Construction Experts Talk About Unanticipated Challenges and Lessons Learned Working Through COVID-19

In our third installment of “Procore’s Customer Roundtable: We’re In This Together” webinar series, Chandler Brooks, regional marketing director at Procore, asked several construction professionals how they’re working and leading through COVID-19.

Their stories touch on the states of their jobsites, the challenges they face and the possible impacts the pandemic will have on construction in the long term. They’ve also discovered unanticipated opportunities and ways of applying new lessons in a rapidly changing work environment.

Here’s a recap of the Procore’s Customer Roundtable: “We’re In This Together” webinar:

States of Business

Projects were continuing under new operating procedures, but with an air of uncertainty. 

Diane Mike, construction administrator at ERDMAN, noted caution among clients about finances.  John Andres, operations technology manager at Andres Construction, agreed and said some projects were slow to start. But, he added, projects already through the planning stages were starting up as expected. Meanwhile, Big-D Construction’s Implementation and Adoption Manager, Nichole Carter said new business was at a normal level.

“We’re actively chasing a lot of large and small projects in all of our regional offices.”

“Our market sectors are broad, so we’re seeing almost business as usual with the influx of pursuits,” Carter said. “We’re actively chasing a lot of large and small projects in all of our regional offices.”

Inspections Among Biggest Challenges

“People are still calling me up, it’s just I’m not able to go out to their jobsite, said Andres. “I spent eight hours on Zoom calls and GoToMeetings yesterday, just helping people out with their problems on-site. So technology’s there, and we’re able to continue, it’s just less in person.”

Mike said her company’s supers are still working on-site while site populations are limited. She noted that her biggest challenge was in dealing with inspections.

“Working with the city and state governments and getting those inspections is difficult because they’re not in the office,” Mike said. “So how do we find technology that would enable us to do this without them coming to the jobsite? And how do we get our A&E people out there for final walkthroughs? Or, can we do it virtually? Will the city and state governments accept doing a walkthrough that’s virtual?”

“We’ve got to be careful how we handle this to make sure we’re documenting everything the whole way through.”

Big-D Construction worked with two jurisdictions to use StructionSite, an embedded integration with Procore, for virtual jobsite walkthroughs. Carter said developers the company works with are also doing virtual walkthroughs.

Andres expressed his hope for the industry and contractors to start working together to encourage more virtual inspections in the long term. But, he cautioned, starting out right was important.

“The worst thing we could do right now is end up with disputes about whether something was inspected,” Andres said. “So we’ve got to be careful how we handle this to make sure we’re documenting everything the whole way through.”

A Safety Bonus

Mike said she thought practices set up during the pandemic would continue afterward, making sites even safer. She cited items like improved checklists, better tracking of people, and heightened awareness. 

Carter said her company, Big-D Construction, had found opportunities to engage with their partners to improve site security and safety by using tech. She also noted improved collaboration and more cohesive teams.

Improved Record Keeping

Andres reported that record keeping improved as people began paying closer attention to daily reports. Carter said her company was doing strategic planning around potential delays due to labor and materials shortages. Mike agreed that lead times were likely to increase and said early planning was key to keeping projects moving in the months to come.

All panel participants said their companies were going the extra mile to keep up communications with all stakeholders. Andres said Andres Construction was using strictly ‘live’ documents because things are changing so quickly and files wouldn’t keep up. Carter said Big-D is now tracking and reporting substitution requests to owners as early warnings of areas for concern. The company is also doing corporate level reporting from all project levels to estimators, regional managers, owners, and staff.

Mike noted that communication was especially important when dealing with COVID-19-related costs. She believes in open communications with the client when it comes to contingencies and notifications about factors that might increase costs.

Getting Creative

Panelists noted how the pandemic has forced them to think creatively about getting the work done. Sometimes, creative genius has come from the field. Carter related how trade partner crews solved the challenges to getting the work done safely on their own. Andres said his firm uses ‘lean planning’ to be able to more easily visualize where they had potential bottlenecks and where they had slack. 

The Future

All panelists saw construction worksites altered because of COVID-19. A key theme was the greater adoption of technology. From the wider adoption of virtual tools to a greater general acceptance of technology, participants noticed use cases that seemed years away before the virus but are now on their doorstep.

“I definitely think in the long run it’s going to be a drastic change if this is something that continues to set precedents on how we do our daily routines,” said Carter.

Panelists also said the industry would rethink the very basics of building and how they sequence work. Even design would be affected in terms of physical safety for occupants.

“Social distancing has forced us to do some of these things,” said Andres. “But then other things like just doing a digital daily report instead of one on paper is making people see how they need data in real-time to make decisions.” 

“I definitely think in the long run it’s going to be a drastic change if this is something that continues to set precedents on how we do our daily routines,” said Carter.