Only 36% of Contractors Fly Drones, and 97% of Those Drones Are DJI
ABC’s first drone survey finds regulatory compliance, not cost, is the barrier to adoption — and near-total dependence on a single Chinese manufacturer.
Utility Relocations Could Push Milwaukee’s I-94 Rebuild to 2035
WisDOT told the Transportation Projects Commission that utility relocation may delay the $1.65B I-94 East-West rebuild two years, with cost already up 3.6% to $1.71 billion.
Two Consecutive MSHA Fatalities Were Slips and Falls. That’s Not the Hazard Anyone Drills On.
A worker died at a Mississippi sand mine on August 13 in the second straight MSHA fatality classified as slip or fall of person — a hazard aggregate safety programs underweight.
The Building Trades Just Got a Look at BlackRock’s Project Pipeline Before It’s Let
NABTU, BlackRock and the AI Infrastructure Partnership signed an MOU giving the trades advance visibility into a data center pipeline aiming to mobilize $30 billion.
Great Lakes Limestone Shipments Jumped 8.7% in July, and the Data Just Got Harder to Read
U.S.-flag Great Lakes limestone shipments hit 3.13 million tons in July, the strongest since 2023 — but Canadian ports stopped reporting in April, breaking the series.
USDOT Wants to Lease Out the Ground Under 160,000 Miles of Highway
A new Build America Bureau RFI would put utilities in bored channels under highway and rail rights-of-way under 30-to-50-year P3 concessions. Comments close September 12.
Home Depot Sold $47.9 Billion Worth. It Served Fewer Customers Doing It.
Home Depot’s Q2 sales rose 5.7% to $47.9 billion on a 2.8% bigger average ticket while customer transactions fell 1.0% — and tariff refunds are holding the margin.
SoftBank Put $200 Million Into a Kit That Bolts Onto the Excavator You Already Own
Gravis Robotics raised a $200 million Series A from SoftBank for a brand-agnostic retrofit kit that turns Cat, Deere and Volvo excavators autonomous.
Fervo Has $1.2 Billion of Construction in Process and a 19,500-Foot Well Drilled in 21 Days
Fervo hit mechanical completion on two of three power blocks at Cape Station and guided to $850–900 million more construction spend in the back half of 2026.
Housing Starts Fell 12.4% in July. Permits Went Up 5%.
July housing starts dropped 12.4% to a 1.239 million rate while permits rose 5% — builders are banking paper and refusing to break ground.
Builders Cut Prices for a 16th Straight Month as Confidence Creeps to 35
The NAHB/Wells Fargo index rose a point to 35 in August, its 16th straight month below 40, with 35% of builders still cutting prices to move houses.
Burns & McDonnell Drew the EPC on Nebraska’s First New Power Plant in 20 Years
NPPD broke ground on Princeton Road Station, a 694 MW dual-fuel plant near Hallam with Burns & McDonnell holding the full engineer-procure-construct contract.
1.77 Million Attic Ladders Hang on a Quarter-Inch Bolt. Eleven Have Snapped.
CPSC recalled 1.77 million attic stairway ladders after spreader-assembly bolts broke in service, a defect that sat in the supply chain for roughly 14 years.
McCarthy Broke Ground on a 12-Acre Training Campus for Its 8,000 Employees
McCarthy is turning a Tempe hotel it bought for $27.5 million into a 12-acre training campus, betting retention rather than hiring is the binding constraint.
QXO Bought Its Way to $3.25 Billion a Quarter. Its EBITDA Margin Fell to 8.4%.
QXO grew Q2 sales 70% to $3.25 billion almost entirely by acquisition, and watched adjusted EBITDA margin slide from 10.7% to 8.4% doing it.
A $10 Million Liability Cap Just Erased a $260 Million Counterclaim
The Tenth Circuit affirmed judgment for a design subconsultant on Denver’s C-470 job, holding a negotiated cap and integration clause killed $260M of exposure.
Skanska Booked $957 Million to Lay 6.7 Miles of Track Down Van Nuys Boulevard
A $31 million preconstruction handshake from 2023 just converted into a $1.9 billion light rail contract, with Skanska booking $957 million in Q3 backlog.
At 180 Feet, Skanska’s Bellevue Tower Would Max Out the Tall-Timber Code
Mithun and Waugh Thistleton revealed Bevel, a 12-story Bellevue office tower that would be the first U.S. commercial building to take Type IV-B to its limit.