As we approach our fourth full year on the interwebs, it’s always nice to reflect back on the some of the things that our readers enjoyed the most in the previous year. Our goal every year is to bring you the most interesting construction related stories involving technology, tools, safety, and events around the world, although some posts can be for pure entertainment, like our extensive collection of demolition videos.
As a construction project manager myself, it’s important that I strive to learn as much as possible about architecture, engineering, and each trade so that I can more effectively manage jobs. That was my main reason for starting Construction Junkie back in 2015 and I have to say, writing around 250 articles per year not only takes a lot of my free time, but it’s opened my eyes to many new perspectives that I’ve used on my projects throughout the years.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along and have found at least some of my articles helpful to your career. Please let me know what you’d like to hear more about in 2019 in the comments below!
1. Virginia OSHA Cites Contractor for $304K for Silica Dust Violations, Possibly Largest in Rule History
OSHA had to fight hard to finally get its relatively new crystalline silica dust exposure regulations passed, and, once it did, the agency wasted no time enforcing the law. In the regulation’s first 6 months, OSHA issued 116 violations, but the highest penalty at that point was $9,239. Last year, the Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Compliance Division (VOSH) has possibly issued a record citation to a highway contractor, a whopping $304,130 penalty.
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2. The 16 Most Interesting Advances in Construction Technology of 2017
A year end recap list that includes a previous year end recap? It’s like article inception.
The construction industry has historically been slow to adapt to new technologies, but with a recent push from Silicon Valley, a lot of money is being poured into research and development. Just a few short years ago, robotics on the construction site was thought of as a pipe dream, but now there are several companies around the world that are making it a reality. It still may be years away from being adopted in a large scale, but the industry should begin to take note of the technological changes that are happening around them.
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3. The 7 Biggest Storylines from Milwaukee Tool’s 2018 New Product Symposium
I can only make it to a few industry events every year, but I always make time for Milwaukee Tool’s New Product Symposium, which is their annual media event that previews all of their upcoming tool releases. 2018 was a great show as always and clearly it was of interest to many of our readers.
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4. Average Hourly Wage of Union and Non-Union Construction Workers
There are always some fairly heated discussions when the topic of union versus non-union arises and this one was no different. In this article, we recapped a report from The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), which listed hourly rates of union and non-union workers.
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5. [VIDEO] Crane Collapses While Lifting Concrete Wall
I like videos, because they give people in our industry real-world examples that they can use on their jobs. As an employer, you probably don’t like the idea of a video being published on the internet that shows something bad happening on your job site, but, hopefully the rest of us in the industry use these examples as a warning.
6. Video Catches Moment Multiple Cranes Collapse at Australian Site
This video is actually a throwback to an incident that happened 10 years ago in Australia, but nevertheless, there are still lessons to be learned.
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7. [VIDEO] Unfinished Bridge in Colombia Demolished after Partial Collapse Killed 10
Demolition videos are typically pretty fun to watch, but this one had some much darker circumstances. After a partial collapse during construction of this Colombian bridge killed 10 workers, the bridge had to be imploded due to continued safety concerns.
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8. [VIDEO] Massive Crane Collapses on Florida Job Site, Narrowly Missing Several Workers
This was an extremely close call and it was extremely lucky that no one was injured during this incident. Following load charts on cranes is extremely important.
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9. Review: Milwaukee Tool’s New 2nd Generation M12 Hammer Drill and Impact Driver
We were fortunate to be able to get hands-on with some of Milwaukee Tool’s newest releases last year and the latest M12 Hammer Drill and Impact Driver was a very popular tool this year – for good reason. They’re both very ergonomic, yet powerful tools for their size.
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10. Milwaukee is Offering Free Service Upgrades to Any Tool That Does Not Fit Their New 12.0Ah Battery
There was a lot of love for Milwaukee this year on the blog and I actually really admire the company’s continued effort to take care of their customers. At the New Product Symposium post mentioned in #3 on this countdown, Milwaukee introduced their newest battery, the very large and powerful 12 amp-hour battery. Because of its size, some of the brand’s existing tools in their M18, or 18-volt, line were unable to fit the 12.0ah battery. To help solve that problem, Milwaukee announced that they would be offering free service upgrades to a long list of tools that could not accommodate it.
