ABSTRACT
The construction industry has been highly disrupted by the pandemic as the development of construction projects must be adapted due to policies to minimize the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing. As the construction industry contributes approximately 7% of Chilean GDP, it is important to identify and understand the impacts the construction industry has suffered due to the pandemic context. This study aims to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on Chilean construction projects. This study is enabled by data from 40 semi-structured interviews collected between May and November 2020 with multiple stakeholders working on projects during the pandemic, namely construction managers, construction engineers, and laborers of construction work. This study's results are obtained by categorizing the impacts of COVID-19 on Chilean construction projects, performing content analysis to the data collected. We found that the impacts of COVID-19 on construction projects can be classified in nine categories, being the categories with the most coded responses the following: economic impacts, productivity, and the stop and delay of construction projects. Additionally, the impacts from COVID-19 were identified to reach multiple levels, namely at the company, project, workers, and suppliers and subcontractors' levels. The most coded excerpts regarding the impacts of COVID-19 were found at the project and workers' levels. This study is a first step that identifies the impacts suffered by the construction industry due to pandemic conditions;understanding these impacts may guide the most appropriate plans and policies of decision-makers in the fight against COVID-19 in the construction industry. © 2023, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.
ABSTRACT
as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, construction projects have struggled to be completed. As such, it is necessary to find alternatives that optimize the limited human resources that can be working on construction sites. One alternative to do so is using multiskilled workers so workers can be reassigned to construction activities minimizing projects' disruption due to workers getting contagion with COVID-19. This study simulates the influence of multiskilled workers in the development of a construction project in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic using an agent-based modeling approach. The aim of the study is to quantify the influence of multiskilled workers in the deficit of construction workers due to COVID-19. The proposed model generates six scenarios to include the uncertainty from limited data from the field due to the pandemic context to quantify the deficit of workers to develop a construction project. This study found that using multiskilled workers reduces the deficit of workers required to perform critical activities in construction projects. More specifically, it can reduce the average deficit of workers roughly in half when compared with the alternative of using only single-skilled workers, from 33.4% to 16.7% of deficit. Consequently, multiskilled workers represents an alternative for construction managers to deal with the disruption from COVID-19 in construction projects from a workforce management standpoint. Understanding alternatives to minimize the impacts of COVID-19 in construction projects may assist engineers and managers in applying strategies to develop construction projects accounting the limitations that COVID-19 places on construction sites.
ABSTRACT
The construction industry has been highly disrupted by the pandemic as the development of construction projects must be adapted due to policies to minimize the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing. As the construction industry contributes approximately 7% of Chilean GDP, it is important to identify and understand the impacts the construction industry has suffered due to the pandemic context. This study aims to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on Chilean construction projects. This study is enabled by data from 40 semi-structured interviews collected between May and November 2020 with multiple stakeholders working on projects during the pandemic, namely construction managers, construction engineers, and laborers of construction work. This study’s results are obtained by categorizing the impacts of COVID-19 on Chilean construction projects, performing content analysis to the data collected. We found that the impacts of COVID-19 on construction projects can be classified in nine categories, being the categories with the most coded responses the following: economic impacts, productivity, and the stop and delay of construction projects. Additionally, the impacts from COVID-19 were identified to reach multiple levels, namely at the company, project, workers, and suppliers and subcontractors’ levels. The most coded excerpts regarding the impacts of COVID-19 were found at the project and workers’ levels. This study is a first step that identifies the impacts suffered by the construction industry due to pandemic conditions;understanding these impacts may guide the most appropriate plans and policies of decision-makers in the fight against COVID-19 in the construction industry. © 2023, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way societies operate. Consequentially, the public, businesses, and industry used water differently, leading to changes in overall demand, along with spatial shifts in use. These changes stressed US water utilities, as they had to implement social distancing policies, adjust to changing revenues, and create customer assistance programs. The capabilities and characteristics of water utilities vary throughout the US, which may impact their resilience. Here, we aim to understand which pre-existing characteristics of water utilities may have led to resilience during the pandemic using results from a qualitative analysis of interviews with 27 US utilities conducted during 2020. We searched for statistical associations between utility characteristics (e.g., population dynamics, geographic location) and the challenges or changes experienced during the pandemic. Results of this study reveal the possible operating environments that increase the resilience of pandemic-induced shocks and help utilities prepare for future pandemics or population dynamics.