SIGC – News Archives – July 2020
US CONSTRUCTION FACTS AND FIGURES FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2020
In spite of the economic impact caused by COVID-19, many civil contractors are optimistic about the near future. According to The Civil Quarterly, a report developed in collaboration by several contech firms, most contractors expect to have new business opportunities…read more
Pandemic Spurs Data Center Construction Boom in Northern Virginia
The COVID-19 pandemic is driving demand for more data centers in the world’s largest cloud cluster. Developers are racing to build new IT capacity in Northern Virginia to meet extraordinary demand for cloud computing resources due to the rapid societal shift to online services…read more
Construction employment rose from May to June in 31 states and the District of Columbia (DC) but slipped in 18 others.
“The widespread job gains in June follow even more universal increases in May,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But the government’s employment snapshot was based on payrolls during the week of June 12…read more
Construction Starts Climb to 6% in June for Second Straight Monthly Increase
Total construction starts increased 6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $641.4 billion. This marks the second consecutive monthly gain in construction starts following the COVID-19 induced declines in March and April. In June nonresidential building starts gained 6% and starts in the nonbuilding sector moved 27% higher. Residential starts, by contrast, fell 6% during the month….read more
COVID-19 puts an emphasis on the benefits of prefabrication, communication tech, paperless jobsites
Brian Poage is construction support manager for project management software maker Raken. Poage, a former construction project manager for WeWork, spoke with Construction Dive about how the coronavirus has led to increased interest in prefabrication, technology tools for better communication among project stakeholders and moving the industry toward paperless jobsites….read more
Researchers Create Air Filter Designed to Trap and Kill the Coronavirus
Researchers from the University of Houston, in collaboration with others, have designed a “catch and kill” air filter that can trap the virus responsible for COVID-19, killing it instantly…..read more
Buildings are getting tested for coronavirus, too
Testing buildings — not just people — could be an important way to stop the spread of the coronavirus….read more
Boston Dynamics' four-legged robot, Spot, is going to work for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and GS Engineering & Construction in South Korea.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has started testing the different uses of the four-legged Spot Robots in its internal operations, becoming the first utility in the region to use this robot, developed by Boston Dynamics….read more
Social Construct’s computer-optimized buildings could shake construction industry’s foundations
Construction is one of the largest industries still resisting the call of the 21st century, its practitioners opting for decades-old but tried and true methods. Ben Huh, of Cheezburger fame, aims to modernize the planning and assembly of buildings with software-generated floor plans and rooms that fit together like Lego bricks…read more
The Math of Social Distancing Is a Lesson in Geometry
How to safely reopen offices, schools and other public spaces while keeping people six feet apart comes down to a question mathematicians have been studying for centuries….read more
Construction Costs Decrease for the 1st Time in a Decade
The index measures costs in the U.S. nonresidential building construction market. It decreased to 1177, representing a 1 percent reduction from the first quarter. This is the first time Turner’s projected quarterly BCI adjustment has fallen since the second quarter of 2010…read more
Construction: How to turn 36 seconds into USD 5.4 billion
A team of researchers have, for the first time ever, linked 40 years of productivity data from the construction industry with the actual work done. The results show that productivity in the construction industry has been declining since the 1970s. The results also explain the decline and how to achieve far more efficient construction in North America and Europe…read more
Consigli relies on technology to address coronavirus challenges
Coronavirus-related shutdowns required contractors to scramble to find new ways to protect workers and monitor jobsite progress while maintaining social distancing…read more
The construction industry draws on green tech with electric and hydrogen fuel cell equipment
From the use of “low carbon concrete” to the development of bricks made from recycled materials, the construction sector is undergoing a number of changes that could have a far-reaching impact in the years ahead…read more
Total U.S. Put-in-place Construction to be -4.5% in 2020 versus 2019
U.S. put-in-place construction spending, during the coronavirus health crisis, has benefitted from the carryover of work begun last year. 2019 construction starts included an inordinately large number of mega projects valued at $1 billion or more each. There were 35 such projects last year, with a summed value near $80 billion, or 15% of nonresidential groundbreakings…read more
Modular Monitor: The benefits of value engineering
Value engineering, the process of evaluating a project for potential changes that could save money without compromising on performance, typically happens for a few reasons in the realm of traditional construction. The project could be over budget, or the general contractor and owner might simply want to reduce costs or increase efficiency…read more
