The City of Winnipeg is expanding a pilot program that will see beet juice sprayed on slippery city streets this winter. The public works department started a trial run in 2015 using beet juice as an ingredient to help melt ice on Winnipeg roads. Read more.
As public-private partnership (P3) projects get bigger and more complex, owners must be prepared to relax requirements on risk transfer and ought to be willing to spend more time on the collaboration process, recommends a panel of experts. Read more.
Archaeologists in Quebec City have discovered the first fortifications built in 1693 to protect New France from a major attack, in what is considered the first reinforced palisade of that era. Read more.
Proposed Changes to the Nova Scotia Building Code. See Schedule A and Schedule B proposed public changes to the regulations for consultation until December 14, 2018.
Newly formed Nova Scotia Prompt Payment Coalition calling on provincial government to enact prompt payment legislation in Nova Scotia.
Halifax, NS – (09/12/2018) Payment delays are unacceptable in Nova Scotia’s construction industry and the newly formed Nova Scotia Prompt Payment Coalition is calling on the provincial government to enact appropriate legislation.
“Our province needs a prompt payment solution that works for everyone including tradespeople, contractors, government and consumers,” says Tim Houtsma, board member of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction and a member of the Coalition. “While this serious problem is being felt now in ourindustry, there is a risk to Nova Scotia’s competitiveness long-term if we do not take action to fix theissue.”
“The existing law in Nova Scotia – the Builders Lien Act – is costly, cumbersome, and inaccessible to 65 per cent of the construction industry (small and medium-sized family-owned companies consisting of 50or fewer employees),” says Duncan Williams, president of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia and another member of the Coalition. “It addresses non-payment as opposed to delinquent payment andthe lien rights of many in the industry will expire long before they realize they will not get paid.”
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.
The Global Infrastructure Hub has unveiled a public-private partnership (P3) management tool intended to address what the Hub has identified as a significant gap in the process — post-close management. Read more.
Construction is booming, and with growing population and increasing urbanization requiring new homes and offices to be built, industry momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Despite increasingly sophisticated structures, construction remains one of the least digitized industries. Read more.
According to the recently released ManpowerGroup 2018 Talent Shortage Survey, 41 per cent of Canadian employers report having difficulty filling jobs, with skilled trades being the hardest to fill, followed by sales representatives and drivers. Read more.
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.