In April, a tower crane being dismantled suddenly collapsed onto an open street in Seattle, Washington killing 2 workers and 2 civilians.  Recent violations issued by the state of Washington have confirmed theories that prematurely removed pins were to blame for the incident.

On October 12, tragedy struck at a construction site in New Orleans, when an 18-story under-construction hotel partially collapsed, killing 3. Due to the unstable tower cranes on site, crews have yet to be able to recover 2 of the bodies inside the building.

A couple of years ago, we shared an article about how Los Angeles was painting certain asphalt roads with a light, paint-like material made by CoolSense. Their hope was that it would reduce heat island effect in the warmest part of their city.  A recent study has found that the coating may not actually have the effect that the city was hoping for.

Many construction companies require their employees to get either an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 safety certification, but there are a few different ways to take the courses.  Throughout my career, I’ve had safety training in a few different capacity: in-person classroom as part of my construction management degree curriculum, a work organized 10-hour course, and, most recently, an OSHA 30 online course.

For the past 5 years, construction technology company, Procore, has hosted their customers and tech enthusiasts at a multi-day conference called Groundbreak.  There’s been significant growth since the events humble beginnings, not only in just attendees, but in the conference’s offerings.

This was my second time attending Groundbreak and, in case you couldn’t make it, here are the highlights of the items you missed: