6 must reads for the AEC industry today: April 22, 2020

1. CallisonRTKL, PODS, and USACE collaborate on repurposed containers for ACFs (CallisonRTKL)
Existing POD containers were modified to be used as rapid response airborne infection isolation rooms. 

2. Management Training: AEC firms bring students into the real world (BD+C)
"At Virginia Tech, every new on-campus construction project holds back a piece of the contracted work for faculty and students to deliver. On March 19, 2020, 70 students and officials from Hourigan Construction toured an outpatient pavilion that Hourigan is building on VTU Health’s campus. Another contractor, W.M. Jordan, recently gave VT students and the dean of student affairs a virtual reality demonstration of a 600-bed dorm under construction, which overlayed what the completed rooms and amenities would look like."

3. Virtual site visits help control infection on project sites (Leo A Daly, Mueller Associates)
"As COVID-19 threatens to slow construction work, point cloud technology helps us work safer and faster."

4. ABC's Construction Backlog Indicator down in February (ABC)
"Backlog for firms working in the infrastructure segment rose by 1.3 months in February while backlog for commercial and institutional and heavy industrial firms declined by 0.6 months and 0.7 months, respectively."

5. Construction activity in 2020 expected to drop steeply (BD+C)
"Commercial construction starts are expected to fall by 16% in 2020, with retail starts projected to be down by 33% and hotel/motel starts by 31%."

6. Senate passes $484 billion coronavirus deal after weeks of deadlock (Politico)
"The legislation delivers funding to small businesses, hospitals and for testing."