Modern Contractor Solutions

Heavy equipment and experienced operators are needed on the job. 👷 But using both to train new hires can take time away from the work and add to training costs. Simulation gives new operators a safe place to practice without using jobsite equipment for every step of their training. It can also reduce the amount of time experienced operators need to spend training new hires.

Construction sites are dangerous for a simple reason: too many things are happening at once. Workers move between elevations. Heavy equipment crosses active work areas. Materials are lifted overhead. Temporary wiring, ladders, scaffolds, tools and unfinished surfaces all exist in the same environment. A small lapse can therefore have large consequences. Good construction safety is not created by slogans. It comes from habits repeated every day until they become part of the work itself.

Organizations often view simulation as a tool that is strictly for training operators, but that’s just part of its value. It can also help construction teams screen candidates, make new hires productive faster, improve operator performance, and reduce training costs.

Summer construction season places highway crews within feet of vehicles traveling at high speed, often through traffic patterns that change from one shift to the next. The scale of that exposure is difficult to overstate. A 2026 survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America reveals 60 percent of responding highway contractors reported at least one moving-vehicle crash in a work zone during the prior year, and nearly one-third reported five or more.

It is late afternoon when a directive comes down from the superintendent: Handle this now. Your foreman has a crew standing by, the material is on site, and the schedule has no slack to give, so the work gets done and the job keeps moving. Then it sits.

A full-scale prototype of the Interlune excavator was developed in partnership with Vermeer in 2025. Testing as shown was done with auxiliary components. Interlune, a space infrastructure and resources company, and Vermeer Corporation, a global leader in industrial equipment manufacturing, announced they will expand their strategic partnership to develop and deliver the critical infrastructure and services necessary for a permanent human presence on the Moon.

Mi-T-M Corporation has launched its new JobSite Pro Series of compact pressure washer trailers. These trailers are designed to deliver professional cleaning power in a more accessible, maneuverable, and cost-effective package. Engineered to match the toughness of Mi-T-M’s industrial trailers, the JobSite Pro Series gives contractors, rental centers, and mobile cleaning pros a no nonsense entry into trailer-mounted systems, without giving up an ounce of performance or durability.

A research project carried out by the fischer Group of Companies in collaboration with Purdue University  has shown that existing buildings can be made significantly more resistant to seismic forces through targeted retrofitting measures. In earthquake-prone regions, such solutions have the potential to improve structural safety and help protect lives. The severe earthquakes of recent years have once again tragically demonstrated how vulnerable people are in seismically active regions.

For many contractors, unplanned equipment downtime and excessive maintenance costs are profit killers. A machine that fails mid-shift on a critical activity doesn’t just create a repair bill. There’s the added cost of jobsite disruption and reactive decision-making that erodes margins project by project. Deferred or missed preventive maintenance typically leads to repairs that could have been avoided and higher overall costs.

What started as a two-room schoolhouse in 1897 for 50 students has evolved into a large campus educating 260 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Ravinia Elementary School, one of the oldest and most architecturally significant civic buildings in Highland Park, Ill., recently received a renovation and addition project that positions it for the future. Chief among the accomplishments was replacing old, worn, cedar shakes with new synthetic shakes and a snow-retention system.