News — construction

The impact of technology on construction in 2020 Above: BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING: BIM is an intelligent model-based process that provides insight to help plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure.   In the past decade, we saw technology advancing at breakneck speed, and our dependence on technology in every area of our lives and business is growing rapidly. These trends are only going to carry on into the 2020s and beyond, as technology will continue to make our lives and business safer, more efficient, more convenient and better overall. While many of the biggest industries have embraced technology – and thrived...

California bullet train construction update shows costs could reach $100B   Credit: State of California's Build HSR The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has released its Draft 2020 Business Plan. Although it is making progress and putting Californians to work on the bullet train construction, the costs for the full project have grown at least another $1.3 billion to an average estimate of $80.3 billion and future funding remains uncertain. The low end of the authority's estimate has the Northern California to Southern California route coming in at $63.2 billion, and, at the high end of the CHSRA's range, the project could cost as...

Wuhan to build second hospital for those infected in 15 days Excavators and bulldozers on Friday at a construction site on the outskirts of Wuhan where a hospital is being built to treat patients affected by the new coronavirus. It is due to be completed by Feb 3. A second dedicated hospital to treat such patients is also in the works. PHOTO: REUTERS BEIJING • China's Wuhan city will build a second dedicated hospital to treat patients affected by the novel coronavirus, the state-run People's Daily reported, a day after announcing the first one. Construction of the hospital, designed to have...

The hottest new thing in sustainable building is, uh, wood The many, many benefits of using wood in place of concrete and steel. The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, at the University of British Columbia, showing off some timber.  CIRS Architects, builders, and sustainability advocates are all abuzz over a new building material they say could substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector, slash the waste, pollution, and costs associated with construction, and create a more physically, psychologically, and aesthetically healthy built environment. The material is known as, uh, wood. Trees have been used to build...

Building the AI-enabled mobile construction enterprise The opportunity and threat of artificial intelligence (AI), defined as computers and computerised machines replicating human cognitive behaviours and actions – combined with mobile computing – represent two sides of the same coin.The opportunity is to use the new technologies to significantly increase margin and quality, reduce risk and improve decision making.The threat involves changing not only current technology but to a larger extent working practices, which are amongst the most difficult things to change in any business.But change is needed and long overdue in an industry operating on unsustainable margins and levels of...