Solutions

In this video, an expert from our Major Projects team in the UK explains how the scanners measure millions of times per second to build up a full 3D model. All the information is captured in one site visit, making the process extremely efficient. "With the speed and accuracy of the scanners only improving, it is taking Balfour Beatty forward to the next level of digital engineering."

Experienced construction professionals would never allow a crane operator to be engaged in a phone conversation while operating a crane. Why? Because we know intuitively that that operator must give his undivided attention to the task at hand – operating that crane safely - so no one is put at risk by his actions. So why is it so many of those same wise professionals think nothing of driving a 3,500-pound vehicle down the road at 60-plus miles an hour while engaged in a phone call?

We are constantly striving to meet the demands of our increasingly sophisticated clients and navigate an industry that keeps getting more complex, fast-paced and tightly integrated. Despite improved tools and technologies, our industry effectiveness is actually declining. The challenge is that much of the inefficiency we experience on projects is "invisible". It manifests itself as ambiguity related to goals/approach/roles, subtle personality conflicts, insufficient support mechanisms, and lack of awareness of underlying pervasive problems with team performance. These subtle factors are missed by most contractors, but are actually the foundation of healthy, high-performance teams – especially in an increasingly dynamic market.

Check out this video of our team erecting two steel box trusses - weighing nearly 500,000 pounds each at this Marine Corps Air Station.

Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA turned to Balfour Beatty to build its new, $45.1 million, 40,000-square-foot Field House that today overlooks the school’s DeVore Stadium. The state-of-the-art Field House includes team locker rooms and training facilities. It also houses strength and conditioning facilities, four new classrooms, a 140-seat mixed media auditorium, faculty offices and tutorial spaces for student-athletes among other amenities.

The traditional process for acquiring an as-built reading of an elevator shaft requires engineers to go floor-by-floor with a measuring tape to survey the width of the shaft at each floor opening. These measurements capture the changes in the shaft width from floor-to-floor, providing subcontractors with the necessary information to assess how far off the wall they need to shim the rails to ensure they are perfectly straight for the elevator to run smoothly through the shaft.

One of the major paradigm shifts in the construction industry is around our increasing adoption of lean philosophy and practice. We keep hearing more and more about various tools and techniques (pull planning, target value design, A3s, etc.) and then there is the proliferation of Japanese production terms (andon, gemba, muda, kaizen, poka yoke, etc.).

With new model-based estimating technologies, project teams can better integrate the multiple layers of the project together, which allows the project’s design, estimated cost, and project schedule to remain synchronized so that a change to one is instantly reflected by all.