ConstructConnect Blog

It’s safe to say that 2020 has pretty much been a dumpster fire of a year. The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders and other health precautions has significantly impacted how we work and live. This year I’ve found myself with, not necessarily more free time, but less things to do to occupy that time like going to the movies, traveling, attending sporting events and concerts, and hanging out with friends and family.

The implementation of lean construction has been gaining traction over the last several years as more and more firms realize the benefits of applying lean thinking to construction. The concept is simple enough, maximize value for the client while at the same time minimizing waste. Proper execution of the lean construction philosophy, on the other hand, can be difficult to implement. For starters, lean construction involves a completely different approach to project delivery from traditional construction methods.

The construction industry again had the highest number of fatalities of all industries in 2019 with 1,061 worker deaths. This is a 5.3% increase over the 1,008 fatal injuries in 2018. It’s the highest total since 2007 when the industry recorded 1,204 fatal work injuries. The construction industry represented 21.6% of all private industry worker deaths in 2019.

It’s time once again to unveil ConstructConnect’s Top 5 Coolest Buildings of the Year. Each year it gets harder and harder to narrow down our picks to just five buildings. In a normal year, we typically see a few of the projects we have in early consideration get delayed or postponed, and 2020 was no exception, thanks in no small part to the coronavirus pandemic. That being said, there were a number of great projects to come out of 2020 and this list could have easily been expanded to the Top 10 or Top 15 Coolest Buildings of the Year.

As a building product manufacturer, are you currently producing sustainable building products and materials? Over the past couple of decades, green and sustainable construction has slowly gone mainstream. AEC firms like Turner Construction Company, McCarthy, Clark Construction Group, and Holder Construction are just a handful of contractors committed to being more sustainable.

Winning more construction bids isn’t a direct result of simply bidding more projects. Bidding on every project that comes your ways isn’t a smart or sustainable bidding strategy.

Winter is here again and we all know that construction work doesn’t get put on ice when the mercury starts dropping. Working in the cold can be dangerous if you don’t take the necessary precautions to keep your body warm and dry on the construction site.

Dealing with a defaulting subcontractor can be a real nightmare for general contractors. A nonperforming subcontractor or one that isn’t meeting its contractual obligations can wreak havoc on a project.

Last year was a banner year for construction technology adoption. According to JLL’s State of Construction Tech report, the coronavirus pandemic had a big impact on accelerating tech adoption in the construction industry in 2020. Per the findings, the rate of construction tech adoption reached in one year what normally would have occurred in a three-year span.

Putting together a winning bid proposal, or even a competitive one, takes knowledge and skill. It’s a bit more complicated than just putting some numbers together and hoping for the best. Good bid preparation requires a lot of time and effort and involves everything from reading and fully understanding the plans and specifications to accurately estimating costs for labor, materials and equipment. Making even the smallest mistake can mean the difference between submitting a winning bid and missing out on a coveted and profitable project. We’ve put together our top 10 tips for submitting better bids.