This crazy concrete ceiling could revolutionize how we build

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Swiss engineers have developed a construction technique that could change how buildings are designed and built. It’s called a “Smart Slab:” A mixture of concrete, rebar, and carbon fiber that form a super-light, super-strong slab ceiling. It’s an entirely new way of building structural elements, and even at less than an inch thick and less than half the weight of a conventional concrete slab, its creators at the Digital Building Technologies group at ETH Zürich claim it can support more weight–surpassing Swiss building code standards. Read more.

Statistics Canada releases first results of Canada’s core public infrastructure survey

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Canada’s road network, as reported by this survey, was long enough in 2016 to circle the Earth’s equator more than 19 times. Statistics Canada, in partnership with Infrastructure Canada, has launched its first-ever catalogue of the state of the nation’s infrastructure to provide statistical information on the stock, condition, performance and asset management strategies of Canada’s core public infrastructure assets. Read more.

CCA: Advice for your members on how to mitigate risk caused by tariffs

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On July 1, Canada implemented tariffs on a list of steel and aluminum products in response to a unilateral decision by the U.S. to impose its own tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Act of 1962. As we said in ourpress release, trade wars have negative effects on both sides of the border, and we understood that the Canadian government had to take prompt and decisive action to defend our industry and its workers. Read more.