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We are in the middle of the global pandemic, and no one knows what the future holds. It looks like it won’t go away any time soon anyway. This is not the first and most probably not the last global spread of dangerous disease, so we have to learn from the current situation as much as possible to minimise the negative impact on the economy in the future.

The construction industry, with its old-fashioned, labor-intensive construction methods, is one which suffers badly from the recent crisis. There are many other businesses which suffer equally or even worse. Still, we have to remember that construction sector is a drive for the economy in many countries and one single job lost on the construction site causes loss of several positions in the whole supply chain and related businesses. Simplifying we can say that every economic crisis of recent years started and finished on the construction sites. Keeping this in mind, we have to find a way to keep going through difficult times and protect the construction sector to protect the whole economy.

Precast concrete and off-site construction methods in general, seem to be a reasonable solution to overcome most of the difficulties related to the pandemic restrictions and our new rules of life. One of the issues we have to deal with is to minimize all activities on the construction site. Using off-site construction methods, we can move them into a controlled factory environment where the COVID19 restrictions and recommendations are easier to implement. The solution where a four men crew together with a crane operator (who is in self-isolation during the most of the construction work anyway) can build a multi-storey residential building within a few weeks seems to be an attractive option. And not only for social distancing reasons.

Precast companies seem to be better prepared for the actual pandemic situation than any other construction businesses. With the minimal erecting personnel involved on site and all the production process concentrated in the factories, they can adapt quickly to the new rules. Precast factories are usually well organized where elements are produced utilizing a semi-automated or fully automated production facilities. The advanced production process requires a limited number of people, spread across large production facilities which helps maintain social distancing and reduce the risk of virus transmission to the absolute minimum. The rebar preparation and the reinforcement cages assembling process is usually also automated and separated from the main casting process. Complete, prefabricated rebar cages prepared at the steel processing plant arrive ready to use at the casting lines. This significantly improves the efficiency of the precast production process and quality of the rebar cages but also helps to avoid concertation of the workforce and keeping the trade crews separated from each other.

 Also, the protective equipment like face shields, face masks, goggles and gloves are usual PPE in the precast factory, so the only necessary change is to use them by everyone as a standard. Adding to this rotational use of social facilities (canteens, changing rooms) and the precast production can continue almost as usual without putting anyone’s life at risk.

Precast companies are also well prepared for remote work in terms of the design process. Using design and project management tools provided by companies like Trimble, allow switching seamlessly between working in the office and working from home. Using tools like Trimble Connect and Tekla Model Sharing, Zoom or MS Teams, designers and detailers can still work on the projects as a team not meeting each other.

The advantages of off-site construction methods are very attractive in the context of COVID19. However, there is much more than a solution for the pandemic. Off-site construction methods and precast concrete, in particular, could be considered as the future of the construction. The question is how far we want to go with the off-site fabrication. This is a matter of factory resources, available technology and logistics, but the real limit is our imagination. Starting from basic 2D precast elements, with an innovative and open-minded approach we may end up with fully functional and finished 3D units prepared in the factory, delivered to site and assembled into the complete structure within a very short time, using minimal labour on site. That would require taking into consideration the off-site construction methods at a very early stage of the design process, not just using them as a last resort for saving the project programme or budget or both. But this is a topic for a completely different article ….

This article is also published on my LinkedIn website.