Construction Industry News: Jan 21

Change of Plans for $1B NYC Subway Tunnel Rehab May Avoid Shutdown, But Questions Remain

The planned 15-month shutdown and $1-billion repair of a critical New York City subway tunnel—three years in the planning and with work underway—is not likely to happen after the eleventh hour intervention by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) into the process, with new project details released by the academics who developed it and project engineer WSP USA.

Todd Orbus: Navigating a Complex Spillway Reconstruction in California From Pre-Bidding to Early Completion

Replacing flood-ravaged spillways at Oroville Dam in just 18 months over two brief construction seasons required the focus and tenacity of many. At the helm of the final season’s push, Todd Orbus, project director for Kiewit Infrastructure West, guided 700 workers to complete the main and emergency spillways rebuild weeks ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline imposed by the start of Northern California’s rainy season.

Federal shutdown threatening some infrastructure projects

States are holding off on cementing their plans for 2019 surface transportation projects, according to The Washington Post, since much of their funding has been cut off due to the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more likely state transportation operations and maintenance functions will be affected as well. 

These 3 technologies will disrupt the construction industry altogether

Present-day technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and the internet of things (IoT) have successfully proven themselves in revolutionizing the construction industry, right from planning infrastructure to surveying risk management to monitoring the architecture during the creation process.

The 10 Companies Dominating the Global Construction Industry

Despite having some of the lowest productivity gains of any industry, the construction market maintains a global annual turnover of $10 trillion. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the world’s largest construction companies are based in Europe and China.