Photo courtesy of U.S. Army U.S. Army Barracks Complex at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Within five years facilities assessments and life cycle maintenance scheduling and planning for all $830 billion worth of Dept. of Defense facilities are to be brought into the Sustainment Management System developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Related Links: Sustainment Management System homepage On Sept. 10, Frank Kendall, the U.S. Dept. of Defense under secretary for acquisitions, logistics and technology, issued a memorandum notifying officials at all military components of the DoD and the Washington Headquarters Service that they will all be required, within
It is rare that tax issues generate excitement for engineering, design, and construction firms, but significant research and development-related tax benefits can be available to firms engaged in creating energy efficient buildings for the government.Three key things to consider when working to maximize your firm’s project-related tax benefits include the Research and Development tax credit, the 179D deduction, and avoiding the mistake of “self-censoring,” or assuming your firm’s activities will not qualify.The R&D tax credit is a government-endorsed incentive that many engineering, design, and construction firms—particularly small and mid-sized ones—fail to claim, either from lack of information or from self-censorship.If
Courtesy EPRI With its 110-volt vacuum engine, the crawler bot maintains enough suction to carry 40 lb up vertical structures. Courtesy EPRI The crawler bot automatically follows a preprogrammed route up and down structures but has support ropes in case it loses suction. Related Links: International Climbing Machines (Upon which the robot is based). Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative A new concrete inspection robot successfully scaled the walls of a dam this summer, testing the dam's structural integrity.Many of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors are reaching the middle age of their design life, while, according to reports by the American
Video courtesy of EarthCam One World Trade Center time lapse video, 2004 to 2013 Related Links: World Trade Center webcam site EarthCam, Inc., a Hackensack, NJ-based provider of webcam content, technology and services, including job-cams for construction projects worldwide, posted an edited time lapse video of 12 years of construction at New York City’s World Trade Center to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks that brought down the trade center’s twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.The video spans the period from October, 2004 to September, 2013 and was hand-edited from hundreds of thousands of high-definition images captured of work at
Image Courtesy of Autodesk Get The Point software users say the tool, for integrating design files with total stations for layout control and construction verification, has saved them money by avoiding rework. Related Links: Get The Point website Service provider network based on similar total station/design file integration from Theometrics Autodesk Inc. has acquired the technology assets of Larkspur, Colo.-based Get The Point LLC, which developed software to transfer information from Autodesk's design applications to robotic total stations and move CAD and BIM control points directly from design files to layout in the field.The software is also bi-directional. It can
Related Links: A live cyber attack dashboard from Deutusche Telekom State-Sponsored Attacks research report from Lieberman Software Technology security experts in many sectors surveyed at a recent conference shared a common concern: 74.3% of them could not say with confidence that their systems have not already been breached by a foreign state-sponsored cyber attack or an advanced persistent threat. Further, 62.9% think it likely their companies will be targets of such attacks within the next six months.Most (52%) were not confident their staffs could detect such intrusions, and 57.7% said they think the U.S. is losing the battle,although 30.3% said
Like almost everything else the world of construction, the world of project planning is increasingly moving toward processes that draw upon data—including what is often referred to as “big data,” which holds keys to spotting large-scale shifts in communities.This matters to construction because planners, architects, engineers and contractors often are on the front lines of spinning up projects that impact the masses. And the quality of the data used in the studies undertaken to justify the economic validity of those projects can make the difference between projects that bomb and projects that succeed—and in the construction industry languishing or flourishing.Embracing
Related Links: Black & Veatch, 2013 Strategic Directions in the U.S. Water Industry Report McGraw-Hill Construction Water Infrastructure Smart Market Report Municipal water delivery systems around the world range from the rudimentary to the mind-bendingly complex. And their customers regard the water those systems deliver as either rare, precious and costly or overabundant to the point of inconsequence and cheap. But although many users take the water delivery systems themselves for granted, when they fail, perform badly or their managers seek funds to improve, many ratepayers can be counted upon to howl in complaint.Water-system managers walk a tightrope between the
Related Links: NOAA's Digital Coast Site Seasketch Tool Site Superstorm Sandy destroyed the shorelines and seabeds of the East Coast to such an extent that federal agencies plan to remap the coastline.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are using emergency supplemental funds to survey the coast to collect high-resolution topographic and hydrographic data. The LiDAR surveying will be recording water depths and any submerged debris that may have altered shorelines from South Carolina to Maine.The $50-million project will begin work this fall. Some contracts already have been awarded, with more
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