s not quite as fast as this this multi-lane overpass that was removed and replaced in 43 hours in China or this 230 foot long tunnel installed under a highway in the Netherlands in just 3 days, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for improving contractor efficiency and public safety.

You can watch a timelapse video of the demolition of the old bridges and the construction of the new, uploaded to Youtube by CME Associates, below:

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Feb 24, 2021

Crane Collapses on Jobsite in Syracuse, NY, No Injuries Reported

Feb 24, 2021

On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

Feb 24, 2021

Feb 2, 2021

[VIDEO] Need to Get Some Heavy Equipment Up a Mountain? Try a Cable Car System

Feb 2, 2021

Remote jobsites with difficult terrain pose some substantial logistical challenges when it comes to getting equipment and materials on site. I’ve seen several different methods used in the past, such as heavy equipment carrying blimps, cargo planes, helicopters, and the Fat Truck, but I recently came across a new method: a cable car.

Feb 2, 2021

Jan 26, 2021

[VIDEO] A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Recent Record Breaker for World’s Tallest Demolition

Jan 26, 2021

In November of last year, the 546 foot tall Mina Plaza in Abu Dhabi officially broke the world record for tallest demolition by explosion, supplanting Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan, which held the record for 22 years.

Jan 26, 2021

Jan 22, 2021

[VIDEO] Helicopter Drops Cooling Tower During Lift to Roof

Jan 22, 2021

If you need to get some heavy mechanical equipment on the roof of your project, you could use a boring old crane – or you could gas up the bird and make that equipment take literal flight. Alright, so cranes aren’t actually boring, but some times a helicopter makes more logistical sense, either because it reduces total lift time or, in some cases, makes economical sense. Either way, there are some important safety precautions to take in case something goes wrong.

Jan 22, 2021

Jan 5, 2021

Top 7 Demolition Videos of 2020

Jan 5, 2021

2020 was a stressful year, so let’s decompress a little bit by reviewing some of the most fun demolition videos from the past year. A demolition that broke a 22 year old record highlights the bunch and I also stretch what the definition of “demolition” is a little bit, because I think the video is so cool. Don’t @ me.

Without further ado, here are the top 7 demolition videos from 2020:

Jan 5, 2021

Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant 2020

Dec 7, 2020

[VIDEO] Nuclear Power Plant Site Utilizes 2 of the World’s Largest Cranes, and 55 Other Tower Cranes

Dec 7, 2020

2 years ago, crane manufacturer, Sarens, unveiled what is considered to be the world’s largest crane, by both size and lifting capacity. Big Carl, as the huge crane was nicknamed, began work a few months later on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in England. Now, the jobsite boasts an abundance of crane activity, a true site to behold, and it was captured on aerial footage for you to enjoy.

Dec 7, 2020

Dec 1, 2020

[VIDEO] New World Record For Tallest Building Demolished By Explosives

Dec 1, 2020

Back in 1998, the Hudson Department Store in downtown Detroit, Michigan was demolished by explosives. That building stood 410 feet tall across its 29 floors, making it, at the time, the tallest building to ever be taken down by implosion. The dust cloud covered many city blocks and the 20,000 unsuspecting people that came to watch the event. That record was just recently broken by a building over 100 feet taller than it.

Dec 1, 2020

Nov 11, 2020

[VIDEO] Check Out This Excavator Free Fall Down a Huge Underground Access Shaft

Nov 11, 2020

Excavators aren’t typically meant to be dropped down to a lower level, but certain circumstances require it sometimes. The machines are obviously extremely heavy, so a large crane and proper rigging is required for it to happen safely. As a construction firm in Hong Kong, China recently found out, though, it’s a little tougher than it seems.

Nov 11, 2020

building in shanghai walks to new location.JPG

Nov 4, 2020

[VIDEO] Watch an 85 Year Old, 5 Story Building be Relocated 200 Feet with a ‘Walking Machine’

Nov 4, 2020

Usually, when a new development is going to go into a spot where a building already exists, that existing building gets blown into smithereens and its remaining rubble hauled away. BUT, there is apparently a different way to handle the situation now, which is by politely asking the building to walk away and to find a new home – well, kind of.

Nov 4, 2020

Nov 3, 2020

[VIDEO] CAT Creates Gigantic PAC-MAN Game Played with Remote Controlled Skid Steers

Nov 3, 2020

CAT is no stranger to finding extremely creative and expensive ways to show off their construction equipment. In years past, they’ve created a giant Jenga game with 600 pound blocks and the world’s first moving golf course on the backs of their dump trucks. Now, they’re showing off some of their new technology with the release of the biggest PAC-MAN game you’ve ever seen.

Nov 3, 2020

New Smartphone Attachment Lets You See Behind Walls

August 19, 2016 Shane Hedmond

Remember when all phones did was make calls? Me either. Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful by the day, they’re already cameras, note takers, and thermal imaging cameras, but now they can add x-ray vision sensors to the list.

A Lawyer’s Analysis of a $250K OSHA Scaffold Fine and a Contractor's Failed Appeal

August 18, 2016 Shane Hedmond

In March 2013, Flintlock Construction was building a hotel at a Manhattan construction site known as the 325 Project. OSHA inspectors visited the site and delivered three separate scaffolding violations that added up to a total of $249,920 in OSHA fines. Flintlock Construction immediately filed an appeal and that appeal was heard in July 2015.

7 Things to Look For When Purchasing Used Equipment

August 17, 2016 Shane Hedmond

There are some things in life that are promised… such as taxes, death, and buying something used that you will later wish you hadn’t. Whether it is a Craigslist flat screen TV or a used car, it is always smart to be slightly wary about used goods.

Hoisting equipment and construction are no different.

The Next Green Construction Material: Recycled Plastic Bottles

August 16, 2016 Shane Hedmond

Principal Engineer with RePlast blocks made of recycled plastic.  Photo via ByFusion — Principal Engineer with RePlast blocks made of recycled plastic. Photo via ByFusion

Plastic bottles are probably inside more buildings than we’d care to know about, as I’ve personally (and unfortunately) been on enough job sites to see way too many bottles thrown around the job site, outside of trash containers. A large percentage of the bottles that are lucky enough to make it in a dumpster, end up in a landfill where it takes them an estimated 500 years to fully decompose! In an effort to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our nation’s landfills, one startup company is hoping to turn recycled plastic into the next green construction material.