AECOM Posts Record $26.2 Billion Backlog and Raises Its Guidance
AECOM posted a record $26.2B backlog and record 16.5% margins in fiscal Q2 2026, then raised full-year EPS guidance to $5.90–$6.10.
OSHA’s Heat Standard Stalled. Its Heat Inspections Didn’t.
OSHA’s heat standard is stalled, but its heat inspections jumped to about 2,400 a year in 2026, and contractors are being cited under the General Duty Clause.
Low-Carbon Concrete Is Becoming a Bid Requirement, Not a Bonus
State Buy Clean laws and DOT pilots are turning concrete’s carbon intensity into a number that affects bid scoring, pushing embodied-carbon rules from voluntary to mandatory.
Data Centers Aren’t the Only Boom. Factories Are the Other One.
Behind the data-center headlines, a reshoring wave in chips, autos, rail, and grid gear is keeping industrial builders busy as the rest of nonresidential softens.
ENR’s Top 400 Hit a Record on Data Centers. The Mood Didn’t Follow.
ENR’s 2026 Top 400 Contractors posted record revenue of $671.4B, up 11.8%, propelled by data centers, even as firms cite interest rates and global conflict as drags.
Mississippi Ties $41.5M in College Funding to Workers, Not Enrollment
Mississippi’s community colleges proposed a $41.5M workforce program that pays out on training outcomes, not headcount, aiming to prepare 5,500 more workers a year.
Prevailing-Wage Rules Are Shifting Under Contractors This Summer
Oregon, Illinois, and California all changed prevailing-wage rules that bite this summer, and public-works contractors are managing a patchwork that shifts by state.
Obayashi Buys Multiplex for $650M, and Global Contractors Keep Consolidating
Brookfield agreed to sell Australian builder Multiplex to Japan’s Obayashi for $650M, the latest in a wave of billion-dollar construction M&A reshaping the global contractor market.
Exoskeletons and Wearables Are Quietly Moving From Pilot to Payroll
Back- and shoulder-support exoskeletons and IoT heat-stress wearables are landing on real jobsites as contractors chase the injuries that drive comp claims.
Lumber and Cement Get the Headlines. Aluminum Just Jumped 49%.
Aluminum mill shapes are up 48.8% year over year while gypsum and insulation prices reset again. The materials squeeze runs well past lumber and cement.
DroneDeploy’s New AI Turns a Drone Flight Into a Progress Report in Minutes
DroneDeploy’s Progress AI reads drone and 360 walkthrough data to auto-generate construction progress reports it says are 95% accurate, roughly 100x faster than manual tracking.
Panama Canal Bets $8.5 Billion That It Can Be More Than a Waterway
The Panama Canal Authority’s $8.5B Transformation Decade adds two container terminals, an interoceanic gas pipeline, and a reservoir to drought-proof the locks.
New York’s Top Court Tightens Prevailing-Wage Rules
New York’s Court of Appeals says public-works contractors owe prevailing wages even absent a contract promise, and can’t shorten the clock on third-party claims.
BWI Shuts Its Longest Runway for an $83.8M Rebuild
BWI closed its 10,500-foot main runway through October for an $83.8M rehab by Allan Myers and P. Flanigan, betting a sharp shutdown beats years of patchwork.
A Column Buckle in Midtown Is a Warning for Conversions
An engineer says the office-to-apartment conversion at 235 East 42nd Street likely stressed a frame never meant for the load, a caution for the conversion boom.
McKinsey: AI Can Automate 39% of Construction’s Desk Work
A new McKinsey report says AI could automate 39% of nonphysical construction work, and warns builders to pick their build-versus-buy fights carefully.
Immigration Squeeze Meets a 349,000-Worker Gap
Construction needs about 349,000 more workers in 2026 even as immigration enforcement thins the trades and the H-2B visa cap leaves builders short.
Boston’s $10B Coastal Storm Plan Opens for Comment
Boston and the Army Corps unveiled a draft coastal storm plan of up to $10.5 billion that would close 20 flood pathways and unlock 65% federal cost sharing.