The construction industry is on the brink of a revolution, with emerging technologies and innovative practices rapidly changing the landscape and addressing some of its longest-standing global industry challenges for the better. An aging labor pool, a lack of skilled workers, and a declining workforce are causing additional challenges, pushing project timelines and budgets to breaking point.
Thankfully, the industry has begun to adopt innovation at an unprecedented pace.
New technologies and innovations are offering smarter, more economical, and more efficient solutions, allowing customers to meet the demand of an ‘infrastructure renaissance’ while offering hope for a more reliable and profitable future.
The construction industry is working towards a future where buildings and structures are designed for efficiency, from their design to their disassembly.
Modular construction and prefabrication are leading the charge in transforming how buildings are erected. Unlike traditional construction, where materials are brought to the site, mixed, prepared and installed in-situ, modular construction techniques involve manufacturing sections of the structure off-site, in controlled, industrial environments.
Although designed to the same standards and codes as conventional builds, this dramatically reduces traditional build times and overcomes typical weather delays. It allows construction projects to continue in colder climates where concrete can’t be poured and enables the construction of structures that would otherwise put skilled workers at risk of safety or injury, in challenging environments. The result is improved quality control but a reduced project timeline, which is exactly what the customer needs.
Another exciting frontier is the rise of automation, like AI and Robotics. These technologies are enabling more intelligent construction sites by helping to predict and prevent safety incidents, optimize scheduling, and seamlessly coordinate human-machine collaboration.
In addition to their productivity-boosting attributes, these innovations are also helping to optimize resources, paving the way for workers to upskill, or reallocate to more specialized roles and safer environments.
Bricklaying machines and autonomous earthmovers are performing tasks faster than humans, with a level of precision that was once unfathomable. Drones are often used to survey project sites. Even excavation, demolition, and basic safety inspections can now be replaced by automated equipment, which is a game-changer in reducing the risk of injury and freeing up skilled resources.
In the fast-growing field of AI, engineers in North America have successfully taught a machine learning algorithm to calculate accurate lift and brace hardware locations for the erection of enormous tilt-up concrete walls. This improves the speed of an extensive, complicated engineering challenge while shifting the engineer’s focus to tasks that generate higher value.
Digital transformation helps improve building efficiency, providing powerful tools for the construction industry to make smarter, more informed decisions at a much more rapid pace.
The adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart sensors also helps to optimize resources – analyzing huge volumes of data, often in real-time, helping predict risks and identify improvements, increasing the speed of product execution, and reducing associated delays with downtime and maintenance. Their predictive capability can also be used to forecast market conditions and associated supply chain disruptions, which helps avoid costly mistakes and stay ahead of potential problems.
For example, sophisticated wireless sensors with predictive artificial intelligence are being used throughout the UK to optimize concrete mixes and reduce on-site construction time. In this instance, advanced AI algorithms analyze a number of factors to identify precise recipe adjustments which can reduce the time needed between pours of concrete and ultimately reduce the project timeline.
Highly sophisticated technologies such as Virtual Reality or Building Information Modelling (BIM), whereby a building structure has its own digital twin, can help the customer visualize the entire project digitally, before breaking ground, making it much easier to adjust plans and timelines as the project evolves.
The acceleration of these technology advancements are undoubtedly encouraging more efficient, productive, and reliable construction projects – themes that simply weren’t conceivable a decade ago. Such innovation meets the growing demand for smart infrastructure at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional builds and holds immense potential for the future of the construction industry.
Equally, these advanced tools are reducing the need for manual labor in hazardous tasks such as heavy lifting and demolition or in extreme environments, enabling workers to upskill or retrain and shift their roles to safer, more specialized positions. This also offers immense potential to help address the labor shortages plaguing the industry for years and ensure a positive future for skilled workers.
The future of the construction industry is incredibly promising, as it fully embraces the potential of innovation to enhance productivity and CRH is excited about this evolution's potential.
