This year’s G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Venice saw the endorsement of a “G20 Policy Agenda on Infrastructure Maintenance” Maintenance itself tends to be invisible when it is working well, only to become newsworthy when failure or disasters strike. Continue →

Dan Pollard, founder of trades software company Fergus, gives a breakdown of the current challenges facing the industry, and considerations to help get through the months ahead August’s lockdowns and tight restrictions coupled with border closures and broken supply chains had a noticeable impact on the construction industry. Continue →

The Victorian government has announced a two-week shutdown of the construction industry after a protest against mandatory vaccines for workers in the sector became violent The Guardian newspaper says the closure across metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, the Surf Coast, Ballarat and Mitchell Shire was decided on Monday night after the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) building was damaged and riot police deployed in chaotic scenes in central Melbourne. Continue →

The return to work under Alert Level 3 saw thousands of construction businesses breathe a sigh of relief, made possible by assurance to the government that the industry was able to do so safely by following the Covid-19 construction protocols The first lockdown last year saw vertical and commercial businesses in the construction industry combine to form a steering group, with Site Safe playing a key role, to develop the Covid-19 construction protocols. Continue →

Infrastructure reform is “desperately” needed to roll-out Australia’s massive $110-billion infrastructure program, industry experts say, The Urban Developer reports Infrastructure Australia has released its 648-page infrastructure plan for 2021, responding directly to the 180 infrastructure “challenges and opportunities” identified in its 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit. Continue →

An innovative solution to Auckland’s water shortage, Mokau Marae risen from the ashes and the collaborative redevelopment of Queens Wharf were among this year’s winners announced by the New Zealand Institute of Building (NZIOB) The standard and number of entries in this year’s awards was again particularly impressive, and the projects they have delivered have made a significant contribution to the quality of our built environment, NZIOB Chief Executive Malcolm Fleming says. Continue →

Building and construction work that meets the Government definition of an essential service can continue under COVID-19 restrictions, following CHASNZ’s latest health and safety guidance COVID-19 Alert Level 4 is restricted to essential services only.  Continue →

New Zealand’s construction industry is riding a massive rebound in business confidence, but this may be undermined by skills shortages with 90% of construction firms having difficulty recruiting, finds Civil Contractors New Zealand Findings from the 2021 Construction Industry Survey, a partnership between Teletrac Navman and Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ), validate growing sector confidence, with 50 percent of those polled optimistic the New Zealand construction industry is on the upward trajectory and over half predicting turnover and staff growth in the next 12 months. Continue →

The rescue of a Wellington icon, an infrastructure response that moved mountains, and a project with an outstanding safety culture were amongst the winners of the 42nd Civil Contractors New Zealand Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards Held at The Contractors’ Conference in Wellington on 30 July, the awards celebrated the best of New Zealand’s civil construction industry. Continue →

Construction industry groups across the ditch claim they cannot deliver a $110-billion national infrastructure pipeline and are calling on the federal government to introduce urgent reforms to fix the “industry crisis”, The Urban Developer reports Australian Constructors Association chief executive Jon Davies says the industry was at breaking point. Continue →

Construction output is expected to grow by 5.5% in 2021, with growth continuing until 2025, a GlobalData report finds New Zealand’s construction industry recorded an annual average growth rate of 6.6% between 2016 and 2019 before lockdown restrictions in the first half of 2020 saw the industry contract by 7.3% in real terms. Continue →

Contractors often have their own way of doing things and have gotten comfortable with the solutions they have, but whatever the size of the business, it is likely that improvements can be made, says Bluebeam Australia The Urban Developer The construction industry is filled with tales of software bought and never used. Continue →

Delays and budget blowouts are commonplace in our construction sector, but Rob Bryant from software company InEight says we just need to collaborate New Zealand’s procurement processes are renowned for being complicated and incredibly slow moving, with the burden of risk laying with contractors rather than owners. Continue →

Since the most destructive of Canterbury’s earthquakes, former Senior Structural Engineer with HERA, Charles Clifton, has analysed why structures like the CTV building failed and what goes into making buildings more resilient under severe seismic stress Through my collaboration with HERA (New Zealand’s Heavy Engineering Research Association), the University of Canterbury Associate Professor Gregory MacRae and Auckland University of Technology Senior Lecturer Shahab Ramhormozian, New Zealanders can be assured that the best structural and civil engineering minds are resolving the challenges around building performance; human safety; and the cost of construction and remedial strengthening in light of what we learned from Christchurch. Continue →

While the manufacturing, healthcare, and technology sectors have embraced technological advances and refined their processes, construction has lagged behind, but Digital Twin technologies could be the solution To achieve sustainable infrastructure, construction must adopt new technology and materials, the United Nations Environment Program reports. Continue →

Construction has long been plagued by a lack of collaboration and communication right along the supply chain, according to construction payment application firm Payapps The Urban Developer Over time, this leads to job fragmentation, inefficient contract approaches and disputes over claims. Continue →

With skill shortages due to worsen over the next decade as a large portion of the industry retires, Director for Infrastructure at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Anil Sawhney explains how to meet our growing infrastructure needs This article was originally published on the Global Infrastructure Hub’s blog, which you can read here The industry already faces an enormous skills gap given the need to build 13,000 buildings each day between now and 2050 to support an expected population of 7.7 billion people living in cities, RICS’ Future of Work in Construction Report finds. Continue →

As $45 billion worth of infrastructure projects take place over the next five years, smarter solutions will be needed to keep these projects on track and within budget The newly re-elected government has confirmed it will invest NZ$45 billion in infrastructure projects over the next five years to help restart the economy after the impact of COVID-19. Continue →

New Zealand’s building and construction industry can lift its poor productivity by establishing a digital database on building products, a BRANZ funded report from GS1 New Zealand finds This opportunity is explored in “Digital Product Data for Lifting Productivity” – a major new report from GS1 New Zealand on how such a digital database, or repository, would support the building and construction industry and on feasible steps for its establishment. Continue →

Digital Twin Technology is increasingly being deployed by organisations in the construction industry, delivering organisational cost savings and operational efficiencies as part of their digital transformation journey, says Head of Pacific AVEVA Damien McDade from AVEVA Worldwide, construction is already one of the largest industry sectors. Continue →