Researchers at Birmingham City University and steel specialist HadleyFRAME have automated structural checks in digital building models, cutting connection-checking time by 96% on projects with more than 18,000 joints. Two custom tools, developed under a West Midlands Advanced Construction Cluster sprint, include a parameter-driven copying utility that trims batch copy time for five connections from 15 to 12 minutes, and a model-wide scanner that flags missing or unexpected steel connections before fabrication. Tested on a five-storey modular residential scheme in Derbyshire, the system targets early detection of connection errors, directly affecting QA workflows for modern methods of construction.

Canada’s Open Science and Data Platform (OSDP), built by Natural Resources Canada to support the federal Major Projects Office, is now central to mine permitting, aggregating geospatial science, environmental monitoring, mapping tools and regulatory records from federal, provincial and territorial sources into a single online portal. Used on Newmont’s Red Chris mine expansion in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, the OSDP lets users layer Treaty boundaries, species-at-risk data, transmission lines, watersheds and nearby projects, with updates fed automatically via APIs rather than static uploads. NRCan reports about 200,000 unique users, 70% repeat visits, and is adding datasets by roughly 10% annually, with plans for AI-driven search and machine-readable historical assessments.

idoba has released Version 2.0 of idoba.sim, a cloud-based simulation tool for short-term planning in underground hard rock mines that now models development advance and truck load-and-haul in a single run. Planning teams can simultaneously simulate development headings and both development and production haulage, rather than running separate models for each activity stream. The integrated workflow should improve cycle time analysis, fleet utilisation planning and identification of bottlenecks around development-ore interactions.