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California is at it again, enacting a multitude of new laws taking affect in 2026 that impact hashtag#construction and contractors. Here are two that directly impact most commercial construction:

>>SB 61 establishes a mandatory 5 percent cap on retention for most private construction contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1, 2026. The cap applies to both progress payments and total retention and must flow down through all subcontracting tiers. The retention limit cannot be waived by contract and includes an attorneys’ fee provision for enforcement.

>>SB 440, the Private Works Change Order Fair Payment Act, creates standardized procedures and timelines for resolving claims and change-order disputes on large private projects. The law emphasizes timely notice and documentation.

And here are a couple specifically for the home improvement contractors:

>>SB 517 requires disclosure of subcontractor use in home improvement contracts. If a subcontractor performs more than 50% of the estimated project cost,…

The Construction Chart Book, published by CPWR is now available. This is the 7th edition of published research that stretches back 30 years, and it is extensive. For those of you used to referencing CPWR for safety data and information, there is much more here than safety. This PDF file is 170 pages and includes 54 chapters (each one covers an individual topic).

Among the key findings:

• Employment in construction continues to grow, increasing 31.6% from 2011 to 2023. Chapter 10

• Hispanic construction workers account for almost a third of the workforce, increasing 18.1% from 2020 to 2022. Chapter 16

• The number of construction workers 55 years or older increased 73.3% from 2011 to 2024. Chapter 15

• While the number of self-employed construction workers has reached 2.7 million, they remain unprotected by OSHA safety and health standards. Chapter 23

Here is an interesting scenario...

A small trade contractor successfully bids for work on a data center project and receives a contract they are asked to sign. Upon thoroughly reading the contract (you all do that, right?) they discover that the project will be covered under a project level insurance policy (also called a wrap policy), which they knew, but the deductible is $1 million. Would you sign on to this??? Sounds crazy to me unless you can backstop that somehow. Not realistic you say? Check out the article on data center construction from Engineering News Record.

Close the Gaps in Data Center Project Insurance Policies, Say Risk Managers | Engineering News-Record

There are lots of lessons and take aways to be gathered from the recent tragedy in Hong Kong. Of upmost importance is the stark reminder that the General Contractor and its trade contractors are responsible for life safety during operations. Never forget that the design team references building codes to ensure life safety, but that only applies to the completed structure. During construction, it's the contractor that is responsible for things like temporary shoring and bracing to ensure structural stability, methods to prevent fires, and planning for emergency services access in case something goes wrong.

In this case, investigation is ongoing but centered on the lack of fire resistance of the netting and shoring system. Here is the best article I have found so far that includes many details being left out of the typical media reporting - including the fact that the buildings where owner managed.

From Engineering News…

As I review notes from the recent Bluebeam Unbound conference and try to decide what to write about first, this article from Architosh seems to have done all the work for me! This is an excellent review and perspective with insights from a presser that I was invited to sit in on that surfaced some great insight into where Bluebeam is heading. The two take aways on which I will be focused for now are it's angle on how to implement AI and the moves it has made into mobile access. 

Its implementation of Anthropics’s Claude AI agent and MCP server technology offers some intriguing possibilities. (from the article below) "Anthropic’s MCP technology enables users to tell an AI agent to do things in the software that are possible for the human user to do, but incredibly time-consuming. Instead of the user manually taking a series of actions in Revu." Of all the current…

As I review notes from the recent Bluebeam Unbound conference and try to decide what to write about first, this article from Architosh seems to have done all the work for me! This is an excellent review and perspective with insights from a presser that I was invited to sit in on that surfaced some great insight into where Bluebeam is heading. The two take aways on which I will be focused for now are it's angle on how to implement AI and the moves it has made into mobile access. 

Its implementation of Anthropics’s Claude AI agent and MCP server technology offers some intriguing possibilities. (from the article below) "Anthropic’s MCP technology enables users to tell an AI agent to do things in the software that are possible for the human user to do, but incredibly time-consuming. Instead of the user manually taking a series of actions in Revu." Of all the current…

I think construction is changing faster than many people acknowledge and inwould like to get some input from the group. What type of project delivery method is used most often in your company? Click on the link below to jump to LinkedIn and take the survey. Yes, I know we can create polls here but I have a good start there and would like to keep the data in one place!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rogersjim_construction-constructionishard-activity-7382813485749022720-r0Zv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAGEtr0BoZXcy18DxgNh1KoiC1Uo3jHbHsI

The collapse of the Surfside Condo building was a tragedy and we are only now seeing some actual answers published about what went wrong. There is a great deal of information to digest in this short article. A slab column connection being the point of failure is not that surprising, but the details make it all the more evident that this should have been able to be seen in a structural investigation that should have occurred as a regular part of building maintenance. Also not surprising is that they cited the addition of heavy landscape planters that added unaccounted for loads to the deck. This can be seen in many older buildings.

The real issue here is how this gets solved and avoided in the future. I have always questioned what happens to a mid or high rise condominium when it gets turned over to the condo owners. There…

Each year Liberty Mutual Insurance publishes a report to identify which types of injuries are costing the most in different industries. This is a little different that ranking incidents in terms of number of fatalities or days away from work. What it actually shows is that falls (including falls to lower levels and falls to the same level), overexertion, and struck-by incidents are responsible for 73.8% of all injury costs in the construction industry. Any thoughts?