Construction Industry News: September 30, 2019

Construction Adds 14,000 Jobs in Aug., Jobless Rate Trends Mixed

Construction gained 14,000 jobs in August and the industry’s unemployment rate improved modestly from July’s level but rose slightly year over year, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

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State DOTs Receive Extra $4B from FHWA Unspent 2019 Balances

As the federal fiscal year winds down, all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, have received welcome federal funding boosts for their highway construction programs, thanks to a Federal Highway Administration redistribution of nearly $4 billion in unused fiscal 2019 funds.

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Salini Impregilo Announces $14B Plan to Build Houston-Dallas High-Speed Rail

Texas Central, the private company developing the Texas Bullet Train, announced it had signed a deal with Salini Impregilo , the Italian construction giant, and its American subsidiary, Lane Construction , to design, construct and install the 240-mile high-speed rail line using Japan’s Shinkansen trains.

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University of Waterloo exploring robotic solutions to improve bridge inspections

Researchers at the University of Waterloo (UW) have developed an innovative new robotics technology that might make inspecting bridges a little easier, cheaper and safer while producing more reliable results.

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From Around The World

This Is What Britain’s Biggest Construction Project Looks Like

Over an area covering 245 soccer fields, Electricite de France SA is building the U.K.’s first new nuclear power plant in more than 20 years. The project employs 4,500 people and will cost up to 22.5 billion pounds ($28 billion), a sum the French utility boosted this week after discovering more difficult conditions on the ground. 

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