July 26, 2026
by Arnie Gess, president of Construction Links Network
Every week, the construction industry introduces new technologies that challenge the way we’ve always worked. This edition highlights practical innovations, from AI-powered business development and digital workflows to drone surveying and construction scheduling intelligence.
If staying competitive is a priority, you’ll find valuable ideas throughout this week’s issue. Thanks for making ConTech Weekly part of your routine, and enjoy the latest stories shaping construction’s digital future.
Have news to share? We’re always looking to spotlight forward-thinking companies and ideas. Submit your ConTech or PropTech updates by Thursday end of day for next week’s edition.
Plumbers, HVAC, electricians, fabricators all quote differently — but every unit price hides man hours. If you haven’t verified that math, your quote is a guess.
BIM data becomes more useful when it feeds directly into enterprise systems. Model quantities can drive cost estimates. Material specifications can trigger procurement workflows. Design revisions can flag cost and schedule impacts automatically. Learn the insights on BIM execution plans, information requirements, common data environments, and what construction firms should look for when evaluating platforms for long-term use.
Plenty of tools call themselves “prevailing wage software.” Most just run your certified payroll and quit there. That keeps the Department of Labor happy, but it tells you nothing about whether the job is bleeding money in week three. This breakdown walks through the 8 features that make prevailing wage software a worthwhile investment, including real-time job costing on Davis-Bacon jobs, so you catch an overrun while you can still fix it.
What do 120,000+ CPM schedules and 10,000+ industry survey responses reveal about the future of construction scheduling? The 2026 State of Construction Scheduling Report takes a deep dive into the latest trends impacting schedule quality, delay risk, AI adoption, project visibility, and project performance, providing practical insights for construction professionals across the industry.
Learn how AI bid management helped a heavy civil contractor quadruple pursuit capacity without adding estimating staff.
Cascade has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to expand its AI project pursuit platform for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms, helping companies identify and pursue construction opportunities before requests for proposals (RFPs) are issued. Built by former Google AI leaders, the platform continuously analyzes bond filings, permits, capital plans, property transactions, meeting minutes, earnings transcripts, and public funding announcements to detect projects in their earliest stages. Cascade then evaluates project fit, identifies relationship pathways, and recommends teaming opportunities, enabling firms to focus on high-probability pursuits and improve business development efficiency. Early customers—including architecture firms, engineering companies, and general contractors involved in major infrastructure, transportation, data center, and nuclear projects—report stronger project pipelines and measurable revenue gains. Backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Índico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures, and Snowball VC, Cascade plans to accelerate platform adoption and expand its industry network.
Network Plus has partnered with RodRadar and UK distributor Machinetech to launch a nationwide rollout of Live Dig Radar® (LDR) technology across more than 200 excavators, helping reduce underground utility strikes and improve excavation safety. Serving major utility providers including Severn Trent Water, Cadent Gas, National Grid, and UK Power Networks, Network Plus is the first contractor to deploy RodRadar’s new 30 cm AI-powered Live Dig Radar system, which uses embedded ground-penetrating radar to detect buried utilities in real time and alert operators before a strike occurs. The deployment addresses a major industry challenge, with more than 60,000 utility strikes reported annually in the UK, costing an estimated £2.4 billion through project delays, safety incidents, and infrastructure damage. Following successful field trials, the multi-year rollout supports Network Plus’s goal of improving workforce safety, protecting critical infrastructure, and delivering uninterrupted service. By combining artificial intelligence with real-time underground detection, the partnership sets a new benchmark for excavation safety and advances RodRadar’s vision of making “Zero Strikes” the global standard for construction and utility operations.
Flowfinity has released Flowfinity Actions 26.1, introducing new AI-powered business process automation features, enhanced geospatial data collection, and workflow management tools designed to improve operational efficiency for field teams, managers, and IT administrators. The update expands AI assistant capabilities with improved governance, allowing organizations to distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated record updates for greater compliance, traceability, and control. For field operations and GIS professionals, the platform now supports enterprise-grade geocode-verified data collection, enabling accurate location capture that integrates directly with automated business workflows. Additional enhancements include upgraded dashboards with improved operational visualizations, resource scheduling, and workload management, helping supervisors make faster, data-driven decisions. Users also benefit from streamlined lookup fields with contextual previews and faster navigation, while new configurable password expiration policies strengthen enterprise security.
ZenaTech has expanded its Drone as a Service (DaaS) for construction business with the acquisition of BA Land Professionals LLC, a professional land surveying firm based in Dayton, Ohio. The acquisition marks ZenaTech’s 26th Drone as a Service acquisition and extends its U.S. operations to 12 states, with surveying licenses covering Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. BA Land Professionals brings more than 40 years of expertise in land surveying, construction layout, topographic and boundary surveys, ALTA/NSPS surveys, drone and LiDAR mapping, and GPS control services. ZenaTech plans to integrate its AI-powered drone technology and ZenaWorx platform to deliver construction progress monitoring, 3D site mapping, utility and infrastructure inspections, industrial asset monitoring, and precision agriculture services. The company believes Ohio’s growing construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, energy, and data center sectors present significant opportunities for technology-enabled drone services that improve project visibility, safety, accuracy, and operational efficiency. The acquisition supports ZenaTech’s ongoing strategy of building a nationwide Drone as a Service network by combining established surveying firms with advanced AI, drone, and LiDAR technologies to modernize field operations across construction, infrastructure, and public works.
