Traditionally low-tech construction industry attracts $1.3 billion in venture capital

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Move over meal deliveries and mobility startups: The construction industry has become a new focal point for venture capital funds and tech investment. Investment in AEC firms—architecture, engineering, and construction—have blossomed in the last few years, as a once low-tech, staid industry begins to feel the full impact of digital technology, especially when it comes to collaboration software, worksite monitoring, safety, and new design tools. Read more.

Pot legalization raises concerns about TTC’s random drug testing

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The impending legalization of marijuana is heightening scrutiny of the TTC’s random drug testing policy, with critics warning that transit workers could be unfairly penalized for ingesting a soon-to-be legal substance outside of work. Read more.

Building a federal framework for prompt payment and adjudication

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Canada, like many other jurisdictions around the world, is considering mechanisms to ensure the orderly and timely building of federal construction projects by ensuring that cash flows down the construction pyramid quickly. Read more.

Invitation to Stakeholder Engagement Session – Roadwork

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Please be advised that for the month of September 2018, the Nova Scotia Departmentof Labour and Advanced Education’s Occupational Health and Safety Division will againbe focusing activity on “Safe Road Work”. Like previous years, OHS Divisional staff willbe travelling Nova Scotia roads throughout the Province, visiting “road work” job sites toensure compliance with legislative responsibilities and to help promote safer workplaces. Read more.

Experts see mix of soft skills and new tech as future for industry

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A panel of industry experts sees the future of construction as a mix of new technology and new values.

A discussion panel titled Let’s Talk About Technology, held at Vancouver’s Terminal City Club and presented by construction software firm Procore Technologies gathered together several different firms who have moved to adopt technological innovation to, as panel moderator and Brantwood Consulting managing partner Helen Goodland said, “the last pre-industrial sector.”

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GIS and BIM integration will transform infrastructure design and construction

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An unfortunate fact of the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry is that, between every stage of the process—from planning and design to construction and operations—critical data is lost.

The reality is, when you move data between phases of, say, the usable lifecycle of a bridge, you end up shuttling that data back and forth between software systems that recognize only their own data sets. The minute you translate that data, you reduce its richness and value. When a project stakeholder needs data from an earlier phase of the process, planners, designers, and engineers often have to manually re-create that information, resulting in unnecessary rework. 

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Can mushrooms help turn demolished buildings into new ones?

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It’s not as weird as it sounds—mushrooms might very well be the building blocks of the future. We’ve seen how mycelium, the root-like filaments of mushrooms, has been used in experimental pavilions and Ikea packaging. Now, it could be used to rebuild crumbling housing stock in cities. Read more.

Alberta researcher developing earthquake-resistant concrete

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One of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history took place early on a January morning in 1994, when a 6.7 magnitude earthquake occurred 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Fifty-seven people were killed, and almost 9,000 others injured. Property damage was estimated at up to $50 billion.

The Northridge earthquake, as it came to be known, gained worldwide attention because of the extensive damage it caused to the region’s freeway network.

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Volvo CE, Lego & kids design autonomous concept wheel loader

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Bringing together engineers from a heavy equipment manufacturer and the creative team from a toy company to design a conceptual wheel loader might seem like an odd idea. Bring in a focus group comprised of children to provide feedback and the idea is just bonkers. In reality, the collaboration resulted in a high-tech concept that might change the future of construction equipment design. Read more.

Winnipeg testing new concrete road repair material on streets

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Researchers at the University of Manitoba have developed a cementitious material that combines two important features, strength and quick hardening, that can be used for the partial depth repair of concrete pavements. Read more.