Education

As part of the Opportunity Builds Harris County initiative, Commissioners Court voted on Tuesday to approve several worker protection provisions that include Harris County becoming the first county in Texas to set a prevailing wage floor of $15/hour for county building projects, prioritizing safer work sites and creating a job portal that will also connect…

As I write this article, Hurricane Dorian has decimated the Bahamas, blew passed Florida and is on its path along the southeast coast of the Carolinas leaving a swath of destruction behind.  Local, regional and out-of-the area contractors are positioned in the starting blocks to rush in on opportunities to rebuild, rehab and repair residential,…

Autonomous vehicles are being used to transfer bags and create a more seamless transfer experience Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport is using innovative technology to help its customers with more seamless transfers, by introducing Vanderlande’s autonomous vehicle solution FLEET, in the recheck area in Terminal D. The first of its kind robotic system can handle…

Ask anyone familiar with construction hazards, and you’ll likely hear about those on OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violations annual list or the agency’s Fatal Four — falls, struck-by incidents, electrocutions and caught-in-between accidents. The danger of falls, in particular, has garnered the industry’s attention as the most common cause of accidental construction injuries and deaths. And the agency has…

Construction is risky business. According to OSHA, one in every five private sector worker deaths in 2017 (the latest year recorded) was in construction. That’s 971 fatalities. Jobsite safety precautions can address the top culprits: falls, struck by object, electrocution and caught-in/between. However, there is another danger on jobsites that gets less attention but has a much…

Peer-to-peer marketplace apps are all about getting rid of the often expensive and usually time-consuming intermediary process and connecting users directly to the services they need. This way of doing business has become popular with everything from vacation rentals a la Airbnb to ride sharing via Uber and Lyft. That desire for convenience — and…

By: Nathan Estrada First, you may be asking yourself, “How can an attorney be my friend?” A valid question. Second, you may be thinking of the stigma that can be associated with having an attorney. However, an attorney’s job is to protect you and your rights, as well as your business. The road of business…

In the construction industry, the most threatening risks are the ones that go undetected for too long — design flaws that are spotted well into construction, bad habits that could get a craft worker hurt or a hazard that escapes a manager’s attention. Underlying most contractors’ safety programs is a group effort at vigilance on…

A Volvo Construction Equipment survey of 205 U.S. and U.K. construction workers found that 31% of respondents were fearful that artificial intelligence and robotics would replace them on jobsites. While that is a common conception about the technology, an even larger chunk, 46%, was concerned about perceived safety risks involved with that kind of machinery….

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) office has issued a draft grant offer for the development of a system that can detect construction activity worldwide. The announcement is part of the agency’s Space-based Machine Automated Recognition Technique (SMART) program. The new machine learning technology must have broad-area search functionality…

As the workforce is augmented by AI, CEOs will need to prepare their organization for new ways of working. Over the coming decades, the whole experience of what it means to ‘work’ is likely to change dramatically, impacting our relationships with our colleagues, our employers and even ourselves. At the same time, the idea of…

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. You carried out the due diligence and performed all of the required background checks, application steps, and safety protocols before extending credit. Now that individual has balked on payments, so it’s time to step up your game. In Part 1, Reducing Your Risk, we…

Technology is rapidly changing the game in the construction industry, and the firms who are paying attention and embracing the change will be the ones who win. KPMG’s annual report, “Building a technology advantage — Global Construction Survey” reports that 55 percent feel the industry is ripe for change with 74 percent of respondents saying…

The Stafford Civic Center was buzzing with the STEAMinecraft in EDU workshop for instructional technologists, tech coaches, STEAM teachers and more on Thursday, Feb. 28. For the first time in the civic center’s existence, high-speed Internet access was available and enabled attendees to work on the web. Internet access was established by Stafford-based Premier Wireless….

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed a collection of compliance assistance resources to address falls in the workplace, the leading cause of worker fatality in the construction industry. OSHA’s goal is to promote awareness about common fall hazards in construction, educate job creators and workers on fall prevention,…

The American Society of Safety Professionals Foundation has released the results of a three-year study on worker fatigue that indicates that wearable technology could play a role in both better defining the problem of overtired workers and increasing safety on the job. In “Advancing Safety Surveillance Using Individualized Sensor Technology (ASSIST): Final Progress Report,” the…

It’s been three months and your client still hasn’t paid his overdue bill for the work you performed. What do you do now? Fortunately, the State of Texas has laws in place that protect business owners, allowing you to collect on a debt, but only when the proper protocols are followed. The Cromeens Law Firm…