Who Says You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks? The Case For AI In Construction
Since its launch in November, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has undeniably caused quite a media storm. In fact, Bloomberg estimates that mentions of Artificial Intelligence and its related phrases have already increased by 77% since last year. Whilst opinions on the topic of AI…
Inflation Means Businesses Face Insurance Woes When Rebuilding
Persistent inflation has had spillover effects on the insurance that companies use to guard against disaster at their facilities, with higher construction costs making it harder to get coverage and harder to get paid on claims. Businesses usually insure against events such…
Scientists develop ‘cosmic concrete’ to construct habitats on Mars
Over 50 years after the first human set foot on the Moon, humanity is preparing to take the next big steps in space exploration. The Moon, and eventually Mars, will be the first destinations for human settlement. Scientists have been testing various…
Notre-Dame Repair Reveals Another Historic First: 800-Year-Old Iron Reinforcements
Scientists working on the scorched interior of Notre-Dame de Paris have found iron was used in the cathedral’s construction in the mid-12th century. It’s an unexpected discovery that changes how researchers thought the church was built, and provides surprising insights on…
Committee moves to encourage more housing construction in Ottawa
The City’s Planning and Housing Committee recently recommended endorsing a municipal housing pledge with strategies to encourage construction of 151,000 new homes across Ottawa by 2031. The Province assigned Ottawa’s target as part of a larger plan to support construction of 1.5 million…
Broadway Subway’s second tunnel-boring machine reaches Mount Pleasant Station
The tunnel-boring machine named Phyllis saw daylight this past Saturday when it broke through the underground box for Mount Pleasant Station of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway Extension. This comes almost exactly two months after her sister, Elsie, arrived at Mount Pleasant in…
‘Reckless’ rebuild: Attempt to halt Gardiner construction stalled at city hall
A Toronto committee shelved an attempt to re-open the contentious debate over the future of the eastern Gardiner Expressway Monday, after city staff revealed that nearly half of the project’s billion-dollar budget had already been spent. “When anyone makes an enormous…
P.E.I. contractor gets jail for theft, using forged building permits
A contractor who was paid thousands of dollars by the owners of three P.E.I. properties and who did not perform any work has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for theft and using forged property development permits. “These crimes were…
Quebec construction industry wants major reforms in public contracts
A coalition of construction companies says Quebec could save $14 billion over the next 10 years by cleaning up its public contracting procedures and, above all, by instituting professional and competent project management. Two major construction associations and two independent institutions,…
Boomtown struggle: N.B. contractors desperate to find workers
As new homes continue to go up in Moncton, contractor Andrew Nelson gets lots of calls about taking on new projects. But with not enough workers, he routinely turns them down. “My standard answer now is ‘What’s your timeline?'” If they say they…
Highway contractor fined $1M for West Vancouver fish kill
A B.C. highway contractor has been fined $1 million after a chemical spill from their West Vancouver job site led to a fish kill on Larson Creek. Keller Foundations pleaded guilty to one count under the Federal Fisheries Act and was sentenced in…
2 Winnipeg councillors want city to renew call for inquiry into construction projects, real estate deals
Two city councillors want to renew a call on the province to launch a public inquiry into Winnipeg construction projects, procurement processes and real estate transactions. Couns. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) and Ross Eadie (Mynarski) want their council colleagues to join them…
Scott Cochrane of Cochrane Supply & Engineering named to CABA Board of Directors
The Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Cochrane of Cochrane Supply & Engineering to the CABA Board of Directors. “I have long been a fan of CABA’s work to promote positive advancements in the…
CASE partners with Crew Collab to Build Framework for all new career counseling and mentoring program
CASE Construction Equipment is teaming up with nonprofit Crew Collaborative to sponsor and help build from the ground-up an-all new career counseling and mentoring program for high school students interested in the construction industry trades: FrameWork. “At CASE, we are customer-led in all we do,” says…
Holcim’s ECOPact Low-Carbon Concrete Takes Home Contractors’ Choice Award in the Next Level Awards at CONEXPO-CON/AGG
Holcim’s ECOPact Low-Carbon Concrete has been selected as the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Next Level Awards Contractors’ Choice in the inaugural awards program at CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE 2023. The Next Level Awards celebrate exhibiting companies that are pushing the boundaries and developing next-level products, technologies…