Off-site construction isn’t necessarily new. But new products and techniques are helping to improve housing construction. And the primary disruptor in home building — a lack of skilled labor — is prompting today’s builders to turn to alternative methods. The result is a ripple effect leading to additional disruptors in how homes are built. “Off-site…
Real estate development in Houston throughout its history has been mostly unremarkable, the minimum product of pro formas and adherence to the city’s slipshod patchwork of building, site plan, traffic, and parking ordinances. The only notable interruption in the pattern of averages was during the go-go years of the 1970s and 1980s when, according to…
The planned expansion of the truck gate at Port Houston’s Barbours Cut Container Terminal is set to begin after approval of a contract for the work by the Port Commission. The project consists of about 23 acres of new pavement at the existing Barbours Cut Terminal. Major components of work include demolition of existing pavement…
Joined by mobility partners, disability advocates, law enforcement representatives and first responders, Mayor Sylvester Turner today signed an executive order to adopt Vision Zero Houston, a plan to end traffic deaths and serious injuries caused by crashes on Houston roads by the year 2030. The policy marks a significant step in the city’s evolving mobility…
New service will connect Houston to Mexico, Central America, Caribbean and the Mediterranean Port Houston received the maiden voyage and is the only U.S. port of call for a new direct service that global ocean carrier, CMA CGM, has launched with Marfret. The MedCaribe service will connect the U.S. Gulf, Mexico, Central America (Costa Rica),…
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board of Directors approved the purchase of three new 40-foot buses for use on Route 883, The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) campus area shuttle. The popular site-specific bus service between the UTD campus and surrounding neighborhoods in Dallas, Richardson and CityLine/Bush Station, as well as to nearby…
OSHA is seeking industry input on its respirable crystalline silica standard for construction, and is taking comments until Oct. 15. Specifically, OSHA would like information on the effectiveness of work practice and engineering controls that limit worker exposure to respirable silica, as well as tasks and equipment related to silica exposure that are not currently included in Table…
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…
Beaumont, Texas, is home to one of the country’s most sophisticated industrial operations, supporting thousands of jobs and creating new products every day. And with ExxonMobil’s latest expansion of a new high-performance polyethylene line, the Beaumont story continues to grow. ExxonMobil’s polyethylene plant in Beaumont will increase production capacity by 65 percent, or 650,000 tons, per…
The number of world-changing ideas out there is staggering. Corralling the ones that can spark new forms of energy is equally challenging. That’s why ExxonMobil created a new technology-scouting initiative to scour the world for energy startups and innovators. The Technology Scouting and Venturing Group is connecting the company’s researchers with new technologies that could…
Each year, state and local governments spend more than $250 billion on the construction of roads, schools and other public infrastructure. Construction companies sometimes see government contracting as prohibitively competitive and believe the pay is low and the bid requirements are too time- and effort-consuming. But this is not the case, and should not hold construction…
Effective Aug. 19, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is raising its monetary-based small business size standards for inflation by an average of 8.4%, an adjustment that the administration expects will allow 90,000 additional companies to participate in its loan and contracting programs. The SBA said that this increase could result in $750 million more total contracts awarded…
In my world, I’m often asked for a list of “best practices” when estimating or managing a construction project. Here are some thoughts, based on personal experience and discussions I’ve had with other folks in the industry. The short answer is that there is no treasure trove of definitive answers to this question. Best practices are…
Ed Mazria, FAIA, is an architect who has been called “game changer” since the early 2000s. That’s when he saw, in energy data, just how much buildings were contributing to emissions. He recognized then the leadership opportunity for the architectural profession. Mazria is still crunching numbers and pushing the industry toward greater, faster impact. Today,…
American Airlines is building a $250 million hotel and conference center at its new $1 billion, 300-acre Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters, according to The Dallas Morning News. The 620,000-square-foot, nine-story building will include a 600-room hotel, a 131,000-square-foot conference center, office and retail space, dining areas and a tavern, all sitting atop three levels of underground…
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ study of potential improvements to the Houston Ship Channel is nearing completion. The study, that began in 2015, has been conducted in partnership with Port Houston and has examined the feasibility and national benefits of various widening, deepening and other improvements for the channel. This will be the eleventh…
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…
