eMars’ Compliant Client system allows contractors to follow the Davis-Bacon Act and other laws while saving time and effort.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Contractors have a lot to keep track of during a publically funded project. In addition to managing construction crews and blueprints, builders must comply with federal and state laws dictating how wages are paid and reported.
One of the most prominent of these requirements is the federal Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires contractors to pay the prevailing wage – the hourly wage paid in the largest city in each county to the majority of workers, laborers and mechanics – on federally funded projects. The prevailing wage is determined by the U.S. Department of Labor for each work classification involved in public projects.
For many contractors, complying with the law has historically meant keeping extensive paper records of what the prevailing wage in their county was and what each worker on a job – including certified apprentices – was being paid. Failure to abide by the requirements of the Davis-Bacon and related acts can lead to fines and loss of reputation.
eMars’ Compliant Client system makes following the law painless for contractors. The web-based service ensures that contractors and their subcontractors are following the law at the click of a button.
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Enginaire adds to its Cabaire™ product line to help its customers meet the new OSHA regulations for respirable crystalline silica.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers
As the leader in air pre-cleaners for more than 45 years, Enginaire expanded its product line more than a decade ago to include cab pressurization systems so operators could breathe easier. The company continues to evolve its Cabaire™ product line as OSHA revises its regulation on small crystalline silica.
About 2.2 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces and a more than half of these workers are in the construction industry, according to OSHA. “In September, OSHA passed its first revised regulation on its respirable crystalline silica standards since 1971,” says Mark Losching, director of sales and marketing. “There is a long list of new measures that companies need to take to protect their employees from silica. The new regulation has cut the previous permissible limit in half.”
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Asset Drone provides its construction industry and other customers with innovative drone applications that are both safe and productive.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Flying a drone over a construction site may seem like a simple job: anyone with a FAA Part 107 remote pilot’s license can legally operate a drone at a work area. But to truly tap the power of drones in construction requires an innovative company that can adapt drones to specialized tasks, fly them safely over and throughout the work site, and create accurate maps, 3D models, measurements and photos of the site. One such company is Asset Drone.
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Sage’s Enterprise Management Construction solution enables medium to larger construction companies to meet industry-specific challenges head on.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
In an increasingly complex global marketplace, Sage specializes in serving today’s business builders with a new generation of solutions to manage everything from money to people. “Re-imagining business is not about playing catch up, it’s about leapfrogging the competition,” the company says. “Too often businesses make decisions based on what’s in the rear-view mirror rather than the headlights. We combine social, mobile, real-time technology to put live information at your fingertips so you can make fast, informed decisions.”
The company recently rebranded Sage X3 to Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management. The Enterprise Management platform is used by more than 6,000 organizations globally, with a majority being in manufacturing, distribution or services. Sage allows customers to move up through its portfolio of applications as their business needs change.
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Lighting Design by Illuminate Lighting Design
Optic Arts wants to eliminate the complexity involved in installing flexible LED products and fixtures.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Optic Arts knows that flexible LED lighting, by nature, can be challenging for contractors to work with. It can require extra effort to install, including the need to sometimes be cut in the field to fit an application.
The Monterey Park, Calif.-based manufacturer’s customizable LED products can help contractors overcome this challenge. “We want to build products that are easy to design with and easy to install,” CEO Jason Mullen says. “Removing complexity and making a custom product that is easy to use is what we live for.”
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As the only American manufacturer of under-bridge access platforms, Anderson Hydra Platforms provides the safest and most efficient under-bridge access available.
By Bianca Herron, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
After Pat Dandridge acquired Anderson Hydra Platforms (AHP) in 2014, his goal was to deliver the safest, most reliable and cost-effective piece of equipment for under-bridge access for inspection, construction and repair anywhere in the world. Dandridge also aimed to improve the customer experience with the York, S.C.-based company.
“I know that few projects are more complicated than under-bridge repair, upfit, restoration or maintenance,” CEO Dandridge explains. “The time and money spent on traditional scaffolding alone can make or break the profitability of the project. Even the slightest miscalculation could result in an enormous loss of profit or worse, human life.”
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MgO Systems was born of a need for safer and greener building materials.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
In 2010, MgO Systems founder and CEO Todd McKay discovered the materials used to build his house were highly flammable in the worst way possible when his home burned down shortly before Christmas.
“Fortunately, it happened during the day; otherwise his family may have perished because they had less than 10 minutes to get out of the house,” MgO Systems CFO Jim Pendergast says. “There was nothing the fire department could do because it started in the garage, where there were a lot of flammable items; once the fire caught there, it raged.”
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Kentucky native Kyle Ruby invented the BarrelMover 5000 to keep highway crews safe in work zones.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
In its most recent report, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration estimates there were 96,626 crashes in work zones in 2015. On average, a work zone crash occurred once every 5.4 minutes. Seventy work zone crashes occurred every day that resulted in at least one injury and 12 work zone crashes happened every week that resulted in at least one fatality.
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Drill King International (DKI) aims to become a leading manufacturer of integrated drilling tools and innovative solutions.
By Bianca Herron, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
DKI is a U.S. manufacturer specializing in high-performance drilling tools serving the oil and gas, civil and construction, geotechnical-geothermal, mining, tunneling, and water well in more than 80 countries.
The Texas-based company, founded in 2004, has decades of experience among its leadership. According to, Partner and Vice President of Business Development Shane Deerman, DKI has aggressively grown by recruiting “seasoned” industry veterans since its launch. Deerman along with several colleagues, each bring more than 20 years of industry experience and expertise.
“Our president, Larry Broseh, has over 35 years of industry experience, and our operations manager and engineering team has decades of industry experience as well,” he says. “So even though we’re a young company, we’ve pulled together a team that already knew the playbook of the industry.”
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SiteAware offers general contractors and owners a better way to optimize on-site operations and track progress.
By Jim Harris, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Media
Visualizing progress on a job site can be difficult for contractors, particularly during the early stages of a project. SiteAware is making it easier for general contractors, real estate developers and others to objectively keep track of their projects, meeting schedule and budget. The system can be used to monitor large and complex construction projects in multiple sectors including commercial, institutional, industrial and major residential developments.
The company offers its clients an end-to-end solution to their project monitoring and site management needs that includes cloud-based software as well as autonomous off-the-shelf drones, tablets, support, maintenance and training. “We believe our true value is in the data produced by regularly scanning the construction site,” Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Gil Mildworth says.
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