Skilled labor can be one of the largest challenges today’s contractors are dealing with. This GroundBreakers Podcast episode speaks with three concrete flatwork contractors about how they found a way to significantly decrease their labor costs.

In this throwback GroundBreakers podcast from CONEXPO 2020, ForConstructionPros.com conducted interviews with various manufacturers and experts while at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 to discuss development of electric-powered alternatives to diesel.Meritor, Kato, Delta-Q and Green Machine all weighed in.

In this GroundBreakers podcast, Si Katara, president and co-founder of HeadLight Technologies, shares how his company’s photo-based inspection technology can be used on public infrastructure projects to quickly and efficiently capture project data, encourage greater collaboration between stakeholders, resolve problem areas – and ultimately ensure successful, on-time project completion.

Jorgen Pedersen, CEO, RE2 Robotics, describes his company’s autonomous equipment technology – an add-on system to convert existing machines – and how it’s currently being tested in military applications. He also highlights the opportunities and applications for the technology in construction, and how autonomous solutions will work in partnership with human operators to enhance safety and efficiency on the jobsite, while helping to address the operator skills gap.

Troy Dahlin, vice president of Heavy Construction for the US and Canada at Leica Geosystems, explores the concept of the “digital twin” and how it can be applied in the civil construction sector. He also looks at the broader benefits, including the cost savings it can bring to heavy construction projects.

Maria Khokhlova, one of the co-founders and chief product officer at Trace Air, shares insight on the company’s construction site development platform, as well as GradeIt, a new feature currently in development that is intended to provide strategies to help grading contractors increase grading efficiency, and reduce costs, by at least 10%. Learn more at www.traceair.net.

Purdue University engineers have developed sensors that could safely speed up a construction timeline by determining concrete strength directly onsite in real time. Purdue’s American Concrete Pavement Association Professor of Civil Engineering speaks with editor Jonathan Kozlowski on the recent research from the university.

Her goal is to address problems in infrastructure using materials and sensors harnessing artificial intelligence. The Purdue team is working with F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc. to test and compare the technology with traditional commercial sensors installed into a floor of what will be Purdue’s five-story Engineering and Polytechnic Gateway Complex. The complex will be one conjoined building housing Dudley Hall and Lambertus Hall.

Lu and her research team also are testing the sensors in highways across Indiana as part of an effort to better determine when concrete is ready to take on heavy truck traffic.

Today’s dispatcher spends his or her time fielding calls for orders, finding haulers, and chasing down the status of deliveries. These operations have been managed using the same set of tools for generations: pen, paper, and phone calls. Much like the wave of technological advances that have revolutionized banking, manufacturing and retail, there is imminent change for how construction as an industry operates, and how dispatchers perform their jobs. This software-based revolution will empower dispatchers to be more effective, driving increased satisfaction among customers and haulers, and improved profitability for all members of the heavy construction value chain.

Tread, a mobile platform that makes the business of moving raw materials in the construction industry more profitable, more efficient, more productive and more connected.

In this episode of GroundBreakers, Yaron Dycian, chief product and strategy officer at WINT, shares how his company’s cloud-based water intelligence technology can help companies of all sizes mitigate water damage risks - and their potentially substantial costs – on construction projects, and maximize return on investment for both the contractors and their customers.