Point, Click and Evaluate Site Soil Contaminants

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An Australian company is bringing a handheld soil scanner to North America which can detect total petroleum hydrocarbon contamination at levels as low as 68 ppm in 20 seconds. Read more

Preventing Birds from ‘Beaking’ Havoc On Buildings

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Over five years a Kelowna contractor spent $300,000 to invent a system that prevents birds from drilling holes into buildings. Using his 15 years of experience as a stucco contractor, Keith Eisenkrein took his new technique and launched EIFS (exterior insulation and finishing system) Armour. His patent-pending, licensed product has already been applied to almost 200 structures, mostly in B.C.’s Okanagan, where the Northern Flicker and other woodpecker species have been “beaking” havoc. Read more

Emerging Technology Changing Construction Site Workflows

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Helen Goodland, Brantwood Consulting principal, and an advisor to the BC Construction Association on innovation and sustainability, says the increasing use of work place technology will bring more change to the Canadian construction industry. Read more

Innovation and Risk: The Best of Frenemies

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New construction technologies and materials and new ways of working together can make the design and construction process faster and more efficient for project owners, designers and contractors, say experts. Read more

Canada’s Pension Funds Eye Greenfield Federal Infrastructure Investments

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Canada’s biggest pension funds are prepared to finance the construction of major new federal government infrastructure projects, according to senior fund sources, marking a shift from their traditional strategy of avoiding development risk. Read more

Fort McMurray Fire Costliest Disaster on Record, Insurance Bureau of Canada

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The wildfire that rendered the heart of oilsands country a charred and ashy mess is estimated to be the costliest disaster in Canada, worrying evidence that extreme weather events have increased in frequency and severity, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said Thursday. Read more

The Dotted Line: How construction firms can manage the ‘necessary evil’ of change orders

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Construction projects, like anything else in life, are subject to change. Design blunders, unanticipated revisions to building codes, an owner-driven switch in material selection — all of these events can lead to changes that add a few dollars or create a significant addition to a project’s scope and cost.  Read more.

Building Permits, May 2016

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The value of building permits issued in Nova Scotia increased by 77.3per cent in April, reversing from the 44.2 per cent gain decline in May.  Both residential (54.5 per cent) and non-residential (149.9 per cent) permit values increased.  Compared with May 2015, NS building permits are up 26.0 per cent, with increases in both residential and non-residential permit values.  Although monthly results for building permits are highly volatile, there has been a downward trend in residential permits since early in 2015. Read more.

27 developments that are changing Halifax’s cityscape

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Halifax’s building boom has a way of getting in your face, whether you actively avoid the sidewalk closures, or not. Cranes are towering, drills be drillin’, and neighbourhoods are being modified and developed. Whether it’s all the result ofdensifying urban plans or an artificially-propped up real estate market remains to be seen. In any event, it’s giving the peninsula a facelift. Here are some details on what’s to come.

Cartoons Keep Order at Japanese Construction Sites

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The construction site outside the train station in one of Tokyo’s central night life and shopping districts had the typical workers in hard hats and fluorescent vests. And, not so typical, two pink-and-white Hello Kitty figures hanging off the barriers that keep pedestrians from stumbling into a hole in the road. Such figures, along with more than 30 varieties including elephants, giraffes, deer and dolphins, crop up on road barriers all over Japan, an effort to entertain passers-by who might otherwise regard construction sites as nuisances. Read more