Technology by Jeff Winke
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Construction Technology Trends Shaping 2019 & Beyond The successful contractor in the future will operate quite differently than today THERE APPEAR TO be five technology trends shaping the future of construction: • Data — Acquiring, using and sharing data in real time gives contractors advantages of enabling their machines to "talk." Through connected machines, contractors can remotely monitor progress, communicate with the operator, diagnose and repair problems, track machine location and provide support. Data collected can confirm quality results and help with bidding on future similar projects. There will be the time when a jobsite or highway can tell how it should be built through instant data, seamless communication, exact material amounts. • Constructioneering — Constructioneering is a term Bentley Systems and Topcon Positioning Group use to refer to automating the digital construction process through surveying, engineering design, constructible model
development and as-built data collection within a connected data environment to improve construction execution and reduce project costs. It is the creation of collaborative systems to bring all the data into digital models that can be seamlessly shared with machines, operators, supervisors, civil engineers and project owners. Unmanned aerial vehicles or drones are an example of the type of data that will be collected. Drones can provide virtual reality perspective and data about job sites too difficult or dangerous to reach. • Smart roads — Roadways will do more than carry traffic in the future. As solar collector ribbons they may very well be contributing to fueling the vehicles of the future. Or embedded wireless technology could maintain an electric car's charge. Metal street name signs will become nostalgic artifacts of times past, since the selfdriving pods will be told by the road what street it is on. Roads will heal themselves as cracks form since the concrete or asphalt mix will be embedded with tiny capsules of sodium silicate. When a crack forms, the capsules rupture and release a gel-like healing
agent that will harden to fill the void. • Overcoming the skills gap — Technology can help with the labor shortfall and fill the skills gap of new employees. Take a smart, inexperienced worker and place them in the cab of a dozer or motor grader governed by GPS machine control with a 3D site plan displayed and with proper training they will become productive. Technology has not only proved to save time and improve accuracy, but it's impact on productivity has been significant. As technology permeates the construction industry there is a need for university and technology school graduate technicians. The need and challenge is there. • IoT — The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the communication connectedness of machines and objects through sensors via online. Think of IoT as the data aggregation and collection going into a central repository where intelligent decisions can be made based on what has been collected in real-time. Workers can be tracked in the field and ensure that they are protected from or at least aware of
“Roads will heal themselves since the concrete or asphalt mix will be embedded with tiny capsules of sodium silicate.” job site hazards and other potential injuries. Equipment sensors can monitor whether machinery is being productive or in need of repair or preventive maintenance. As the World Economic Forum said: "Over the past decade, digital progress has transformed whole industries, ushering in a new technological era now known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution...These new technologies are not only satisfying consumer demand for better entertainment, shopping and transport. Innovation has improved companies’ productivity and sustainability and redefined the skills and competencies needed to thrive." Jeff Winke is a business and construction writer based in Milwaukee, WI. He can be reached through jeff_winke@ yahoo.com.
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