Notes from the Trenches (24)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• The website ‘flightradar24.com’ (dashboard heading ‘Statistics’) records that the number of commercial flights globally (as a 7-day moving average) on March 12, 2020, was 101,297. From mid-March on, there was a rapid falling off, so that by April 12 (one month later), the figure had descended to just 29,442, a giant-sized drop of -71%. (‘Commercial’ flights are defined as passenger, cargo, charter and some business-jet flights. Excluded are glider, helicopter, ambulance and some military excursions.)

• Latest month-to-month airport departure statistics (number of actual flights) from ‘flightradar24.com’ show the following: Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, -59%; Chicago O’Hare, -66%; Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, -69%; Los Angeles International Airport, -72%; New York John F. Kennedy, -81%; Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, -82%; Toronto’s Pearson International, -83%; and N.Y.’s LaGuardia, -92%.

• Cutbacks in the production of oil, agreed to by Saudi Arabia, Russia and some others can’t come soon enough. The price of oil has dropped below zero. Hard as it may be to believe, producers are paying customers to take excess supplies of crude off their hands.

• A major problem for apartment buildings and office towers is how to maintain social distancing in elevators. A design change for future construction will most likely require the provision of more elevators. But what’s to be done in the meantime and with existing buildings to avoid long line-ups in lobbies? One solution may be to randomly set time frames when individuals can ride up and down. For example, person A can go up between 9:00 and 9:15 am; person B, from 9:15 to 9:30.

• Possession of certain time frames will come to be prized more highly than others. There’s hay to be made here. Apparently, in real lockup (i.e., prisons), the popularity of ramen noodles has raised them above cigarettes as a valued item in barter exchanges. On the outside, perhaps elevator vouchers with preferred time slots will take on similar quasi-currency status. Of course, this whole system of time allotment will also require enforcement by squads of elevator police. (Read this latest bullet point with the same degree of skepticism you’d bring to an article about last year’s harvest of pancakes.)

Tags: banking, bids, cement, Construction, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, Economy, lumber, recovery, shareknowledge, steel, tenders

Category: ConstructConnect

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