Video Monitoring of Construction Sites

[kenvlach]

The Army Corps of Engineering video of the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis may be very helpful in the investigation.
The video of the Big Blue crane collapse in Milwaukee in July 1999, obtained fortuitously as OSHA was on-site investigating earlier incidents, was also helpful.

As big money is involved (deaths & injuries, clients, contractors, government, insurers), seems to me that videotaping may soon be required for larger projects.
Or, is this perhaps already being done?

 

[JAE]

As in....Big Brother is watching your structure.

There seems to be more and more cameras out there. Years ago (1960's?) we never would have thought of solving a crime, or finding a missing person with some surveillance camera.

It seems like today we are surrounded by them.

 

[kelowna]

I do not know about existing structures, but many large construction projects have webcams these days. The project I am currently involved in is one of them. It is a static camera that takes still pictures at 15 minutes intervals and is available to everybody through internet.
I see it happening more and more these days. Initially I was reluctant, I imagined it would attract unwanted attention, but I have to confess that not only it has not, but in fact is a very usefull tool for monitoring of site activities or to track progress.

The way I see it is that if you feel unconfortable with anybody seeing what you do on site, you should not be doing it in the first time.