Robotics, Affordability, Subsea: Top 5 Construction Stories

Bedrock Robotics: Accelerating Autonomous Construction

Bedrock Robotics is on a mission to empower the construction industry. Through its autonomous technology, it is helping to address the pain points which have emerged across the sector.

The industry needs nearly 800,000 workers over the next two years to keep up with demand, with retirements further widening the labour gap. Project backlogs climbed to more than eight months as of December 2025.

Against this backdrop, contractors are exploring Bedrock's autonomy systems across a range of applications spanning port infrastructure, industrial facilities, data centres and large-scale earthmoving operations across multiple states.

Boris Sofman, Co-Founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics, says: "The construction industry is being asked to build more than it can deliver.

"Contractors are pulled across competing priorities with the same limited workforce and equipment. This funding helps us scale our development and deployments as we mature autonomy capabilities and the tools for contractors to leverage them. It's a first step toward a future where entire fleets operate as coordinated systems, fundamentally changing how modern contractors plan, staff and execute work."

A Deep Dive into How UK Housebuilders’ Feel About 2026

The Barclays Business Prosperity Index Housebuilding Deep Dive delivers good news to the industry.

Despite affordability pressures for buyers, regulatory challenges and financial caution, four in five UK businesses (83%) operating in housebuilding and its supply chains remain confident about their outlook for the year ahead.

Barclays combined data from 70,000 UK businesses and research from 500 industry leaders and 2,000 consumers for the report.

It also shows strengthening activity at the start of the development pipeline, sustained buyer demand for new-build homes and a major uplift in planned investment.

The Kennedy Center: Full Shutdown vs Phased Works

Renovating live performing arts venues pits audience access against construction quality.

These landmark buildings must balance heritage preservation with modern upgrades while continuing to function as live operational hubs. The core dilemma in occupied venue renovations is access versus quality. A full shutdown grants contractors uninterrupted site control.

This eliminates audience disruptions, allows compressed timelines and supports precision finishes across structural, MEP and auditorium works.

As President Donald Trump announced plans to overhaul the Kennedy Center, phased renovation keeps revenue flowing but introduces complexity. Workers must navigate temporary partitions, noise barriers and restricted hours. Quality risks rise as vibration-sensitive acoustic upgrades compete with live rehearsals.

Subsea Construction: The Rise of Repeatable EPC Models

The offshore oil and gas sector could be witnessing a strategic pivot as standardised procurement models begin to challenge the bespoke design frameworks that have dominated subsea engineering for decades.

This transition from customised solutions towards repeatability-driven methodologies suggests a fundamental recalibration of how operators approach project delivery in deepwater environments.

For years, traditional engineering, procurement and construction approaches have operated on the assumption that each offshore field requires individually tailored valves, manifolds and umbilical systems.

However, recent contract awards across major deepwater basins indicate that this "one-off" engineering mindset may be losing ground to configure-to-order frameworks that prioritise efficiency over customisation.

The implications for capital deployment and project economics could prove substantial. By adopting pre-engineered components and leveraging existing blueprints across multiple developments, operators are effectively removing entire phases of project design that have historically extended timelines and inflated costs.

Marsh: Managing Risks in Data Centre Construction

Marsh Risk has bolstered its Nimbus insurance facility to US$2.7bn, responding to increased demand from contractors and developers working on large-scale data centre projects.

The expansion could provide construction firms with access to higher insurance limits as they navigate the complexities of building digital infrastructure across the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The Nimbus facility, launched by Marsh Risk in June 2025, targets the specific insurance needs of data centre construction.

As a business of Marsh, the world's leading insurance broker and risk adviser, the facility has already been deployed on builds in the UK, US and the Netherlands.

The expansion reflects growing requirements for specialised cover as construction activity in the data centre sector intensifies.