The construction environment during the COVID-19 pandemic - two sides of the same coin

Originally published on Jun 29, 2020, on https://sites.google.com/view/claudiagarrido/home

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/construction-environment-during-covid-19-pandemic-two-garrido/

(Jun 29, 2020) During the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction environment has experienced two opposite approaches. At one extreme, accelerated projects to repurpose buildings into hospitals, or building new ones to respond to the urgent need of treatment units. On the other extreme, current projects or new construction projects will need to be completely replanned, making the duration longer.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the need to have more hospital beds to patients' treatment. Cities have responded in some ways to fulfill this need, such as repurposing existing facilities, erecting temporary medical facilities, or building new ones in accelerated ways. The repurposing of existing facilities included, for example, the transformation of convention centers and hotels. Examples of convention centers transformed into care units have happened in New York City, Chicago, Miami Beach, and Washington, DC. Hotels have also been converted into healthcare facilities. These transformations and conversions are occurring fast. For instance, a hotel conversion in St. Louis (M.O., USA) took less than 100 hours.

The erection of temporary medical facilities and the construction of new ones in accelerated ways have also taken place. In Paramus (N.J., USA), a temporary medical facility was built in two weeks to support the main hospital building. Cities in Brazil have also adopted the alternative to building temporary medical facilities or "campaign hospitals" through public or private ventures. Last, new medical facilities have occurred using modular or prefab construction. The first ones seen were the two hospitals in the Chinese city of Wuhan. A modular medical facility was erected in Brazil, expanding to the M'boi Mirim hospital in Sao Paulo. A total of 44 modules were built offsite and assembled in 11 days. Large contractors in the U.S. are now also offering prefab modular systems for health screenings.

However, while the COVID-19 pandemic has driven the acceleration of some construction projects, it also causes the need to replan others. Construction projects underway need now to consider other health and safety precautions, including social distancing, meaning that activities must be replanned to avoid people working on top of each other, and sanitation routines. Low degrees of activity overlapping, or no overlapping, and different shifts may be adopted. Technology has also helped to mitigate some of the issues, such as the performance of remote inspections by video. In the end, while some contractors are trying to recover the delay caused by the pandemic, many projects will be delayed.

While construction is experiencing opposite approaches during this pandemic period, there is no doubt that lessons have been learned. For example, some contractors may now embrace modular or prefab construction. Remote inspections might come to stay, and remote collaborating work might now not be so threatening to many. The pandemic disruption may also be an opportunity to reflect on current practices and a moment for a change.