Bridge on the River Dardanelles
The 1915 Canakkale Bridge in Turkey is now the world’s longest suspension bridge. Connecting the European and Asian shores of the Dardanelles Strait, the recently completed bridge spans two kilometers or 6,637 feet.
Turkish companies collaborated with South Korean builders to complete the bridge. While the five-year project cost $2.7 billion, Turkey will save an estimated $458 million per year in reduced fuel consumption and carbon emissions—not to mention travel time. The bridge allows travelers to cross from the northwestern town of Gelibolu to Lapseki on the Asian side of Turkey, reducing a trip that previously took 90 minutes by ferry to just six minutes.
The bridge will be further celebrated in 2023, when its central span of 2,023 meters will symbolically illustrate the centennial of the founding of the Turkish Republic following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Working for the Workforce
Associated Builders and Contractors members invested $1.6 billion to provide more than 1.3 million course attendees with craft, leadership and safety education in 2021, according to ABC’s 2022 Workforce Development Survey—up from $1.3 billion in 2020.
Safety education accounted for the greatest share—56%—of total workforce investment. Investment in craft education increased significantly, to 34% of the total in 2021, up from 22% in 2020, responding to the need for an estimated 650,000 additional construction workers in 2022. General and construction management contractors boosted their share of the total investment in workforce development to 65% in 2021 from 58% in 2020.
Additional key findings from the survey, which was conducted by FMI, include:
- ABC member contractors invested an average of 7.4% of payroll in workforce education.
- Women in management/supervisory roles ticked up to 19% in 2021 from 17% in 2020; women in craft/trade roles increased from 14% to 15%.
- ABC members invested in safety education for an average of 51 employees.
- More than half of respondents—61%—reported a labor shortage of severe or very severe, citing an exodus of Baby Boomers as the top contributor.
To read the full report, visit tinyurl.com/2s6xky6h.
Castle in the Terre
Château de Guédelon aims to recreate a 13th-century medieval castle—by using technology, tools and building techniques exclusively from that era, 800 years ago.
Begun in 1997 by owners Michel Guyot and Maryline Martin in Treigny in the Burgundy region of France, the first year of the project was spent making tools, baskets, pots and stones. Just 35 artisans—including blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, weavers and carters with horses—have been working to create the castle; they’re limited to materials found in or around the building site, which include sandstone, wood, iron and limestone.
Guedelon Castle is an active tourist attraction, drawing more than300,000 people per year. It’s due to be completed in 2023.
Getting Ahead, Literally and Digitally
Proactis has released its “eRecovery Report,” detailing how major companies are investing in digital transformation. With 90% of major U.S. businesses looking to expand operations or open up new trade opportunities overseas in the next five years, it will be critical for contractors to keep pace. Findings include:
- The top four reasons for digital transformation are to create efficiencies (23%), increase profitability (21%), improve compliance with regulation (19%) and cut costs (19%).
- Those companies intending to increase overseas trade expect to grow revenue by an average of 22.3% over a five-year period.
- Approximately one-quarter of major U.S. business leaders cited supply-chain disruption as a key barrier to achieving their goals in 2022, while 40% of businesses with supply-chain concerns have invested in software to tackle the issue.
- U.S. businesses are set to invest $4.4 trillion in digital recovery following global disruptions.
To read the full report, visit tinyurl.com/3hrw5sew.
Everything Is Rent
RentCafe has ranked the most competitive apartment markets of 2022 so far (per Yardi proprietary data), and it turns out that today’s rental market is just as hot as the housing market was in summer 2020.
As of June, an average of 14 renters compete for an available apartment. Rentals are only vacant for an average of 35 days. Meanwhile, 61.7% of renters renewed their leases in the first part of this year, contributing to a total of 95.5% of rental-property occupancy at the start of rental season.
The top 10 most competitive markets are:
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Orlando, Florida
Southwest Florida
North Jersey, New Jersey
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Rochester, New York
Central Jersey, New Jersey
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Broward County, Florida
Read the full report at tinyurl.com/fzh4c2za.
