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Checked November 5, 2026

What's new in construction

Short notes from public sources over the last few days. Davina does not add a figure that was not on the page.

• Safety · Stone / silica · November 4, 2026

  Safety+Health reported on November 4 that Jennifer Kim, director of OSHA’s Office of Health Enforcement, told an October 20 CPWR webinar that OSHA’s Focused Inspection Initiative has resulted in 502 inspections. The initiative, launched in September 2023, covers engineered stone fabrication and installation under NAICS 327991, cut stone and stone product manufacturing, and NAICS 423320, brick, stone, and related construction material merchant wholesalers. Kim said that compares with nine inspections before the initiative, and that it augments the February 2020 National Emphasis Program on respirable crystalline silica. She said the standard cited most often under that program is 1926.1153(c)(1), a failure to use the controls in Table 1. Of the 1,000-plus air samples taken with the initiative inspections, 22.3 percent were above the permissible exposure limit, 2.8 percent were five times the limit or above, and 0.9 percent were at least ten times the limit. The page says exposure can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and silicosis, which NIOSH calls an irreversible but preventable lung disease. Kim said the samples are why exposure assessments and adequate controls matter, and why personal protective equipment alone is not enough. This page does not list Table 1 controls. An inspection update is not a hire.

  Safety+Health Magazine

• Safety · All chemical work · November 2, 2026

  Safety+Health reported on November 2 that employers using products covered by OSHA’s revised hazard communication standard, 1910.1200, need to update their hazcom programs, workplace labels, and training for substances by November 20. The story is dated November 2, 2026, and it says that deadline is weeks away. The deadline it names for mixtures is May 19, 2028. The story says an April 30 enforcement directive gives the rest: manufacturers, importers, and distributors needed to update substance labels by May 19, 2026, and must update mixture labels by November 19, 2027. Where those labels changed, employers must update workplace labels. The same directive says hazcom training is not satisfied just by giving employees safety data sheets to read. OSHA revised the standard in 2024 to align with the seventh revision of the Globally Harmonized System. A deadline is not a job listing.

  Safety+Health Magazine

• Electrical · Data centers / energy · November 3, 2026

  ENR reported on November 3 that Senate leaders are preparing for possible votes beginning November 9 on the bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a permitting package negotiated with the White House in late September. The bill would shorten the timeline for National Environmental Policy Act reviews of energy infrastructure and the period in which legal challenges could be filed against new projects. It would also require data center developers to pay the cost of the electricity needed to operate the centers. ENR says the Senate measure would need to be reconciled with the House-passed SPEED Act before it could become law. The House passed the SPEED Act in December 2025. A bill is not a hire. It is not law until Congress passes it and the president signs it.

  Engineering News-Record

• Foundations · Bridges · November 3, 2026

  ENR reported on November 3 that procurement is underway for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s $2.5 billion Sagamore Bridge design-build replacement. East Coast Slurry, part of AA Will, started a drilled-shaft test program in May on the mainland side of the canal: separate 5-foot and 8-foot shafts about 165 feet to bedrock. A third 5-foot test pile is planned on the Cape side. The project manager said the piles were set to 1 percent out of plumb, inside a specified 2 percent maximum, and that he hopes to finish the test program by the end of the year. A test program is not a hire.

  Engineering News-Record

• Power line · Transmission · November 3, 2026

  Construction Dive reported on November 3, citing an October 29 release, that Jacobs will provide integrated program delivery for American Electric Power’s transmission work. AEP, which the story calls the largest U.S. electric transmission operator, plans to invest $37 billion in transmission over five years. The states named are Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Jacobs’s scope in the release is project management, controls, engineering and design, siting, outreach, right-of-way, and environmental services. That is a program-management contract, not a call for line workers.

  Construction Dive

• Heavy civil · Rail crossings · November 3, 2026

  Construction Dive reported on November 3, citing an October 30 release, that the Federal Railroad Administration announced $1.24 billion in Railroad Crossing Elimination grants. The story says 91 grants go to agencies in 37 states. The money is for removing highway-rail conflict points, closing at-grade crossings, and upgrading railroad traffic signals. Examples in the release: $72 million for the Port Authority of Kansas City to separate three crossings in Kansas City, Missouri; $46 million for the Texas Department of Transportation for an overpass carrying RM 2871 over the Union Pacific Railroad and Aledo Road in Fort Worth; $43 million for Nampa, Idaho, to separate a crossing on the Robinson Road and Greenhurst Road Overpass Project; and $31.7 million for the Georgia Department of Transportation to upgrade preemption at about 31 high-risk crossings. A grant is not a crew call. Watch the owner and whoever bids the work.

  Construction Dive

• Mechanical · Water · November 3, 2026

  Construction Dive reported on November 3, citing an October 29 release, that Burns & McDonnell finished Missouri’s largest membrane bioreactor as part of Republic’s $145 million wastewater program. The firm said the water reclamation plant’s treatment capacity is now 5 million gallons a day. The program also includes peak wet-weather work and three collection-system projects. Republic used progressive design-build, a first for that city. Finishing a segment is not an open call for the next job.

  Construction Dive

• Electrical · Data centers · November 3, 2026

  Drax said on November 3 that it is partnering with Brookfield and Radiant to develop data center capacity at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, England. Brookfield estimates the full development could exceed £20 billion, including £2.5 billion for the first phase. Phase 1 targets up to 100 MW and operation from the first quarter of 2028, and it still needs planning, regulatory and network approvals, and a tenant. Later phases are described as an ambition: up to 500 MW between 2028 and 2031, and more after 2031. The estate is 1,000 acres, with 4 GW of grid access and 2.6 GW of generation on site. A plan is not a hire, and this one is in the UK.

  Drax

• Equipment · Work trucks · November 3, 2026

  Trucks, Parts, Service posted a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall roundup on November 2 and updated it November 3. Paccar is recalling 26,729 Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, in model years from 2022 through 2027 depending on the model, including Kenworth T270, T280, T370, T380, and T480 and Peterbilt 536, 537, 548, and 567. The remote fuel-filter hose can separate, leak fuel, and stall the engine. A fuel leak near an ignition source can start a fire. Dealers replace the hoses at no charge. Ford is recalling 30,123 trucks: certain 2026–2027 F-150s and 2026 F-250, F-350, and F-450 Super Duty. The left tailgate cable can fail under a heavy load and drop the tailgate onto the bumper. Great Dane is recalling 6,810 of certain 2027 Champion and Everest van trailers because landing-gear brace welds can fail and the gear can collapse. Wabash is recalling 475 of certain 2027 van trailers because the wrong wheel-bearing lubricant can seize a wheel. Check the notice before you load a tailgate or trust a landing gear. This page is not a VIN lookup.

  Trucks, Parts, Service

• Electrical · Transit · November 2, 2026

  ENR reported on November 2 that Los Angeles World Airports confirmed an arc flash in late September on the LAX SkyLink elevated guideway. Independent monitoring records counted four arc blasts from September 23 through 25, with damage to the power rail and the guide beam. ENR’s headline says no one was injured. The contractor group LINXS had not given a root cause. The 2.25-mile line has six stations. ENR says the price has risen from an original $1.9 billion estimate to over $3.3 billion. An October 26 airports letter, citing the lenders’ technical advisor, put the delay at 252 days. LINXS’s schedule update targeted an opening in early 2027. The airports authority’s stance is that the opening date is still unvalidated. The trains cannot carry passengers until structural repairs, fire and safety systems, and safety certifications are done. An arc on a power rail is life safety. Do not treat that rail as dead because testing resumed.

  Engineering News-Record

• All trades · Spending · November 2, 2026

  The Associated General Contractors of America said on November 2 that U.S. construction spending in September was $2.19 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. That is 1.9 percent below the revised August rate and 2.7 percent below September 2025. Private nonresidential spending rose 1.1 percent in September and 2.3 percent from a year earlier. Data center spending rose 8.6 percent for the month and 90 percent year over year. Private electric power rose 1.3 percent for the month and 14 percent from September 2025. All other private categories combined fell 0.2 percent for the month and 7.8 percent over 12 months. Private residential fell 5.5 percent for the month and 8.9 percent from a year earlier. Highway and street spending fell 0.3 percent from August and was 3.5 percent higher than in September 2025. The association’s chief economist said data center and power demand is masking cutbacks elsewhere. A spending report is not a job listing.

  Associated General Contractors of America

• Excavation · Utilities · November 2, 2026

  Equipment World reported that OSHA has proposed $380,664 in penalties for Always Underground LLC of Frankfort, Illinois. The citations, which OSHA announced October 21, are three repeats: no cave-in protection such as a trench box, no safe way out, and spoil or equipment closer than 2 feet from the edge, plus a serious citation for hard hats. OSHA said it saw employees in an unprotected trench deeper than 8 feet. The case is part of OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on Trenching. The company had 15 business days from receipt to comply, meet the area director, or contest. Proposed penalties are not a final order.

  Equipment World

• Safety · Water · November 2, 2026

  Portland said on November 2 that the Bull Run Filtration Project sites in east Multnomah County earned Oregon OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Star Site status, the first Oregon construction project to do that since July 15, 2010. The award went to the CM/GC joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit. A ceremony was held October 27 at the filtration facility. Pipeline sites are scheduled for their acknowledgment in late November. The city said the filtration-facility site had no lost-time injuries in its first three years, and the joint venture’s construction manager counted 485 craft workers on that job. The plant is planned to treat 135 million gallons a day for nearly 840,000 people, with completion on track for September 2029.

  City of Portland

• Electrical · Data centers · November 2, 2026

  The Tri-City Herald reported that Amazon Web Services is the buyer behind a data center campus of up to 21 buildings on Lewis & Clark Ranch in West Richland, Washington. AWS said the land deal was $264 million and that such arrangements are common. The first phase is three buildings. No site plan had been filed, and the project still has to go through Washington’s SEPA review. AWS scheduled a public open house for November 19, 5 to 8 p.m., at Enterprise Middle School, 5200 Paradise Way. AWS described first-phase employment as 120 to 150 people and full build-out of a site as 1,000. It said outside air would cool the facility 93 percent of the time, and that water use would be an estimated 10 million gallons a year for the first three buildings and 70 million gallons a year at 21 buildings. The Herald said the city council was scheduled to consider an interim data-center moratorium at 6 p.m. on November 3. A plan is not a hire.

  Tri-City Herald

• HVAC and pipe · Data centers · November 2, 2026

  Construction World reported that L&T’s Vyoma.AI has started a 52 MW AI data center in Chennai, India, built for high-density computing and cooled with direct-to-chip liquid cooling. It sits on a planned gigawatt-scale campus that already has an operating 30 MW hall and, the company said, 150 MVA of power infrastructure ready. Vyoma.AI is aiming at more than 250 MW of data center capacity across India. The story says the company did not give a cost or a finish date for the 52 MW hall. Liquid cooling on that job is a project choice, not a rule for every hall.

  Construction World

• Industrial · Energy · November 2, 2026

  Construction Dive reported a $2.41 billion cost-plus-fixed-fee modification for Fluor Marine Propulsion, a subsidiary of Irving, Texas-based Fluor, for nuclear propulsion work at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory. The story, citing an October 23 release, puts 47 percent of the work in Pittsburgh, 45 percent in Schenectady, New York, and 8 percent in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The article describes propulsion work for the systems that power ships. It does not list craft hiring.

  Construction Dive

• Codes · All buildings · November 2, 2026

  ICC’s code-development committee page records that on November 2, 2026, the Group A code-change window opened for the 2030 International Codes. The window closes January 12, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. A proposal is not a code until the cycle adopts it. The code you build to is the one the city or state has adopted, which may be an older edition.

  International Code Council

• Electrical · Residential solar · November 2, 2026

  ICC’s November 2, 2026 news list says an evaluation found that SolarAPP+ accurately reflects the applicable requirements of the 2024 International Residential Code, the 2024 International Fire Code, and the 2023 National Electrical Code. ICC’s public evaluation page says the determination was issued October 1, 2026, applies only to the audited content and code editions, and does not replace review, permitting, or inspection by the authority having jurisdiction.

  International Code Council

• Safety · All outdoor work · November 2, 2026

  The National Weather Service Springfield office, with Missouri public-safety agencies, marked November 2–6, 2026 as Winter Weather Preparedness Week. The page says frostbite shows up as loss of feeling and a white or pale look in fingers, toes, ear lobes, or the nose, and that hypothermia can start when body temperature drops below 95°F, with confusion, hard shivering, then drowsiness. It says water still freezes at 32°F no matter the wind chill. For crews: dress in layers, take breaks, and treat snow shoveling as hard work that can bring on a heart attack. Generators stay outside. Exhaust is carbon monoxide. Never run one in a garage. This is Missouri’s week, and warning criteria differ by office. Follow the forecast where you are working.

  National Weather Service

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