📈 Drone zone

Together with

Good morning! Looking for a nice cubicle with some legroom? The world’s largest office building — The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. — has been dethroned after 80 years on top. Crews just finished work on the Surat Diamond Bourse in India. It will serve 65,000 workers.

In this issue:

🛩️ The growing role of drones

💵 Trans Mountain finances

📸 October’s best construction photos

MARKETS

*Stock data as of last market close; currency, oil and crypto data as of 8:30PM ET October 30th, 2023.

Economy: Interest rates will remain at 5%, the highest level in 20 years, announced the Bank of Canada. The bank also downgraded its forecast for economic growth and cautioned that inflationary risks have increased. The widely anticipated decision keeps the policy rate at 5%, the highest level in two decades.

THE BIG STORY

Ready for takeoff: Drones are evolving

At first, drones seemed like an interesting consumer gadget to play around with. Now, they are being used by some of the world’s largest builders and they are being paired with other technology to accomplish even more complex tasks with huge cost savings. 

It’s an industry that is exploding. The global commercial drone market hit US$8.15-billion in 2022, and is expected rise to US$47.38-billion by 2030,

Eye in the sky: The most obvious construction application for drones is to simply gather visual information about a job site, including hazards or progress. On a recent project in Regina, drones helped PCL cut initial inspection costs by 80%.

The third dimension: Drones are now equipped with scanners that generate 3D models and scalable photos of the entire project site. It’s even been used to help preserve historic buildings before they are gone forever and create pre-disaster maps of cities in B.C.  

Heavy lifting: New generations of drones are being developed that can haul hundreds of pounds of material which could be invaluable for remote job sites or getting things onto a roof.

NEED TO KNOW

The week's headlines

🏠 Toronto is looking to massively boost home construction with a proposed $30-billion housing plan. The plan calls for building 65,000 new rent controlled homes by 2030. The city predicts that meeting those goals would cost between $28.6 billion and $31.5 billion across the next seven years and requires contributions from all levels of government.

💵 A recent report from Canada’s Auditor General is raising concern over the financial health of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. In January, the project team estimated the project would cost $30.9 billion, nearly $10 billion more than their estimate just a month earlier. The Government of Canada has also announced it would spend no additional public money on the pipeline.

🏗️ Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser is criticizing Metro Vancouver officials for their practice of having new developments fund infrastructure upgrades. Fraser recently stopped plans to send $79-million to Metro Vancouver because of plans to double and triple some development fees.

🔥 The City of Montreal announced Wednesday it will forbid the use of gas as a source of heat in new buildings, joining a long list of other cities trying to curb emissions. Many cities in B.C. have followed suit, with the most recent being Nanaimo.

TOGETHER WITH ICBA

Curious about the growing role of AI in the construction industry?

This week attendees at the association’s Construction Innovation Summit in Vancouver heard Jeevan Kalanithi, the CEO & co-founder of OpenSpace, discuss the topic. Read SiteNews’s own in-depth interview with Kalanithi here.

Make sure you’re following ICBA and SiteNews for key event updates, photography and video!

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

Courthouse project uncovers Toronto history

Opened to the public earlier this year, the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto is the largest building of its kind in the province and the second largest in Canada. The project has also enhanced understanding of the city’s past. Preconstruction excavation uncovered thousands of artifacts from when the courthouse site was part of St. John's Ward, one of Toronto's earliest immigrant settlements.

PROJECT UPDATES

Crews wrap work on Kicking Horse Canyon project 

Bosa Properties secures Legacy Pacific Industrial Park

160-acre Falcon Ridge Village site for sale near Ottawa

Toronto-area developer faces multiple stalled projects

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

LIST: 📸 SiteViews has the best construction shots of the month

READ: ⚛️ Nuclear reactors could enable mining the Moon and Mars

DATA: 📊 Latests stats show dire situation for B.C. builders

PHOTOS: 🏌️ ‘Holes for Homes’ would convert golf course to housing

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Here’s to a great rest of the week!E