Smartphone Use by Contractors on the Jobsite Jumps 35% from Past Year

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Contractors’ use of smartphones while on the job jumped 35 percent from last year, according to new research from EMA Contractors, a specialty group at Eric Mower + Associates. While the use of tablets (i.e., iPad) rose nearly 54 percent over last year (overall, 22 percent of contractors are using tablets), most contractors (68 percent) said they use smartphones as part of their workday. Of those surveyed, 40 percent of contractors said they use smartphones when making purchasing decisions, making it second to desktop computers back at the office. More than half (56 percent) of respondents think […]

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Robin Renschen of McCarthy Appointed Chair of AGC Training, Education & Development Forum

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ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Robin Renschen, corporate director of learning and development with McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., has been appointed chairman of the national Training, Education & Development Forum Steering Committee for the Associated General Contractors of America. AGC developed the TED Forum to enhance performance and career development opportunities for individuals, member firms and the construction industry. Renschen will hold the position for a three-year term. With more than 20 years of experience aligning learning and performance objectives to business strategy and delivering quantifiable results, Renschen is an industry-recognized learning and organizational development leader. Since joining McCarthy in 2008, […]

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Achieving Early Equipment Start-Up During Pharmaceutical Plant Construction

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By Peter Gardner On a recent $130-million pharmaceutical manufacturing plant project, Torcon’s team implemented its innovative Set to Work program focused on addressing the initial requirements of the process equipment and associated systems. This approach is particularly appropriate for functional/utility-rich facilities, although there are clear lessons for office buildings, hotels, school facilities, hospitals and other projects. In a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, the building itself is secondary to the processes within. Although research labs are among the critical components of the product development process, manufacturing facilities help pharmaceutical companies cross the finish line and get medicines and other products out in […]

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Parsons Team Leads Effort to Identify and Extract Dinosaur Prints from NASA Site

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Parsons, which is performing ongoing construction management for various NASA site projects, played a key role in the discovery and preservation of 100+-million-year-old dinosaur tracks on the grounds of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Following the discovery of the first print by dinosaur hunter Ray Stanford in August 2012, NASA officials assigned a Parsons team led by paleontologist Lee Monnens to provide follow-up investigation and removal. Heather Shinn, then Parsons manager of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Facilities, Construction, Engineering and Technical Services (FaCETS) program, coordinated the initial consultation. Monnens surveyed […]

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Walbridge Team Uses BIM, Prefab and Modular Construction as Main Tools in University Project

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Walbridge is serving as construction manager for the Charles T. Munger Residences in the Lawyers Club and John P. Cook Building renovation project, which house around 260 law school students. Located in Ann Arbor, Mich., renovation work includes installing new plumbing, heating, ventilation, fire detection and suppression systems, high-speed wireless Internet networks and accessibility improvements. The $28-million project is designed to preserve the historic exterior of the buildings, while replacing existing townhouse style residence entries with interior connecting corridors to inc rease safety, accessibility and a sense of community. Walbridge used modularization to fabricate bathroom units to be installed in […]

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