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Bidding starts for Midlands £28m Camp Hill Line stations
West Midlands Combined Authority has started prequalifying firms to design and build three stations on the Camp Hill railway line reopening in the Midlands.
The Camp Hill line stations closed during 1941 and since then the line has been used only by freight and non-stop passenger services.
Reopening for passenger services involves constructing three stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell including supporting rail infrastructure works.
These new stations will provide regular train services into Birmingham New Street, with quick journey times offering commuters a genuine alternative to their car.
Authority procurement chiefs plan to use an NEC 4 target cost contract including clause X1 to alleviate contractors’ risk on material price fluctuations on volatile material like timber, concrete and steel.
Firms have until the end of August to submit an interest in bidding for all three stations. Shortlisted firms will then be invited to bid on 30 September.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.arizonasolarsociety.com/?p=224
Cleveland Bridge administrators to resume production
Administrators for failed steelwork contractor Cleaveland Bridge UK this week are calling some of the 200-strong workforce back to work to restart production for committed projects.
Insolvency partners at FRP have marketed the business for sale and confirmed they have opened talks with several interested parties.
After discussions with the bridge builder’s existing clients with live projects, the administrators intend to restart production this week, subject to the formal agreement of terms with customers and finalisation of insurance arrangements.
Required staff will be contacted this week, while the remainder will continue to be furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme.
Martyn Pullin, partner at FRP, said: “We are looking to restart production and continue to hold discussions with interested parties over the future of the business.
“We are working quickly and diligently to assess the viability of those approaches and will need to determine how they align with our objectives and duties as Joint Administrators.”
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.arizonasolarsociety.com/?p=210
How to Build Your Construction Tech Stack
Fact: technology and app usage is growing in the construction industry. According to the 2020 JBKnowledge ConTech Report, 22% of respondents indicated using six or more construction apps, up from 20.1% in 2019.
While the abundance of apps in construction is certainly a sign of progress (particularly with some reports that the industry is lagging in digital transformation), having lots of tools can be both a blessing and a curse.
Having too many choices when it comes to what tech to use can get overwhelming. It’s not easy to figure out which solutions to adopt, especially amidst growing teams and increasingly complex workflows.
Then there’s the challenge of ensuring that your technology decisions align with your high level business strategy and goals.
Finding and implementing the best construction tech is a tall order, but it’s something that you can accomplish if you take the time to build your construction technology stack — which is exactly what we’ll tackle in this post. The paragraphs below will shed light on actionable and expert-backed insights that can help you come up with the perfect tech stack for your company.
What is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack is a collection of apps and digital tools that are all used to serve a particular business function.
For example, sales teams or organizations can have a tech stack to facilitate the sales process. Teams could have an app for prospecting, another app for setting appointments, and a tool for tracking deals in the pipeline.
The same thing applies to construction professionals. There are apps that aid multiple components of a project, whether it’s design, estimating, building, or closing.
In some cases, the different tools in a tech stack can work together automatically (i.e. they’re integrated with each other or they’re all part of the same platform). Other times, apps are used in isolation and function as point solutions that simply address a specific area or need.
In today’s landscape, the former is infinitely better than the latter. Apps that are tightly integrated make data exchange between solutions much more seamless, allowing them to be interoperable.
This brings us to our next point…
What is Interoperability and Why Does It Matter?
Interoperability is the ability of computer programs to exchange information with each other. Interoperability is essential to a successful construction technology stack, because it makes it easier for you to access data and insights — so you can then put them to good use.
When you’re using a variety of construction applications, getting them to seamlessly integrate and share information will help you gain a better understanding of your projects, which leads to well-informed decisions.
Interoperability within construction apps also helps teams be more efficient. Nathan Wood, Chief Enabling Officer at SpectrumAEC, said it best:
“Interoperability means the ability for different project delivery stakeholders to effectively communicate and streamline information flow between one another, which is essential in the digital age of construction. Data insights will be hard to come by if you don’t first solve the interoperability dilemma. It’s about bearing down and investing the time necessary to build common language and optimize workflow, allowing teams to break down data silos and build them back better with the appropriate integrations and security protocols.”
How to Build Your Construction Tech Stack
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of technology stacks and why interoperability is important, let’s look at the steps you should take to successfully build a construction tech stack that works for you.
Create Your Strategy
The most important business decisions start at the top. Implementing technology throughout a company will be an uphill battle without 100% buy-in from the firm’s leaders.
As such, the company’s leadership team must be aligned behind a common goal and everyone should understand how technology can help the firm execute on its objectives.
What’s the role of tech in the overall business strategy? How much should be spent on the business’ tech stack and what’s the expected ROI? When those at the top have clear answers to these questions, it’s much easier to communicate and empower the rest of the organization to find and implement solutions.
Have the Right Team and Processes in Place
The term “people, process, and technology” is popular in the business world for a good reason: these three components must be closely linked to successfully execute in today’s modern environment.
Even the most powerful technology solutions will fall short without the right teams and processes.
So, consider having a dedicated team to oversee your technology strategy.
The construction firm Kraus-Anderson, for instance, set up the Business Technology Investment Committee (BTIC), a group that includes the company’s President, Head of IT, Head of Finance, EVP of Operations, General Council and President of Realty.
According to Tony Peleska, Kraus-Anderson’s VP and Head of Information Technology and Digital Transformation, the BTIC created a process “to review and monitor decision points for success.”
This process, says Tony, includes steps like conducting technology requests and self-assessments, developing a business case for the technology, and creating a comprehensive IT project plan.
This process allows the teams at Kraus-Anderson to not only evaluate and implement technology in the company, it also helps them track the technology’s performance and measure ROI.
See if you could adopt similar practices in your organization by assigning a team to oversee your tech stack and developing processes for technology requests and implementation.
Build the Right Foundation
The best way to achieve interoperability within your tech stack is to have various tools integrated with a connected construction platform.
Think of a connected construction platform as the foundation on which your tools, teams, and workflows can function. It connects all these components together and provides a common data environment, so information flows smoothly across the entire project lifecycle.
With a connected construction platform, people, processes, and technologies can stay aligned at all times, paving the way for higher levels of efficiency, smarter decisions, and ultimately better project results.
Identify Gaps and Needed Workflows
When deciding on what to include in your tech stack, it helps to identify gaps and redundancies that you can address with technology.
Start by listing out all the tools and processes that you’re using. From there, you’ll be able to surface gaps by finding the parts of your processes where tools don’t connect. For example, if there’s a step where you need to manually enter data from one app to the next, then you know that there’s an integration gap between the two solutions.
You may also find redundancies — instances where two apps are essentially accomplishing the same thing or are requiring you to complete unnecessary actions or tasks. For example, you could be sharing and storing duplicate documents in several places without a clear connection, when it’s more efficient to just have a single source of truth.
Look for Open APIs and Fine-Tune Integrations
At this stage, you may already have a platform in place. Pieces of your tech stack have started to come together, but you likely still rely on other niche applications to fill in the gaps.
When looking for components to add to your technology stack, set your sights on applications with open APIs or existing integrations with your current solutions. This will make it easier to connect the various software that you’re using, so you can get the most out of them.
As mentioned earlier, software integrations pave the way for data to automatically flow across your entire tech stack. This eliminates the need for manual entry, which reduces errors and data loss.
Bringing It All Together
As the construction industry continues to evolve and transform, having a solid tech stack will help you keep up and remain competitive.
To accomplish this, you need to start with a compelling high-level strategy and get buy-in from your organization’s leaders. It’s also helpful to have dedicated teams and processes around technology implementation.
Finally, it’s important to choose solutions that can function in a common data environment, so that your data, workflows, and teams can stay connected.
By taking these steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating a technology stack that serves your organization for years to come.
The post How to Build Your Construction Tech Stack appeared first on Digital Builder.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.arizonasolarsociety.com/?p=66
PPI Measures of Construction Material Costs Are Still Shouting Warnings
This article focuses on the latest U.S. building material cost increases as laid out in the Producer Price Index data set compiled and published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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https://www.arizonasolarsociety.com/?p=55
40+ New Product Updates for Autodesk Construction Cloud
The Latest Across Autodesk Construction Cloud Unified Platform, Autodesk Build, Autodesk BIM Collaborate, Autodesk Takeoff, BuildingConnected, BIM 360, and Pype
With construction’s busiest season in full swing, our product teams have been hard at work—rolling out new features and updates to make Autodesk Construction Cloud even better. We’re thrilled to share more than 40 releases and enhancements across Autodesk Construction Cloud products.
From enhanced meeting views ensuring critical action items don’t get missed to smarter clash tolerance tools and more, read through for details on the latest product updates for Autodesk Construction Cloud.
Jump to releases for:
- Autodesk Construction Cloud Unified Platform
- Autodesk Build
- Autodesk BIM Collaborate
- Autodesk Takeoff
- BuildingConnected
- BuildingConnected Pro
- TradeTapp
- BIM 360
- Pype
Autodesk Construction Cloud Unified Platform
*=features on both Autodesk Construction Cloud unified platform & BIM 360 
Data Connector | Reviews Data & Document Management Power BI Template*
Both BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud platform users can now extract document review data using Data Connector. This release adds to the document management related data extractions, including previously released sheets and transmittal data. This way teams can create custom dashboards in their own BI tools to better optimize document management workflows including driving better review processes.
Data Connector | Schedule Daily Refresh*
Both BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud platform users can now schedule extracts using Data Connector on a daily basis. This allows teams to get new data — refreshed every day — for use in other BI tools to ensure they always have the most up to date information.
Data Connector | Power BI Connector on EU Servers*
Both BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud platform users can now use the Power BI Connector in both US and EU accounts. Previously the connector early access was available only for US accounts.
Reports | Report Automation by Company
Autodesk Construction Cloud platform users can now automatically generate Issue Summary and Issue Detail reports that are specific to individual companies. Prior to this release there was not an easy way to see an overview list of which companies had open issues. Now project leaders can run issue reports and distribute specific reports to each company to better manage issues and improve resolution rates.
Reports | Issue Status Summary
A new Issue Status Summary report is now available in BIM 360 and will be coming out shortly for the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform. This new report highlights a list of issues by company and gives an overview of how many are unresolved, overdue, open, answered, closed, etc. This helps teams get better visibility into issue status for each company and promotes resolution.
Insights | Additional Partner Cards*
Several new partner cards have been added to the card library in both BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud platform. The Box, Progess Center, Aespada, Sitekick, Daqs.io, Join.Build, OneConstruct, AgileHandover, and Novade partner cards will have their own branded card. The following list of partner cards are accessible through copying and pasting links into the generic partnercard; Airtable, Embneusys, Hoyst, OpticVyu Construction Camera, and Quickbase.
Document Management | Custom Attributes in Project Templates
Setting up a common data environment on the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform is now easier and faster with the ability to add file custom attributes to project templates.
Autodesk Build
* = features in both Autodesk Build & BIM 360
** = features in both Autodesk Build & PlanGrid
*** = Autodesk Docs feature (available across all unified products)
**** = features in both Autodesk Build & Autodesk BIM Collaborate
***** = features in Autodesk Build, BIM Collaborate & BIM 360
Cost | Custom Tax Calculations*
With the new custom tax calculation feature, teams can now easily calculate taxes in all cost processes, such as change orders and payment applications, and display the tax in the generated cost documentation to comply with requirements.
Handover | As Built Export [coming soon]
The As Built Export feature in Autodesk Build improves the handover process by giving teams the ability to easily filter, find and export all relevant as built information including Sheets, RFIs, and Submittals, as well as carrying over any links to other related documents — like files or photos. With the elimination of manual processes used in the past, this feature not only speeds up the handover process, but it also improves the accuracy of handover documentation and increases overall client satisfaction.
Assets Enhancements
The latest Assets releases for Autodesk Build allows project teams to bring more visibility into their asset workflows to improve decision-making. With these enhancements, teams can standardize asset tracking and commissioning and better understand historical data when it comes to an asset:
- Assets | Submittal Linking
- Assets | Configuration Data in Project Templates
- Assets | Activity Log
Meetings | Edit Meeting – General Information on Mobile
Autodesk Build users can now edit general meeting information on mobile including meeting title, date, time, and location. Additionally, users will be able to change the meeting status from Agenda to Minutes on their iOS or Android devices through the mobile application.
Meetings | Enhanced Meeting Views****
Autodesk Build and BIM Collaborate users now have a new, enhanced view of meetings to help better manage and address critical meeting items. In Project Home, users will have a snapshot of open, ongoing and overdue meeting items assigned for the project as well as to them as an individual. In the Meetings tab, users will have two enhanced views. The Meetings view will group all meetings by series, making it easier to manage and track all relevant meetings. The Items view pulls out items from all meetings and allows users to filter by flagged items, status, assignee, and due date, ensuring that critical action items get addressed and resolved.
Learn more about Enhanced Meeting Views here.
Meetings | Create Issue from a Meeting*****
Autodesk Build and BIM Collaborate users can now create an Issue right from a meeting instance. When adding an Issue as a reference to a meeting item, users will have the option to create an Issue, streamlining the process and ensuring that all issues are addressed.
Meetings | Reorder Meeting Items & Topics*****
Autodesk Build and BIM Collaborate users can now easily reorder meeting items and topics, making it easy to customize and organize all project information within meetings.
Photo Enhancements
The latest photo enhancements for Autodesk Build improve efficiency when adding, viewing, linking, and searching for photos:
- Photos | Autotags for Photos [beta]
- Photos | Photo Viewing Enhancements [coming soon]
- Photos | Reverse Referencing
Project Lifecycle | Sheet Sharing Across Accounts
Autodesk Construction Cloud platform users can how easily share sheets across different accounts. This helps gives teams the ability to share sheets with other external team members, like subcontractors or owners, who need access but are not a part of the main account. Sharing data across the entire project team is a critical part of ISO 19650 compliant workflows, and this release is the start of building out more data and file sharing functionality across the platform.
RFIs Enhancements
The latest RFI enhancements for Autodesk Build help to improve visibility to critical project information. With these releases, reduce manual work, improve customization, and enhance company and project data standards:
- RFIs | Custom Fields
- RFIs | Embed PDFs in RFI Reports
- RFIs | RFI Settings – View Closed RFIs
- RFIs | Project Templates
Submittals | Custom Types
For each project, Autodesk Build users can now add in custom submittal types or remove the preset types that are not required. This ensures all submittal information is correctly classified.
Learn more about this month’s product releases specific to Autodesk Build in our blog.
Autodesk BIM Collaborate
**** = features in both Autodesk BIM Collaborate and Autodesk Build
Model Coordination | Clash Tolerance Filter [coming soon]
BIM/VDC managers, designers, and specialty contractors can now organize their automatically generated clash results with greater control, using the tolerance filter. Set a distance in millimeters or inches to filter out clashes beneath the tolerance value. This easy-to-use filter empowers each user to prioritize major clashes first and refine more as the project progresses.
Model Coordination | NWC & IFC Support in Automatic Clash Detection [coming soon]
Support for NWC and additional IFC file exports enables quicker and broader automatic clash detection in model coordination.
Meetings | Enhanced Meeting Views****
Autodesk Build and BIM Collaborate user now have a new, enhanced view of meetings to help better manage and address critical meeting items. In the Meetings tab, users will have two enhanced views. The Meetings view will group all meetings by series, making it easier to manage and track all relevant meetings. The Items view pulls out items from all meetings and allows users to filter by flagged items, status, assignee, and due date, ensuring that critical action items get addressed and resolved.
Learn more about Enhanced Meeting Views here.
Autodesk Takeoff
2D Takeoff Enhancements
Autodesk Takeoff users can now rotate and mirror takeoffs as well as resize takeoff markers.
Read Only API [coming soon]
In order to enable our customers to integrate their internal workflows with quantities in Autodesk Takeoff, we are enabling authenticated access to the Autodesk Takeoff inventory as read-only data through API.
Publish Revit Models to Sheets and Models From Files [coming soon]
Autodesk Takeoff customers will be able to publish Revit models directly to the Sheets and Models area in Autodesk Takeoff from Autodesk Docs. This creates a more streamlined process.
BuildingConnected
BuildingConnected Pro
Builders Network | Suggested Edits Improvements
BuildingConnected users that “suggest an edit” to another user’s profile can (1) see the status of the suggested edit (whether confirmed or declined) and (2) see or use the suggested edit throughout parts of the platform while the status is pending. This adds a layer of transparency and continues to showcase the power of the crowdsourced Builders Network.
TradeTapp
Exportable Blank Questionnaire
Whether a qualification questionnaire needs to be internally reviewed, a risk manager needs to guide a sub through a specific question on their custom form, or a trade partner needs a reference for document preparation — blank versions of all questionnaires in your TradeTapp account are now readily available to you anytime. Simply select the one you want, and export it to your computer.
Custom Email Templates
When communicating with subcontractors in TradeTapp, you can now use pre-built email templates to save you time. Create and store as many templates as you’d like in your TradeTapp account and easily access them when you need them.
BIM 360
Admin Console | Limit Company Creation to Account Admins
BIM 360 users now have the option to limit the ability to create new companies to just account admins. This will eliminate the accidental creation or duplication of companies and standardize the company directory so that it is consistent and easier to manage.
Reports | Document Log – Adding Approval Status
BIM 360 users will now see a new field for ‘approval status’ within the Document Log report. This will help teams quickly understand what phase each document is at in the review cycle and quickly take action to push any delayed reviews forward.
BIM 360 Design Collaboration | Watch Groups
Design and construction teams can now monitor changes to elements of a Revit model most important to them by creating “Watch Groups” in the Change Analysis tool. Teams are automatically notified when items in watch groups change throughout the project.
This workflow enables users, especially project leads and designers, to stay informed on the most critical items they need to keep an eye on, saving time by eliminating tedious manual model queries and helping teams work smarter. Teams can also track unexpected changes within watch groups, helping to reduce risk and improve model quality overall.
Pype
AutoSpecs | Autodesk Build Integration
Pype AutoSpecs brings efficiency, automation, and accuracy to the submittal process by automatically generating your submittal log. And now, with the Autodesk Build integration, teams can further streamline the submittal process by seamlessly transferring data from AutoSpecs directly into Autodesk Build for submittal management. Be more effective and efficient with AutoSpecs, an Autodesk Build integration.
Learn more about AutoSpecs here.
Stay in the Know for More Autodesk Construction Cloud Product Updates
The post 40+ New Product Updates for Autodesk Construction Cloud appeared first on Digital Builder.
Register Now for Autodesk University 2021
2020 was a major transition period for construction, but 2021 is arguably an even more pivotal year for the industry.
If the previous year was all about adopting new tools and ways of doing things, 2021 is one that’s focused on applying the lessons and solutions we picked up in 2020 and figuring out how they fit into today’s new normal.
With more tools, innovations, and insights than ever before, now is the perfect time for construction firms to invest in continuous learning opportunities for their employees.
Enter Autodesk University 2021, the premier conference that brings together top professionals in architecture, engineering, and construction.
Between October 5-14, 2021, the event promises to be an unforgettable experience packed with learning and networking opportunities. You’ll get the chance to attend various keynotes, as well as live and on-demand sessions. Plus, you’ll get to connect with fellow construction professionals from all over the globe.
Register today and mark your calendar!
REGISTER
AU 2021 is a must-attend event for all construction professionals who want to advance their careers. There will be keynote sessions, classes, and workshops covering multiple topics within construction in addition to topics on architecture, engineering, and manufacturing and how they are impacting what you do. No matter what your role is or where you are in your career, you’ll certainly pick up valuable knowledge, skills, and opportunities by attending.
This year, Autodesk University is taking place on the following dates:
- October 5 – 7: Americas
- October 6 – 8: EMEA and APAC (Australia and New Zealand, India)
- October 13 – 14: East Asia (China, Japan, Korea)
It’s a truly global event designed to cater to all attendees, no matter where you’re coming from. Select sessions will be available in multiple languages and English, including German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and French.
If registration is currently unavailable for your region or language, please check back in the coming weeks.
Why Attend AU 2021?
Staying stagnant isn’t an option if you want to progress in such a dynamic field like construction. Keeping yourself abreast with updates on recent trends and developments, as well as surrounding yourself with like-minded peers, will open you up to new ideas and innovations — all of which can help you be more competitive in the industry.
As for why you should attend AU 2021 specifically, here are just a few ways that this no-cost event can benefit you and your organization.
Learn from Experts
AU 2021 offers a range of keynotes, workshops, and live panels led by industry and product experts who are at the forefront of construction innovation. Not only will you have the opportunity to hear from them, you can also get your questions answered and participate in highly interactive sessions.
Be the First to Hear Exciting Autodesk News
Connect with the very people behind the products you use every day — including the latest news and updates for Autodesk Construction Cloud unified platform.Key Autodesk product professionals, specialists, and industry enthusiasts will take the stage and provide updates and tips to help you get the most out of your software. Whether you’re a product expert or just getting started with Autodesk software, you’ll want to tune in.
Advance Your Career
If you want to know what’s next in construction and future-proof your organization, AU 2021 has got you covered. The event will fill you in on emerging construction technology, trends, and ideas shaping the future of our industry. You’ll walk away with information that you can apply both at a strategic and tactical level, ensuring that your company doesn’t get left behind.
How to Register
Autodesk University 2021 is no cost to attend, though you need to register in order to access the sessions and resources offered by the event. Just use your Autodesk account to sign up for AU 2021.
If you don’t have an account yet, simply visit the Autodesk website to create one. From there, head to the registration page and enter your name and email.
REGISTER NOW
How to Plan Your Schedule
Autodesk University 2021 will offer hundreds of sessions. We want to make sure that you’re able to catch the ones most relevant to your needs, so we’ll curate session paths for specific interests and job roles. Stay tuned for more information over the next few weeks and get details on how you can design an AU 2021 experience that’s tailored to your needs.
To ensure you don’t miss any updates, subscribe to our blog and keep an eye out for event updates and session recommendations.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
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