Digital Solutions

When using a virtual reality system, it’s important to be mindful of the strategy and all the stakeholders involved in the technology, a team of contractors told attendees during a panel session at the Design-Build Conference & Expo near Washington, D.C., this month.

“We really needed to get everyone on board quickly, and get everyone sold on this concept to move ahead,” said Tracy Gordon, principal at Boulder Associates.

A team of general contractor Rudolph & Sletten, architect Boulder Associates and contract manager Jacobs described the best practices that they learned on the jobsite for the Folsom Medical Office Building, owned by UC Davis Health in Folsom, California. The project, which spans 114,000 square feet and has a cost of $171 million, according to its information page, is scheduled for completion in Q2 2025.

VR was a major asset during different phases of the build, and in the process of negotiating with owners and demonstrating the plans and build to other relevant stakeholders. Particularly with owners, a group that doesn’t have a lot of experience reading drawings, a visual model went further than any blueprint.

“This was a different level of their comfort,” Gordon said.

The team divided stakeholders and users into three groups: the internal design team, the owners and financiers, and end users such as doctors and nurses. During the panel, each group identified benefits and best practices for builders.

Internal design

Using VR turned into a strategic decision, Gordon said. The design team and the contractor came to an agreement early on before presenting to anyone with the VR system.

“[We] really got our team aligned early on,” Gordon said.

Ryan Ainsworth, project executive at Rudolph and Sletten, said that one of the challenges was orienting the building across the entire 40-acre complex.

This is where VR came in. Andrew Mittleman, project manager at Jacobs, said the team began the project in 2019, and moved entirely virtual in the middle of the procurement process because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant that, through a huge chunk of the project, they were working together asynchronously with the full project team. With VR, this wasn’t an issue.

The team created a dedicated in-office space for users to collaborate. But remote workers, including a lead designer in Colorado, were able to give input as well.

Jose Vaca, an associate principal of architecture at Boulder Associates, said that the technology made work “quicker, easier and faster.” 

Contractors often face challenges describing to owners what the final product will look like. With VR, that process was less painful. 

Creating a ‘real’ viewing space

Jacobs’ Mittleman said that the planning team worked with the builders and framers to create a virtual mock-up of the build. It helped owners, he said, to see what the changes they were requesting would look like in real time — a boon on a fixed-cost project that couldn’t allow for many deviations if it wanted to stay under budget.

The team used Enscape, a real-time rendering and VR plug-in, to build and generate the model. VR capabilities came through Oculus headsets and Meta technologies. 

Mittleman said that once you get a client into the virtual space and show them the difference between finishes and colors, it was much better for cost correspondence and the overall budget. It also pushed the boundaries on time, on a project where they couldn’t slow down.

A word of caution the building team shared, however: the discrepancies between the model and the plan can cause issues. The builders said that the plans, ultimately, were what would get approved, and to avoid the trap of leaning on the model. 

They also said that it was important to manage expectations on the model, and to avoid letting people get attached to it, lest something inevitably change.

Demonstrative measures

A key part of the team’s VR experience was demonstrating the facility for future workers in the office, such as nurses and doctors. For viewing the virtual model, the team recommended:

• A large gathering room.
• At least two headsets, but three or four would be nice to have.
• Wi-Fi, but particularly strong, fast internet.
• A powerful laptop or computer to run the program.

Another helpful tool, the team said, was a large screen, either a TV or something similar, that could display the view to those in the room who didn’t have the headsets on. These were lessons that the group learned early.

“The first time we did a roadshow, it was a nightmare,” Vaca said.

Key points for other contractors, they said, were to establish set viewing times, and to schedule large breaks. Running the show is hard, and requires setup time.

Additionally, be mindful of users. Some are more experienced than others, and those with limited exposure to VR and the headsets may need extra help. Users becoming dizzy can also be a concern.

However, the team also noted the flip side of it all: Some experienced users may require more attention, to keep them from running off to different parts of the build.

Boulder Architects’ Gordon said that people “really loved it,” and compared the trips they performed with VR to a publicity campaign for the project.

All in all, keeping people visually on track was a key part of it all.

“Looking at the same thing really enhances the experience,” Vaca said.

It’s been another whirlwind year for the construction industry, and technology wasn’t a calming influence.

The hubbub surrounding artificial intelligence — particularly generative AI — consumed much of the construction technology industry’s focus. Experts told Construction Dive how important the technology would be to the industry in coming years.

Those same pros also emphasized other areas contractors should be mindful of, especially advancements aimed at solving the labor crisis. These include software-based tools that use artificial intelligence as well as robotics and new building materials and processes.

Artificial intelligence

Following the floodgates that opened after OpenAI released ChatGPT last year, experts across industries have been examining how the burgeoning technology will change their work.

“It's the only thing that people want to talk about on panels,” said Kelly Benedict, the head of innovation and transformation for Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. “How are construction companies starting to use generative AI?”

Matt Abeles, vice president of construction technology and innovation at Associated Builders and Contractors, said that the power of AI could be used to free workers from the daily drudgery of mundane tasks, like emails, along with work on the jobsite.

“In construction, we can lean on AI for essential goals like upskilling, workforce development, knowledge transfer, supply chain optimization, enhanced safety design and planning and much more,” Abeles said.

However, these experts also cautioned contractors to be careful. While that’s not unique advice -– the ousting and reinstatement of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2023 revolved around existential threats the tech could pose for humanity — professionals in the building industries need to take particular care.

“In our industry, we really need to be cognizant of life, safety and the risks of our jobs,” said Henning Roedel, the robotics lead for Redwood City, California-based DPR Construction. “If that large language model responds with the wrong answer, and we believe it and act on it, that’s on us. We have to be really cautious about that, and make sure that the information is correct and to do our due diligence.”

Robotics

A topic that often goes with AI, robotics are also front and center in the contech space. 

Their applications are varied. Some lay bricks. Some drive piles as part of industrial solar installations. One humanoid robot can move around a jobsite, tossing bags with impressive feats of dexterity and athleticism. Finally, an experimental worksite in Canada was entirely operated by autonomous machinery.

But that may just be the beginning of the rise of the machines in construction.

Roedel pointed to a breakthrough from the Toyota Research Institute, where researchers are using a generative AI technique known as “diffusion policy” to teach robots how to perform dexterous tasks. In the same vein as large language models, like ChatGPT, the goal is to create Large Behavior Models.

“Combining AI with the hardware, I think it could be the big thing in 2024 that will revolutionize our industry,” Roedel said.

An important caveat, however, is the unpredictability of both the tech and what happens on jobsites. Robotics experts have asked industry pros to wait and see when calculating the impacts that the machines will have on their businesses — including whether robots will eventually take jobs from human workers.

Mass timber and prefabrication

Beyond straight technology, innovative materials and processes will also dominate conversations about improving construction productivity in 2024. For instance, an increasing number of owners and municipalities are turning to mass timber as a more carbon-friendly alternative to concrete, steel and other high-polluting components.

Examples include Amazon’s $2.5 billion second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia; two new buildings at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine; and a $150 million mass timber institutional building in Toronto.

Builders are also increasingly homing in on efficient processes such as prefabrication, while still keeping a healthy dose of skepticism in reserve toward the approach.

“You take some choice out of the equation,” said Michael Zeppieri, vice president of emerging technology at Skanska USA Building. “You can get to volume and economy of scale, and you can meet market need, but you're taking away choice.” As a result, Zeppieri added, final outcomes can be somewhat “cookie cutter.” 

For that reason, builders should pick and choose where to apply this process. 

“I think our approach is going to be more strategic,” said Danielle O’Connell, Skanska USA Building’s senior director of emerging technology. “We don't just have to do prefab because an owner wants it, but actually being able to identify why that might not work or why it might work really well.”

3D printing

One technology that may still be under the radar for many large contractors in 2024 is industrial 3D printing.

The additive manufacturing method may still be somewhat experimental for most builders, and is primarily in the domain of startups looking to change the way contractors build residential properties, or as a foothold for construction in space.

However, large builders, such as Falls Church, Virginia-based HITT Contracting are also paying attention to the tech — the company is dedicating space in its new headquarters for experiments that include a cutting-edge 3D printing system.

Skanska’s O’Connell said that she has noticed a recent uptick in 3D printing interest, though real commercial results remain further out.

“I don't think we've seen anything at Skanska that's scaled to the point where we could use it,” O’Connell said. “But that could change.” 

DPR’s Roedel is more bullish on the technology.

“I think every jobsite is going to have some form of 3D printer,” Roedel said. He differentiated between a small printer, to make custom parts that can be shipped out to manufacturers, to massive installations that can carry out actual formwork.

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1. Digital Imperative: AI and Automation Reshaping Operations

The adoption of AI and automation stands out as a pivotal trend, with predictions indicating that 30% of construction and engineering companies will deploy these technologies within the next three years. This shift encompasses various facets, from data analytics to wearable tech, Building Information Modeling (BIM) & AI integration and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Wearable tech, exemplified by smart helmets, glasses, vests and gloves, is enhancing worker safety, productivity and communication. BIM & AI integration promises to revolutionize design, coordination and project management. Moreover, AI-driven tools such as data analytics and IoT applications are enabling intelligent planning, scheduling optimization and real-time monitoring of tools, equipment and materials. This wave of digital innovation not only addresses traditional challenges like skilled labor shortages but also positions the industry for sustained growth in an ever-evolving market.

2. Revenue Evolution: From Builders to Total Asset Lifecycle Service Providers

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Dive Brief:

• A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver demonstrated how its collection of robots could work autonomously on an actual jobsite, per a UBC news release, a preview that one professor called a glimpse into the future.
• The team at UBC’s Smart Structures Lab showed the tech off at a jobsite demonstration on Mitchell Island in Richmond, British Columbia on Nov. 14. 
• Camera bearing aerial drones captured details that were then used to create digital twins of the jobsite. With that “as-built” information, AI-equipped cranes and forklifts moved construction materials, such as beams and columns, around the actual site, and navigated around obstacles without needing a human operator.

Dive Insight:

The impetus for the tech’s development, Yang told Construction Dive, stemmed from the labor shortage that is stymieing contractors across the U.S. and Canada. Yang said that while the robot technology was usable and jobsite ready, it wasn’t commercially available yet. 

However, the road block isn’t permanent — Yang said he expects that in the next 10 years, autonomous construction machinery will become “second nature.”

“Our goal is to ensure the workers actually become managers instead of doing the physical hard work,” Yang said. “They are controlling a machine, or they're giving instructions to machines to do the job.” 

In addition to labor, an autonomous system can also detect if workers enter an unsafe area. Yang said the software did more than 1,024 checks a second.

Yang emphasized that the goal of his research was not to take jobs away from workers. Similar claims have been met with skepticism from experts, some of whom say the future is impossible to predict.

In addition to jobsite demonstrations, Yang said that he and his team has also worked with Canadian contractors, such as Mississauga, Ontario-based Bird Construction, on solutions. 

The team is also working with Canadian telecom giant Rogers on a product that would enable contractors to wrap the broader spectrum of digital construction management, from labor to machines and materials, under the umbrella of a single tech product.

Yang is also developing a fully autonomous excavator, which will use drawings to dig out the foundation of buildings without human aid.

He says his research is more “AI construction” than “AI decoration.”

“They paint the wall, they put the tiles on, but this is putting the building together,” Yang said.

Before a panel of experts at this month’s Design-Build Conference & Expo told contractors how to implement BIM on jobsites, they confessed to their crimes.

The three BIM pros pulled up a slide deck, complete with their “mugshots,” which detailed the mistakes they’ve made in their careers, including onboarding VDC too late, taking shortcuts in the model and rejecting a BIM waiver. 

It just goes to show that even the experts can stumble when deploying and using technology in the build process. 

With that mea culpa as a preface, the panel’s experts gave attendees three key points to keep in mind when applying BIM in the field.

Communication is the foundation

Important to the whole BIM endeavor is making sure that every party, from the owner to the general contractor to the subs, is on the same page. That includes talking to stakeholders who may be hesitant about adopting the tech.

“We want to get to a point where we feel comfortable around these conversations, like we’re not taking on too much risk,” said panelist Meghan Higgins, VDC manager for Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner.

BIM affects everyone, and execution needs to be a full team effort, said panelist Jennifer Macks, the director of design-build and vice president at Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. 

“It’s an important conversation for us, to see how we can holistically address this,” Macks emphasized.

Then there’s the visualization process, which differs for everyone and thus can cause issues.

“There’s a really big deviation in how we communicate with each other,” said Brian Skripac, DBIA’s director of VDC.

The panelists emphasized that clear, consistent communication between each party is essential for success.

Define the goals and uses of BIM

When using the technology, panelists said it’s important to ensure that what a contractor or designer asks for is what’s provided in the end. 

Panelists pointed to LOD plans, or level of development, which scale in detail as representations of the build become more complex. Scales range from conceptual design at LOD 100, to as-built at LOD 500. 

When going through the model, stakeholders should keep this scale in mind, and make sure the model isn’t overly detailed or lacking specifics. 

To resolve these issues, it’s important to define how the models and the program will be used early in the process, Higgins said. Garnering every stakeholder’s point of view is invaluable.

“We need to be able to use the model for 2D, PDF deliverables. It needs to be a living document,” Higgins continued.

These goals can include who is making specifications in different parts of the model. If there are light fixtures, is the architect responsible for creating that asset in the plan, or the electrical engineer? 

As responsibilities are set, build assets a single time only. Rely on the models, and work collaboratively, panelists said.

Knowing what you don’t know

Understanding the risk that comes with using BIM is also critical to the process, panelists said.

Macks noted that the conflicts usually arise from different contractual understanding. She emphasized that it was important to have someone in the room who understands the contracts around BIM work — which can include not just model usage, but also model sharing.

For example, without guidance, a contractor may unwittingly agree to do something it doesn’t do, or cause other problems down the line.

Additionally, knowing what the owner of the building wants out of BIM is also important, Macks said. Do they have a detailed list of requests? Do they have nothing written down? If more information is needed, ask for it, and make sure that it’s necessary. Owners may have no expectations, Macks said, but they also may have significant expectations for BIM that they didn’t tell the builder up front.

“We want to design and build amazing spaces, and we want our owners to be able to use and maintain them,” Macks said.

Every risk on the project is different, just as every project, subcontractor and piece of dirt are different, Macks said. The conversation shouldn’t be an item on the project’s punch list to be checked off and completed, but instead an ongoing informed dialogue with all parties involved.

At the end of the day, there’s value to integrating the technology, Skripac said. BIM impacts everyone, and the sophistication is growing.

“We’re creating these amazing things in models now,” Macks said.

Dive Brief:

• Construction workers are ready to take on new digital tools, 95% of office- and field-level respondents said in an October 2021 survey from Dodge Construction Network, a merger of several industry labels that includes Dodge Data & Analytics. Another 95% of field workers said they would be willing to use digital tools to combine or streamline parts of their work.
• These results were displayed in an infographic that pulls from DCN's survey, shared with Construction Dive, on emerging data trends in the construction industry. The survey cites 648 respondents from around the United States who were split into office- and field-level workers and were primarily users of Dodge and Blue Book products, as well as other interested parties, according to a DCN spokesperson.
• Despite the hunger for digital transformation, construction lags behind other industries. Only 15% of respondents have implemented a digital transformation strategy, and 38% of respondents said that they haven't built out a strategy or that it's not a priority, according to the survey report.

 

Dive Insight:

Dan McCarthy, the CEO of Dodge Construction Network, was optimistic about what worker demand for digital tools and data would mean for the industry.

"One of the byproducts of the explosion of workflow is that there's a lot of partial data. And it's not necessarily as accurate or as timely, or as validated, as good data deserves to be," McCarthy told Construction Dive. "The [construction] industry, like every other industry, has the right to say 'I want good, accurate data.' That's a sign of industry maturity, and I believe that there's increasingly more demand for that." 

The road to digital transformation is often not smooth, however. Of the 49% of office workers who ran into issues with implementing their digital strategy, 42% reported that hardware/software issues slowed or stopped the project entirely, according to the report. In addition, 39% of those respondents said these issues made the project more expensive overall, and 19% said that staff failure to adopt the new strategy stalled the project and resulted in no improvement in their work.

"What's really behind the challenges is that it's hard to organize data and deploy it in a way that it can create value for companies," McCarthy said.

As the pandemic stretches on and contractors brace for further losses, many in construction are considering the role of data in their industry. In September, Autodesk released a report that showed bad data was costing the construction industry $1.8 trillion annually. In the report, Autodesk also found that 30% of the report's respondents said that more than half of their data was "bad" and thus unusable in their work.

"Organizations that implement formal data strategies stand to gain the most ROI from their technology investments, so it is important to collaborate with vendors and determine how to make the best use of the data being collected," said Autodesk director of construction thought leadership, Allison Scott, in the report's press release.

Jit Kee Chin doesn’t need the fanciest car on the lot, as long as she can get to work each morning. 

Chin is the chief data officer for Boston-based builder Suffolk, and she’s also the co-founder of Suffolk Technologies, the contractor’s tech-focused venture capital firm that completed its inaugural $110 million funding raise this past summer.

Here, Chin talks about Suffolk’s tech, how the contractor overcame hurdles in adoption and advice for smaller contractors who want to adopt new solutions.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: What technologies are you piloting on your jobsite right now?

JIT KEE CHIN: At a high level, we have piloted over 50 solutions. We’re using Newmetrix, which is a safety solution that's now been acquired by Oracle. This solution was our safety observation platform, but also the solution that provided us with predictive analytics for safety incidents. 

This is the one where you can actually say -- based on all the factors and based on your past track record -- these are the kind of jobs that have a higher risk of safety incidents in the upcoming week. That was one that we actually scaled all the way through the pipeline.

OpenSpace was another one. You have a 360-degree camera that you add to a hard hat, or you could wear it other ways. And as you walk the site, which we have to do anyway, it takes the image of what's happening, the state of progress around you. It automatically downloads tags to the drawing so that you know where it is. You can do before/after looks, and you can check progress. 

We also really liked this AI-enabled water leak mitigation solution called Wint. It has an accurate AI system that looks at the flow patterns and combines it with the flow patterns that it already has in the backend library, tailored for your specific use. If it detects an abnormal flow pattern, for any reason, it will flag an alert.

What that solution has demonstrated is that it can take the damage costs due to water leaks down almost over 90%.

What advice would you give small or mid-sized contractors as they adopt technology?

We have a lot of resources, so we look at a lot of cutting edge technologies. If you’re a lot smaller, you don’t need to see everything or do everything.

My advice would be, what are your true pain points? What tech do you need to solve those pain points? It's not technology for the sake of technology, but technology in service of the core business.

Second thing is, you don't always need cutting edge. Sometimes, it's great to be a fast follower. There are technologies that are further along the maturity curve. That’s easier to deploy. They have more of the stuff worked out.

The last thing I will say is that the ecosystem for the technology has formed. Things like integrations with Procore, integrations with Autodesk, a lot of solutions now have that. The main players in this space have an ecosystem of solutions that they have integrated and are therefore simpler to deploy, depending on what enterprise resource planning you're using.

What problems has Suffolk had adopting this technology?

I wouldn’t call them “problems,” I would call them “hurdles.”

When you implement any technology, sometimes processes need to change. People have to understand the value that they bring, so there is an education or an awareness component. 

Secondly, once they understand the value of what the solution can bring, then you have to show them how to use it, and that's another education component. And if you need to change standard operating procedures, if you need to put in a new process, that is another discussion.

The third piece that you do need to know is: Who is best placed to take the cost of the technology? That is a constant negotiation. Is it the owner? Is it the GC? Is it sometimes for insurance? Is it for risk mitigation? What's the best way to accommodate the cost while being conscious about who gets the value?

Then there is a whole slog of what I call little tactical operational things that one just needs to get through. Yes, this technology seems great, but how do I configure it? When do I ship? What’s the best time to deploy? They’re little things, but they make all the difference in the world.

What do you think of Suffolk’s use of technology? What do you think separates your company from others?

We are all-in on innovation. Our CEO, John Fish, is very passionate about the topic. He really believes that due to a confluence of forces, innovation is thriving in the construction industry right now. And he doesn't want to dabble — he wants to go at it and make sure that we can capture the value that some of these innovative technologies bring.

The difference between Suffolk and others lies in the degree of focus, and resources brought to bear and investment that's gone in. If you look at the Suffolk Technologies fund alone, $10 million goes to scale innovations for the built environment.

Our CoLabs are dedicated tech-enabled spaces and filled with people that pilot and scale solutions. Their job is to take technology that has proven value, but still requires a lot of work to adapt it for folks to actually use them effectively.

Starting in 2020, we launched Boost as the flagship program for Suffolk Technologies. It's a unique program that brings together Suffolk Construction and Suffolk Technologies, where we pair young companies that pass through a rigorous selection process with our operational experts, depending on what the young company needs. We help them in a very intensive seven- to eight-week period, solve their next problem and accelerate them through that next hurdle in their development.

Correction: This article has been updated to show Newmetrix was acquired by Oracle.