Early Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the United States Construction Industry

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest global health crisis in decades. Apart from the unprecedented number of deaths and hospitalizations, the pandemic has resulted in economic slowdowns, widespread business disruptions, and significant hardships. This study focused on investigating the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. construction industry since the declaration of the national emergency on 13 March 2020. The study objectives were achieved through 34 telephone interviews with project managers, engineers, designers, and superintendents that represented different states and distinct industry sectors in the United States (U.S.). The interviewees offered information on their experience with the pandemic, including the general and adverse effects experienced, new opportunities created, and risk management efforts being undertaken. The reported adverse effects included significant delays on projects, inability to secure materials on time, reduction in productivity rates, material price escalations, and others. The new opportunities that were created included projects involving the fast-track construction of medical facilities, construction of residential buildings, transportation-related work, and opportunities to recruit skilled workers. The risk management measures that were widely adopted included measures to enhance safety and reduce other project risks. The safety measures adopted included requiring employees to wear cloth face masks, adoption of social distancing protocols, staggering of construction operations, offering COVID-19-related training, administering temperature checks prior to entry into the workplace, and others. Measures to manage other project risks included the formation of a task force team to review the evolving pandemic and offer recommendations, advocating that construction businesses be deemed essential to combat delays and taking advantage of government relief programs. The study findings will be useful to industry stakeholders interested in understanding the early impacts of the pandemic on the construction industry. Industry stakeholders may also build upon the reported findings and establish best practices for continued safe and productive operations.

Analysis of COVID-19 Concerns Raised by the Construction Workforce and Development of Mitigation Practices

“…In the USA, Alsharef et al (2021) conducted a series of structured interviews with 34 construction professionals on the impacts of the pandemic on their work. General and adverse impacts of the pandemic included: (1) disparities across states on whether construction operations are essential or non-essential, (2) material delivery delays and shortage of material, (3) increase in demands from local suppliers and manufacturers, (4) delays in inspections and securing permits, (5) reduction in efficiency and production rate, (6) suspension or slowing of ongoing projects and delay in the start of new projects, (7) price escalations, additional costs, loss of revenue, payment delays, (8) safety concerns regarding virus spread in workplaces, (9) transition to work from home for non-site personnel, and (10) expected increase in disputes, litigation, and claims (Alsharef et al, 2021). Moreover, the authors brought awareness to the efforts needed to mitigate the challenges through developing new safety measures to keep construction sites safe, and managing various project risks such as time delays, costs overruns, and material shortage.…”

“…Moreover, the authors brought awareness to the efforts needed to mitigate the challenges through developing new safety measures to keep construction sites safe, and managing various project risks such as time delays, costs overruns, and material shortage. The study also discussed new opportunities that may arise due to the pandemic, including the ability to secure loans at low-interest rates, recruitment of skilled workers post-pandemic, and increase in demand for certain types of projects such as transportation, infrastructure, warehouses, residential, fast-track medical, and public facilities (Alsharef et al, 2021). Other major opportunities include the internal reviews that companies will undergo to improve existing systems such as rethinking current processes, utilizing technology, reducing operational and overhead costs, and enhancing equipment and tools (Alsharef et al, 2021).…”

“…Thus, major agencies such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) released a set of guidelines that construction employers can follow to safely resume work on construction projects as they weather the pandemic storm (OSHA, 2020b;CDC, 2020;AGC, 2021). Moreover, several studies from various parts of the world were published to report on both the status of construction projects and the safety and health precautions that construction companies are implementing on construction projects (Shibani et al, 2020;Alsharef et al, 2021;Ebekozien and Aigbavboa, 2021;Simpeh and Amoah, 2021).…”

COVID-19: Key global impacts on the construction industry and proposed coping strategies

“…As a result of lockdown policies, a large part of them were unable to return to work sites after the Lunar New Year holiday in 2020 [15]. The workforce has also suffered from great psychological burdens as a result of worrying about their future, and the financial difficulties that they may face them, especially the majority of them have financial obligations and families [5]. This is what prompted many workers in the informal construction sector to continue working despite the epidemic, exposing themselves and their families at risk [2].…”

“…COVID-19 was first announced at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and it soon spread very quickly in multiple regions around the world, so that prompted the World Health Organization to declare a state of emergency on March 11, 2020, regarding this disease a global health pandemic. [5]. Covid-19 has brought an unprecedented pattern of work contexts for construction companies and contractors in terms of place of work or method of communication, and has imposed clear impacts on the construction sector that must be studied and analyzed extensively [6].…”