Turner Construction appoints innDex as main technology partner on its landmark United Nations project

The partnership begins with one of the most complex live construction environments in New York City: the repositioning of One and Two UN Plaza at the United Nations Development Corporation. It marks a shift away from the card swipe and paper badge systems that have long been the industry default, replacing them with facial recognition that strengthens site security while removing the everyday friction of lost cards, borrowed badges and manual sign-ins.

The UN Plaza project is no typical build. Both towers remain fully occupied throughout construction, with office tenants working below active renovation floors and Millennium Hilton guests staying directly above major infrastructure works. It is the largest job Turner's New York interiors group has ever run, with construction underway since 2023 and completion trending toward 2029. A core team of around twelve directs 80 to 90 trade partners on site each day across roughly ten simultaneous phases, from full floor strip-outs to central plant replacement, under a nearly 100% unionized Project Labor Agreement.

Before innDex, workers were issued a printed badge at the loading dock, and there was no reliable way to track who was on site, when, or whether their safety credentials were still valid. Site Safety Training (SST) card expiries, a strict New York City requirement, were tracked manually by the field team, the same people responsible for actually building the job. "There really wasn't a way of tracking who, what, when, where," said Abby Davidson, Project Engineer at Turner. "You're just trying to build a job. You have to remember to build it safely."

Turner initially considered printing badges featuring workers' faces, then quickly discarded the idea. "Anyone can toss a badge to someone else, scan, and get through a turnstile. That's just not the right way," Davidson said. Turner and innDex instead configured turnstiles at the dedicated union entrance to run on facial recognition, working through early concerns about lighting and appearance changes together. "The facial recognition has been the best thing we've done," she said. "Workers get in faster, with no wallet and no fumbling."

The platform also brings automatic competency management to the site. innDex flags SST cards approaching expiry, checks worker details against government IDs, and blocks access automatically if a card has lapsed, closing a gap that once depended on manual checks and could trigger significant fines from the Department of Buildings. Turnstile data now feeds real-time headcounts, supervisor and first aider ratios, and workforce diversity reporting, giving Turner leadership live visibility across a site where daily rosters and evacuation accountability are a UN security requirement, not a formality.

Davidson credits innDex's implementation support, led by Jacob Byrne, as central to the rollout, and puts the daily time saving at 90 minutes to two hours, handed straight back to the people Turner needs on the floor. With three new towers rising in Manhattan and further data center projects underway, Turner sees innDex's role extending well beyond UN Plaza, replacing printed badges and third-party security booths across future sites.

About innDex

innDex is a construction technology company whose modular platform digitizes workforce, safety, asset and logistics management across construction sites, helping contractors control access, manage competencies, stay on top of health & safety and see exactly who is on site in real time. Learn more at www.inndex.co.uk.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/turner-construction-appoints-inndex-as-main-technology-partner-on-its-landmark-united-nations-project-302841319.html

SOURCE innDex