All posts by SEO Team

Integrated Digital Delivery Guide

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bonding needs. What Is Integrated Digital Delivery? Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) has been defined as “the use of digital technologies to integrate work processes and connect stakeholders working on the same project throughout the construction and building life cycle.” It developed as a solution to the many problems in trying to meet the information needs of the large number of stakeholders in many construction projects—owners, architects, engineers, contractors, and so on. Such problems often result in rework, delays, and cost overruns throughout the project. The technologies exist to produce, transmit, store, and access digital data from every phase of a project. IDD integrates that data to facilitate coordination and collaboration among stakeholders to improve data-based decision-making and project management. 4 Project Phases The technologies and activities that generate and use data are identified below for each of the four major phases of a construction process. Phase 1: Digital Design During the design phase, the building design is created according to the...

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Metaverse and Construction Guide

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bonding needs. What Is the Metaverse? The metaverse is an immersive digital universe accessed through the Internet that, according to one definition, “combines aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and cryptocurrencies to allow users to interact virtually.” Users choose avatars to represent them in the virtual worlds that make up the metaverse. They can play games or engage in other activities in a virtual world to earn cryptocurrency. That cryptocurrency has value in the real world as well as in the metaverse. Even big-name companies like Heineken, Louis Vuiton, Nike, Tinder, ROBLOX, and Spotify have a commercial presence in the metaverse. Real Estate in the Metaverse New virtual worlds are being created all the time, and each of these platforms has its own chosen cryptocurrency with which users can shop, engage in various recreational activities, or buy and sell real estate, from either the platform or a virtual developer. They can even build homes or...

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Guide to Data Democratized in Construction

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bonding needs. What Is Data Democratized? Data democratized is data that can be accessed by everyone who needs it. Democratization is important in any business that involves data used by multiple people or multiple teams within an organization. But it is particularly important in the construction industry, where one wrong number, one inaccurate measurement, or one incorrect tolerance can cause delays, rework, and cost overruns. When everyone has direct access to the same data, from the same source, they are all on the same page, so to speak. When there are updates to project data, democratization ensures that nobody is acting based on obsolete information. How is Construction Data Democratized? Construction companies are successfully democratizing data by integrating data from multiple systems in a cloud-based BIM collaboration platform. It’s estimated that as much as 95% of data generated or collected in the course of a construction project isn’t being used, largely because it is trapped in data silos. Many organizations, not...

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Design-Build in Construction

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bonding needs. Project Delivery Methods There are three approaches to executing and delivering construction projects: Construction management at risk (CMAR), also known as construction manager at risk Design-bid-build (DBB), also known as design-tender Design-build (DB), also known as design-construct, or single-source responsibility Construction Management at Risk The CMAR approach involves the project owner teaming up with the chosen general contractor at the beginning of the design process. The synergy between the project owner and general contractor (referred to as the construction manager) during the design process improves the accuracy of cost estimates, gives the contractor a good understanding of the project scope and details, and allows time for trust to develop between the two parties prior to starting construction. In this manner, CMAR smooths the transition from design to construction. In most cases, the selection of the CM is based on qualifications, with price as the secondary consideration. Though subcontractors usually are chosen through competitive bidding, the CM commits to delivering...

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Autonomous Construction Equipment Trends

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bonding needs. What is Autonomous Construction Equipment? Driverless vehicles are becoming more prevalent as the technology develops, though fully autonomous vehicles are probably still a couple of years away from being a common sight on the nation’s highways. History has shown that heavy equipment—tractors, bulldozers, dump trucks, cranes, excavators, and the like, tends to be about a decade behind the automotive industry in terms of technology adoption. But autonomous construction equipment is likely the future. Examples from the Mining Industry Experiments with autonomous mining equipment pointed the way for the development of autonomous construction equipment. If autonomous dump trucks could move without a driver, there was no reason to think that construction operations couldn’t use them to a similar advantage in terms of fuel and time efficiency. The use of such vehicles, controlled remotely by an operator much as drones are, maximizes precision and optimizes equipment utilization, while eliminating the possibility of personal injury to human drivers. From Semiautonomous to Fully...

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Nonresidential Construction Outlook for 2022-2023

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your nonresidential construction bond needs. What is Categorized as Nonresidential Construction? Any construction other than putting up single family or multifamily homes and apartment buildings is considered non-residential construction. Nonresidential construction typically is divided into categories: institutional and commercial construction, specialized industrial construction, and infrastructure and heavy construction. Find out the non-residential construction outlook for 2022-2023 below. Institutional and Commercial Construction Institutional and commercial construction involves building new structures such as the ones listed below and repairing and maintaining existing ones. Institutional project owners tend to be government and nonprofit entities while commercial projects typically are commissioned by private companies. Institutional Religious Hospitals/Clinics Nursing/Assisted Living Libraries/Museums Fire/Police/Courthouse/Prison Military Schools/Colleges Commercial Hotel/Motel Retail Parking Garages Amusement Sports stadiums Office Government Offices Laboratories Warehouse Specialized Industrial Construction This category includes structures requiring a high level of specialized knowledge to design, build and maintain. Specialized industrial projects typically are for-profit corporations, such as chemical companies and utility companies. Oil refineries Chemical plants Power plants (nuclear/hydroelectric) Infrastructure...

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Top Construction Management Software

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. Advantages of Software as a Service For most of its history, construction management software was sold on a licensing basis. Once customers purchased a license, they owned the software and installed it on their own devices. The software could be used only on those devices. Most software today is cloud-based, referred to as software as a service, or SaaS. Customers pay a monthly or annual fee to use it, which allows them to access their data from wherever they happen to be, either through a mobile app or by logging in through a browser. Who Needs Construction Management Software? Arguably, every construction contracting firm needs construction management software. But different contractors may have different needs. Some software packages that are fine for small to mid-size contracting businesses may not be sufficient for larger contractors or for specialty subcontractors. The best approach to selecting an appropriate construction management software solution is to identify the functions and features needed, then determine...

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Greenscape Construction Trends

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your construction bond needs. What Is Greenscape Construction? Greenscaping is a type of landscaping architecture that aims to create sustainable landscapes that benefit society and the environment while saving money. Greenscape construction projects range in size from small municipal parks and school campuses to sports plexes, industrial parks, and other spaces comprising hundreds of acres. The project owners may be government entities, commercial enterprises, sports complexes, or institutions such as colleges or medical centers that are making a commitment to environmental stewardship. In many municipalities, they have adopted greenscaping as the primary approach for dealing with condemned buildings and vacant lots, turning such spaces into sustainable greenspaces, including gardens, playgrounds, parks, or sports facilities. In the spirit of environmental stewardship, someone should deconstruct rather than demolish unwanted buildings, making it easier to salvage building materials for reuse. What Does Greenscaping Involve? Greenscaping typically involves preservation of existing ecosystems and incorporates sustainable design elements such as green roofs, stormwater collection systems, rain gardens, irrigation...

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Interconnection Standards for Solar

Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 30 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your solar bond needs. What Is Interconnection? Interconnection is the process by which solar energy systems are connected to the electric grid. Standards that vary by state govern the interconnection process. Interconnection permits, however, are issued at the local level, for example by municipal building departments. Why Do Interconnection Standards Exist? Standards help ensure transparency, consistency, and ultimately safety. While interconnection standards are established at the state level, many states are emulating the standards developed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for projects up to 20 megawatts. These FERC standards are called Small Generator Interconnection Procedures (SGIP). Many states have also patterned engineering and safety requirements for interconnection after the IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards. Different standards may apply depending on whether or not the solar system is net metered, its capacity requirements, whether it’s a commercial or residential system, and so on. What Does the Interconnection Process Involve? The interconnection process involves 3 steps: application, installation, approval. It’s during the...

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