And despite the economical sensibilities of the truck, it’s no slouch when it comes to performance. Ox trucks can carry up to 2 tons, drive through up to 30 inches of water and are powered by a 2.2-liter diesel engine. And did we mention it has a cool center-aligned driver’s seat?

Sir Norman is readying to spend £3 million ($4.6 million) to bring the Ox to production.

Credit: Planning Office for Urban Affairs

For 64 years people in Salem, Massachusetts wondered “Where did St. Joseph go?”

Between 1911 and 1944, a 12-foot-tall statue of St. Joseph stood watch 100 feet above the ground in the edifice of the church in Salem that bore his name, according to The Salem News. Though St. Joseph Church burned down in the Salem Fire of 1914, the skeleton of the church and the statue remained. The statue was taken down in 1944 and a large crowd gathered to watch.

And at some point between then and 1950 the statue was buried. Until just a couple weeks ago, no one knew exactly where.

The Planning Office for Urban Affairs demolished the old church skeleton and is now building a $20 million affordable apartment complex on the site. Before work began sonar and ground-penetrating radar were used to search for the statue in order to make record of and then re-bury the statue if it was found. No luck.

But then, on May 3 while digging the last footing for the new building’s foundation, workers uncovered the statue. Lisa Alberghini, president of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, made a neat remark on the discovery.

“St. Joseph was a carpenter, and it’s wonderful and appropriate to honor him today at this active construction site where we are working to build new homes … up out of this ground, for people in need,” Alberghini said during the reburial of the statue in a private cemetery.

Via our sister site Better Roads and the always entertaining Jalopnik, when faced with the rampant problem of semi trucks entering tunnels and overpasses with too short a clearance, the city government in Sydney, Australia has turned to an extremely clever implementation of the stop sign that simply can’t be ignored.

As you can see in the image above, when a semi triggers a sensor along the roadway that indicates it is nearing the tunnel, a curtain of water is released from the top of the tunnel and a projector inside projects a huge, bright stop sign across it.

The stop sign system is made by a company called Laservison and Sydney has been using the projected signs since 2007. Unfortunately, despite the clever trick and the success of actually getting the trucks to stop, the semis have still reached a point of no return since the entrance of these tunnels is essentially a corridor packed with cars they can’t simply turn around out of. That means traffic backups that last for hours until the road is cleared.

You can watch a video of the signs in action below.

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According to a recent report from the Associated Press, construction companies across the country say they feel the economy could be doing even better if they could find enough workers.

They say they have the demand—and therefore the potential to do more work —but cannot find enough skilled workers to do so.

After the housing bust, hundreds of thousands of construction workers across the country left the industry for good, retiring or finding more stable —and in many cases better-paying—work in another industry.

There is much excitement over the rebound of the housing market right now, and for good reason. It’s propelling construction spending and employment back toward more healthy levels. Home starts were down 16.5 percent in April but a surge in building permits suggests that the recovery should be sustained. All of this despite some fears that we are in the midst of an “inferior housing recovery.”

The only problem is that construction employment is still lagging far behind the housing recovery and demand, severely negating the boost it could be providing.

“I can’t find qualified people to fill the positions that I have open,” Vishaal Gupta, the president of Park Square Homes in Orlando, Florida, told the AP. “I would be able to build more homes this year and meet more demand than I can handle today.”

Compounding the problem? The workers who are qualified are asking for higher pay.

The AP reports that the shortages being seen by contractors across the country range across all positions, “from construction superintendents and purchasing agents to painters, cabinet makers and drywall installers.” In home construction specifically, the National Association of Home Builders told the AP that its members are not able to find enough “framers, roofers, plumbers and carpenters.”

One more interesting note? Even if there weren’t a labor shortage, a tighter supply of building materials—whose prices continue to increase—and a lack of ready-to-build land would still likely limit the ability to meet growing demand.

Citing data from the National Dealer Association (NADA), the report says the boost in resale values is due to the rebound in home construction coupled with a low supply in the full-size pickup market.

Because of the increased interest from the construction industry, NADA predicts that two-wheel-drive, regular cab pickups with V-6 engines—the most popular trucks among those who work in construction—will be in high demand over the course of the next year.

According to the NADA data, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT Crew Cab with a 5.3-liter V-8 engine added $1,460 to it’s resale value in the last year. At an increase of 8 percent, that’s the highest yearly gain in the segment.

The next highest gain was the 5 percent or $833 the Ram 1500 Crew Cab SLT with a 4.7-liter V-8 engine added to its resale value.

Be sure to check out the Truck Trend report for the full listing.

However, a surge in building permits hints that the damage might not be too bad.

Construction began on homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 853,000, a sharp drop of 16.5 percent from March’s revised rate of 1.02 million, according to U.S. Commerce Department data. Of course it’s important to keep things in perspective as the numbers are still a 13.3 percent improvement over the year-ago rate of 754,000.

And just as March’s numbers owed much of their momentum to apartments, they carry much of the blame for April’s poor showing as well. Multi-family starts fell 37 percent to an annual rate of 234,000.

Single-family home starts fell 2.1 percent to an annual rate of 610,000.

Despite the numbers, there is little debate over the nationwide interest in new homes. Home builders around the country are struggling to meet demand as home buyers find the iron increasingly hotter with mortgage rates and home prices expected to increase in the next year.

Another good sign: builder confidence in the housing market is up 3 points this month, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

And because of those reports, coupled with a 14.3-percent surge in April’s annual rate of permits granted, most feel like the housing recovery moving forward isn’t in doubt. Building permits were issued at an annual rate of 1.02 million—the most since June 2008 and 35.8 percent higher than in April 2012.

Housing completions were at an annual rate of 689,000 in April. That’s a 14.3-percent drop from March and 3.3 percent above the April 2012 rate.

Kyle Busch will race this No. 18 Snickers Toyota in the NASCAR All-Star Race this Saturday.

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All of which makes it tragic that what time could not bring down, a modern construction crew did with complete disregard.

According to the Associated Press, a construction crew has “essentially destroyed” Nohmul, the most important Mayan ruin in Northern Belize and one of the largest in the country which shares borders with Mexico to the North and Guatemala to the West.

The crew used bulldozers and excavators to destroy the ruin to use the crushed rock for road fill. The ruin lies in the middle of a privately-owned sugar cane field and though it lacks the even sides of better-preserved ruins, archaeologists argue that there is little chance the crew could have mistaken the 30-foot-tall ruin for a simple mound of rock.

“These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It’s just bloody laziness,” said Jamie Awe, head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology.

The excavation was apparently so brazen and rampant that there are actually photos of the crews at work, as seen above.

Pre-Hispanic ruins are protected by the Belizean government and law enforcement officials say they are conducting an investigation with the possibility of criminal charges.

Oddly enough, the practice of using ancient ruins for aggregate is quite common in Belize, though the ruins being excavated typically aren’t as large as Nohmul.

“…Bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize (the whole of the San Estevan centre has gone, both of the major pyramids at Louisville, other structures at Nohmul, many smaller sites), but this sounds like the biggest yet,” Norman Hammond, an emeritus professor of archaeology at Boston University, told the AP in an email.

Hyundai’s R380LC-9A excavator

Experience improved operator comfort and enhanced performance with the RC300LC-9A, 330LC-9A and 380LC-9A crawler excavators from Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas.

Featuring a Tier 4 Interim engine upgrade and improved hydraulics, the excavators are suited for mid-size and large excavating projects, site prep, pipeline installation, demolition and road and utility work.

A low emission, low noise Cummins engine powers the 9A series, which also has a Cummins VGT Turbocharger to continuously vary the airflow boost to match engine rpm and load demands. A variable speed fan clutch, two-stage auto decal system and economy mode aid in conserving fuel.

Three engine modes – Power, Standard and Economy – allow switching between full power and reduced fuel consumption. The hydraulic system ensures controllability.

The 9A series cabs have strong, but slim tubing, providing both visibility and safety. The enlarged cab has a skylight, one-piece right-side glass, safety glass that will not scratch or fade, a closeable sunshade and reduced front window seam. An integrated seat reduces operator fatigue, and the ergonomic joysticks are height adjustable.

A color LCD display has easy-to-read gauges that allow the operator to monitor temperature, fuel level and maintenance items, as well as adjusting engine power and work modes, setting the boom speed and more.

Additional features include heated seats, an enhanced climate control system, audio system with USB player, AM/FM stereo and mp3 capabilities.

Maintenance is simplified via extended lube intervals of 250 hours, 1,000-hour extended life hydraulic filters and 5,000-hour long life hydraulic oil.

The building has reached its symbolic height of 1,776 feet and is now the tallest building in the United States and Western Hemisphere. Which is why this video taken from a GoPro camera from the top of the spire looking down as it is installed is so amazing.

The video chronicles the spire’s entire upward climb and includes the work of the guys at the top who do the installation work from a downright dizzying height. A truly amazing perspective for a great moment in U.S. history. Check it out below.

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