When Gene Hodge started his career at Mortenson 23 years ago, innovation in construction looked a lot different than it does today. Back then, the idea of robots on job sites or algorithms optimizing building designs was more science fiction than business strategy.
But as Hodge rose through the ranks from intern to VP of Innovation, he’s helped drive a transformation at the venerable general contractor — one that’s putting emerging technologies like automation, AI, and generative design at the heart of how Mortenson operates.
“We’re very large in the energy and infrastructure field delivering wind, solar, battery storage, power transmission, civil infrastructure projects,” Hodge explained on a recent episode of the Heavy Hitters podcast. “We’re also well known in the sports world. We’re typically one of the top sports builders in the US.”
We have a broad commercial set where we have regional operating groups all across the country that are doing hospitals, hotels, offices, public infrastructure. Then we have a very large, not shocking and growing data center business that’s rapidly becoming probably the largest single segment within our company.
It’s a diverse portfolio — and one that Hodge and his team at I4, Mortenson’s innovation arm, are working to infuse with cutting-edge tech at every turn. The goal? To solve the biggest challenges standing in the way of Mortenson’s ability to execute its work, from the job site to the back office.
That process often starts with what Hodge calls an “audacious goal” from Mortenson’s leadership team. Take the company’s push to get “no human hands in holes” — that is, to fully automate the excavation process on its job sites.
“Our CEO at the time said, ‘Hey, what if we had no human hands in holes in five years?’ and we were like, ‘Well, that’s interesting,'” Hodge recounted. “And so we started looking at what that meant, what that would take. And that created an R&D effort.”
That effort ultimately led to the creation of Blulabs, a standalone company spun out of Mortenson’s innovation lab that’s developing an integrated set of technologies to automate solar field construction. The initial focus is on automating the installation of solar piles, but the longer-term vision is to expand to other repetitive tasks across Mortenson’s portfolio.
It’s a prime example of how Mortenson is blending what Hodge calls “hard tech” like robotics with practical applications to solve real-world problems. And it’s a model that the company is replicating across a range of other emerging tech domains, from AI and machine learning to digital twin and generative design.
But as Hodge is quick to point out, technology alone isn’t enough to drive lasting change in an industry as complex and fragmented as construction. To truly move the needle, he argues, contractors need to fundamentally rethink how they approach their work — starting with the way they design and plan their projects.
Enter the world of design for manufacturing and assembly, or DFMA. It’s a concept that’s been gaining traction in the construction industry in recent years, and one that Mortenson is embracing as a key pillar of its innovation strategy.
Focusing on buildings as products and not individual projects and what can be standardized and what can be replicated such that you can really infuse it with continuous improvement. I use the term continuous improvement in terms of, if you know that you’re going to, let’s say you’re doing precast foundations, right? You know you’re going to do those precast foundations on the next 50 projects. You are obsessed with, how do I get 1% more out of this, make it 1% better each project, and then the laws of compounding driving significant improvement.
It’s a mindset shift that Hodge believes is critical for contractors looking to stay competitive in an increasingly tech-driven industry. Rather than treating each project as a unique snowflake, he argues, firms need to start thinking about how they can standardize and optimize the components and processes they use across their entire portfolio.
Of course, that’s easier said than done in an industry where change often happens at a glacial pace. But Hodge is convinced that the firms that can successfully make that transition — and harness the power of emerging technologies to do it — will be the ones that thrive in the years ahead.
“I think bring the ability to repeat and compound lessons learned to make things better in an environment where you’re making something over and over again versus every project’s snowflake that will never be replicated,” he said. “Just that mindset is really what we’re focusing on.”
For Mortenson, that focus is already paying dividends. The company is routinely ranked among the top contractors in the country, with a reputation for taking on some of the most complex and challenging projects around — and delivering them with a level of innovation and efficiency that’s virtually unheard of in the industry.
But as Hodge sees it, the real payoff is still to come. As technologies like automation, AI, and generative design continue to mature and become more widely adopted, he believes they’ll fundamentally reshape not just how buildings are built, but how they’re designed, operated, and maintained over their entire lifecycle.
“I would love to see something that could automate the tracking of productivity down to the real fidelity of units per minute or minutes per unit,” he mused when asked about the technologies he’d like to see come to market in the future. “Something that you could really talk a lot about, gap to perfect, and if you had a perfect bluebird day with the perfect crew, the perfect circumstances, what’s the best we could do in any given, whether that’s installing panels or piles or whatever it is.”
It’s a tantalizing vision — and one that Hodge and his team at Mortenson are working hard to make a reality. One hard hat at a time.
To learn more about how Mortenson is driving innovation in construction, connect with Gene Hodge on LinkedIn. You can also explore Mortenson’s portfolio of projects and services at mortenson.com.
