Hacker News with Generative AI: Construction

How will the Trump tariffs affect construction? (construction-physics.com)
Earlier this month the Trump administration announced hefty 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, along with an additional 10% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Good old mud can lower building costs (techxplore.com)
Buildings cost a lot these days. But when concrete buildings are being constructed, there's another material that can make them less expensive: mud.
Fit Irregular Shapes with 'Ticking Sticks' (popularwoodworking.com)
The trick to fitting wooden pieces into impossible recesses is to learn about “ticking sticks.” These simple sticks – plus a sheet of paper – can make monstrous tasks into a easy job. Here’s how they work.
Government planned it 7 years, beavers built a dam in 2 days and saved $1M (voxnews.al)
In the Czech Republic, beavers built a dam in two days, which local authorities had planned for 7 years.
HD Hyundai set to debut production 14 ton hydrogen wheeled excavator (electrek.co)
HD Hyundai is set to unveil a production version of its hydrogen fuel cell powered HW155H 14-ton wheeled excavator – one of ten updated or all-new machines rumored to making their debut at this year’s Bauma construction trade show.
Sand Castle Holds Up a Car – Mechanically Stabilized Earth [video] (youtube.com)
Good old mud can lower building costs (news.mit.edu)
Buildings cost a lot these days. But when concrete buildings are being constructed, there’s another material that can make them less expensive: mud.
Building a Medieval Castle from Scratch (guedelon.fr)
Why Hong Kong uses bamboo scaffolding, and meet the spider-men who climb it (scmp.com)
Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is still widely used for scaffolding in construction. It’s flexible, strong and cheaper than steel and aluminium — metal alternatives that are now more commonly used in mainland China and elsewhere in Asia.
Innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines (mena-forum.com)
Record-tall Wind Turbine Towers with 3D-printed Concrete Bases were in the news a few years back. Today, here are six innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines. These enormous turbines can reach up to 240m tall—about the size of a skyscraper. Since they are so tall, strong winds far above the sea surface tend to cause the turbine to tilt, so platform designs focus on minimising this tilt while still being cost-competitive with other forms of energy.
The engineering behind the San Antonio River Walk (practical.engineering)
I am on location in downtown San Antonio, Texas, where crews have just finished setting up this massive 650-ton crane. The counterweights are on. The outriggers are down. And the jib, an extension for the crane's telescoping boom, is being rigged up. This is the famous San Antonio River Walk, a city park below street level that winds around the downtown district.
The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines (2023) (construction-physics.com)
Tunneling is an important technology for modern civilization, as a tunnel is often the only reasonable way to create a direct path between two points.
Epic Construction Site in the Saudi Desert Is a Hazard for Workers (wsj.com)
Billed as a futuristic city-state with dazzling architecture including parallel 106-mile-long skyscrapers taller than the Empire State Building, Neom is the centerpiece of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to transform his oil-rich country into a modern diversified economy.
Financially, Saudi Arabia is flying by the seat of its pants. But how longer? (middleeasteye.net)
Saudi Arabia's most extravagant and outrageous giga-project - the futuristic city called "Neom", carved out of the country's northwest border region - is trying a reboot after funding and other challenges over the past year appeared to put key elements of Neom in jeopardy.
3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas (yahoo.com)
GEORGETOWN, Texas (Reuters) - As with any desktop 3D printer, the Vulcan printer pipes layer by layer to build an object – except this printer is more than 45 feet (13.7 m) wide, weighs 4.75 tons and prints residential homes.
The Engineering of Wildlife Crossings (practical.engineering)
This is the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing under construction over the 101 just outside Los Angeles, California. When it’s finished in a few years, it will be the largest wildlife crossing (*of its kind*) on the planet. The bridge is 210 feet (64 meters) long and 174 feet (53 meters) wide, roughly the same breadth as the ten-lane superhighway it crosses. Needless to say, a crossing like this isn’t cheap.
Building the steepest cable car in the world 85-ATW Stechelberg-Mürren [EN Sub.] [video] (youtube.com)
Mobile 3D Printer Can Print Directly on Your Floor (ieee.org)
Waiting for each part of a 3D-printed project to finish, taking it out of the printer, and then installing it on location can be tedious for multi-part projects. What if there was a way for your printer to print its creation exactly where you needed it?
Launch HN: Fresco (YC F24) – AI Copilot for Construction Superintendents (ycombinator.com)
Hi HN! We're Arvind and Akhil, and we're building Fresco (https://fresco-ai.com/). We use AI to quickly create and manage documentation for construction superintendents.
Urban Machine: robotics and AI to reclaim lumber for reuse (urbanmachine.build)
Urban Machine pioneers sustainable wood reclamation.
21,000 Killed Working on Saudi Megaprojects During Construction: Report (newsweek.com)
Thousands of workers have reportedly been killed or have gone missing during the construction of several megaprojects in Saudi Arabia.
University of Waterloo to build fourth mathematics building (therecord.com)
The University of Waterloo is building a fourth mathematics building on its campus.
Carbon Sequestration by Recycling Cement, Aggregates, and Concrete (mdpi.com)
As the world’s largest producer of construction waste, China’s recycling and related policies are of the biggest concern to the world.
Rebar and Reinforced Concrete (leancrew.com)
A recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast, “Brilliantly Boring,” covers a topic near and dear to my heart: reinforced concrete—more specifically, the rebar that does the reinforcing. The show does an excellent job in a short period. I just want to fill in some details.
Saudi Arabian Neom project 'uses one fifth of world's steel' (agbi.com)
The Neom giga-project in Saudi Arabia is currently using one fifth of all the steel produced in the world, an official said on Monday.
Maker Pipe – Structural Pipe Fittings for DIY Builders (makerpipe.com)
Hinkley Point C: Building Britain's first nuclear reactor in 30 years (building.co.uk)
World’s Biggest Construction Project Is a Magnet for Executives Behaving Badly (wsj.com)
Neom executives were summoned to the office to manage a crisis: Three workers had recently died toiling on the world’s biggest construction project.
Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Nearly 1,500 Years (openculture.com)
Heavy Construction of a Sewage Pump Station – Ep 3 [video] (youtube.com)