The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Texas contractor Hurtado Construction Co. March 15 after an 18-year-old worker was killed in a trench collapse last September. OSHA proposed $257,811 in fines.

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa., April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- April is a busy time of the year, notifying 811 for every digging project, every time helps ensure worker safety and prevents costly utility damage.

Pennsylvania One Call System, Inc. dba Pennsylvania 811 is proud to join a nationwide effort to raise awareness and promote safety. Safe Digging Month emphasizes the importance of contacting 811 at least three business days, no more than 10 business days, in Pennsylvania before any excavation work. It is never worth risking safety and financial consequences by not following proper procedures.

Help Pennsylvania 811 keep everyone safe during all excavation projects. No matter how large or small your project is, always contact 811 at least three business days before you dig! Safety is in your hands. Every dig. Every time. www.pa1call.org/notify

About Pennsylvania 811
Pennsylvania 811's mission is to prevent damage to underground facilities. To promote safety, Pennsylvania 811 provides an efficient and effective communications network among project owners, designers, excavators, and facility owners. Since its inception in 1972, membership has increased from 6 utilities to over 3,700 underground facility owners and operators in 67 counties. Membership has been mandatory for facility owners that serve customers or consumers since 1987. The service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Pennsylvania 811 serves all 67 counties and employs over 80 people.

Construction posted another monthly employment gain–the industry’s 11th consecutive monthly increase–adding 23,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

Reprinted courtesy of Tom Ichniowski, Engineering News-Record

Mr. Ichniowski may be contacted at ichniowskit@enr.com

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Florida is often considered an underwhelming place to play golf. Sure, it’s fun to wear shorts in February, but good golf terrain has movement, and bland, flat marsh doesn’t have the same cachet as wind-swept cliffs overlooking the Pacific. The Sunshine State stereotype is a course surrounded by retirement homes that looks as if it just rolled off the production line. The state has more than 1,200 courses, the most in the US, but just three on Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses list.

That’s a lot of mediocre links—and yet it isn’t enough. More courses opened in the US last year than any time in over a decade, according to the National Golf Foundation, and almost a third of them were in Florida. NGF says the state has 16 new course projects under construction or in planning, twice as many as any other state.

According to research from the National Association of Realtors, the United States is facing a shortage of 5.5 million homes. The gap continues to grow despite widespread efforts to meet rising demand, like a multi-family housing boom in 2023. While construction companies are fighting hard to keep up, they are limited by a pressing labor shortage, among other critical hurdles like supply shortages and steep pricing. The same is true in real estate, an industry dealing with pandemic-spurred job hopping and an aging workforce that’s retiring and leaving a sea of empty seats to fill. Without people to do the work, growth is an elusive target.

Reprinted courtesy of Jim Campbell, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Last year’s Pittsburgh area Fern Hollow Bridge collapse and the I-95 Philadelphia collapse may portend more infrastructure spending to come. The U.S. Department of Transportation's 2021 national inventory estimated that 44,000 bridges nationwide are rated in poor condition. Contractors must be able to act fast and have a plan in place to secure infrastructure work, including obtaining bid bonds in a timely manner while preparing and updating bids.

The savviest construction and engineering companies are already leveraging technology solutions to optimize the construction phase, to increase productivity, trim costs and track projects in real time. Bidding/bonding is one essential and underutilized phase in which digital solutions can help contractors win in a fiercely competitive environment. Contractors should seek to take control of their bidding by leveraging online tools for bonding.

Reprinted courtesy of Wayne Nunziata, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Greenwashing, a term coined in the 1980s, has become increasingly relevant in today’s construction sector. It refers to the practice where companies misleadingly brand their products or operations as environmentally friendly when they may not be significantly beneficial to the environment, or they can even be harmful.

Vague green marketing claims puzzle the consumers. In a 2022 study by The Consumers’ Union of Finland, 81% of consumers said it’s hard to identify sustainable products or services.

Construction industry employment continues its upturn, with an increase of 17,000 jobs in December, recording increases in nearly all sectors, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

With relatively minor increases and decreases reported by the industry's various sectors, construction eked out an overall gain of approximately 2,000 jobs during November, continuing its streak of mostly upward job growth during 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Dec. 8.

It’s no secret construction is one of the most dangerous industries to work in, and a lack of effective safety measures comes at an extremely high cost. Workers' compensation alone costs the industry over $7 billion a year.

While day-to-day construction work is dangerous in and of itself, inclement weather adds yet another variable impacting worker safety. Laborers can slip on ice resulting in an expensive hospital bill, or a snowstorm might disrupt communications, causing a costly stall in operations. Whatever the threat may be, construction companies must take appropriate safety measures to mitigate the risks and ensure the safety of their workers. Knowing budgets are tighter than ever, there are a few cost-effective ways construction companies can optimize safety this winter.

Reprinted courtesy of Kevin Lane, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.

Drones are now in the mainstream of reality capture on construction sites. In interior construction, hard hat cameras and human-operated laser scanners are still the best way to collect accurate data. Quadrupled robots could be an alternative, but in many cases, they are considered too expensive. That may change soon, as both robots with upgraded hardware and AI-powered software are becoming accessible even to consumers.

An example of a very capable consumer-grade robot is Unitree Go2 which performs better than industrial robots a few years back. What makes Go2 extra interesting is its price tag, starting at $1600.