In what may go down in history as the “COVID Era,” construction has been designated as an essential business in most of the United States. Repair, remodeling, new construction, completion of started projects, residential, commercial, and infrastructure all have been impacted by the pandemic and its business and economic fallout. Infrastructure projects, especially, have often had a yo-yo life cycle this year as demand for travel fell tremendously in March and April with restrictions worldwide leading to reduced work on airports and cruise terminals. Road, water, sewage treatment, and other local infrastructure projects started and stopped as the tax base fell and cities and counties, as well as states, found health care demands used up critically short funds.

While the vast majority of civil contractors are experiencing delays with their projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are still seeing high levels of backlog and remain relatively optimistic about the state of the civil construction market, according to new data from Dodge Data & Analytics. The second volume of The Civil Quarterly (TCQ) also found delays were reported on approximately one fifth of current projects with little change expected among these contractors over the next six months.

As expected, an overwhelming majority of the contractors surveyed (~92%) reported that their business has experienced at least some impacts from COVID-19, but these effects were not uniform. The most frequent impacts identified were increased worker health and safety concerns and fewer projects starting construction. Notably, while most of the contractors surveyed have changed work procedures to increase social distancing, and half have encouraged their office staff to work remotely, only 10% have had to furlough or lay off employees or adjust their salaries in response to the pandemic.

The TCQ found civil contractors are still quite optimistic about the state of their industry and their businesses. Over half of contractors surveyed report a high or very high level of confidence in new business over the next 12 months with only a quarter reporting a low level of confidence. Of those surveyed, most contractors have a healthy level of backlog. This is despite more contractors reporting decreased backlogs this quarter than last quarter.

Contractors do report a growing strong concern about the cost of construction materials. Nearly half (~43%) have had their businesses impacted by fluctuations in the cost of construction materials in the last six months, and more than half are concerned about cost increases for materials over the next six months. It is unclear whether these concerns relate to supply chain impacts from COVID-19, the recent tariffs on some of these materials, or other factors. It is notable that the highest percentage of contractors (61%) report being concerned about steel prices.

The study also explored many technology strategies that have received new attention in the industry to reduce negative impacts and support the needs for social distancing and increased remote office work. Top cited technologies include Ruggedized Tablets, Machine Control, Drones, and E-Ticketing.

When looking at e-Bidding, which can impact productivity and profitability, the study revealed that its appeal extends beyond the pandemic, as a vast majority of the industry is either constantly or frequently pursuing bidding opportunities. Currently, about two thirds of the industry uses a paid bidding service, and 51% use it to conduct online bid submissions or find out about bid results. Subscription to a bid aggregation tool is common, but these tools are far more often used to find projects to bid and obtain plans and specs than to actually submit bids.

The Civil Quarterly is the result of a partnership with Founding partner Infotech, Platinum partner Hexagon and Gold partners Command Alkon and Digital Construction Works, and is based on original research collected quarterly from civil contractors and engineers. Dodge Data & Analytics’ latest survey was distributed within the month of August 2020 and collected data from 147 contractors and 36 civil engineers who work on heavy civil infrastructure projects.

Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #IoT #sustainability #AI #5G #cloud #edge #futureofwork #infrastructure #digitaltransformation