Construction

  Updated Volvo excavators offer 10% more fuel efficiency The new EC250E and EC300E excavators from Volvo Construction Equipment are heavy-duty machines weighing in at 26-31.5t and 30.2-36.8t respectively. Both models are packed with the latest technology, new and proven features, and can even come with purpose-built attachments to help customers move more for less. The updated machines deliver up to 10% improvements in fuel efficiency, thanks to a combination of features that includes more intelligent electro-hydraulics, the classic ECO mode and selectable work modes, and finally the new D8M Volvo engine. This upgraded engine reduces rpm from 1,800 down...

Smart City Development Pushing Huge Shift In Construction Materials   Multiple nations around the world are making massive investments in smart city mega projects. All of them contain elements meant to reduce pollution or produce power. As a result, researchers expect the demand for advanced green materials to skyrocket. A study by a technology market research company predicted a $400 billion market for the materials needed to construct the highly integrated smart cities of the future. Global Shift In City Planning Underway In places as diverse as South Korea, Singapore, New York City, Saudi Arabia, and Mumbai, both smart residential...

Smart concrete could pave the way for high-tech, cost-effective roads The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco averages more than 100,000 vehicles daily. Photo by Saketh Garuda for Unsplash Luna Lu, Purdue University and Vishal Saravade, Purdue University Every day, Americans travel on roads, bridges and highways without considering the safety or reliability of these structures. Yet much of the transportation infrastructure in the U.S. is outdated, deteriorating and badly in need of repair. Of the 614,387 bridges in the U.S., for example, 39% are older than their designed lifetimes, while nearly 10% are structurally deficient, meaning they could begin...

A third of our waste comes from buildings. This one's designed for reuse and cuts emissions by 88% Roberto Minunno, Curtin University; Greg Morrison, Curtin University; Richard L. Gruner, University of Western Australia, and Timothy Michael O'Grady, Curtin University Designing buildings so they can easily be taken apart and the materials reused provides a feasible and commercial pathway for minimising waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Our research shows one such Curtin University building, the Legacy Living Lab in Fremantle, reduces construction waste and cuts emissions to almost a tenth of what a conventional building process would produce. The modular, circular...

'Supermud' bricks could help tackle the world’s housing crisis and cut carbon emissions that cause climate change Claudio Allia, CC BY-SA Alastair Marsh, University of Bath and Venkatarama Reddy, Indian Institute of Science The world is about to experience one of the biggest housing booms in history over the coming decades. In the UK, the housing crisis is a recurring news story, with a lack of affordable housing and problems with the quality of the housing stock. However, these problems pale in comparison with the scale of the housing crisis facing much of the world. The UN estimates the world’s...