Prolec’s SiteGuard Pro virtual barrier system is now integrated into Trimble Earthworks, combining a height and slew limiter with automatic motion‑inhibit to stop excavators when 3D site‑referenced ceilings, walls, floors or surfaces are at risk of being breached. Avoidance zones can be defined in Trimble Business Center and enforced directly from the Earthworks cab display, preventing boom, stick, bucket and counterweight from entering restricted envelopes during normal excavation workflows. The system targets high‑risk environments such as nuclear sites, work near overhead cables and high‑value infrastructure, enabling contractors to meet motion‑inhibit tender requirements in the UK.

Australia’s transport infrastructure sector is being pushed to deliver more road and rail projects, faster, despite chronic shortages of experienced designers, modellers and project managers. Autodesk argues the practical AI opportunity is using tools such as automated clash detection, generative alignment options and machine‑assisted quantity take‑offs to extend the capacity of scarce senior engineers rather than replace them. For geotechnical and civil teams, this points to AI handling repetitive corridor design, drainage iteration and documentation, freeing specialists to focus on constructability, risk and stakeholder constraints.

Rising concern among construction professionals over data privacy and cyber security is slowing adoption of artificial intelligence tools, according to a new Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) report. Respondents cited risks around sharing commercially sensitive project data from BIM models and cost plans with cloud-based AI platforms, and uncertainty over where training data is stored and processed. The findings signal that AI deployment on live projects, including for quantity take-off automation and programme optimisation, may stall without clearer contractual, regulatory and data-governance frameworks.