The Technology Adaptation Measures to Reduce Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on the Construction Industry

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the major growth engines of world economics. The recent occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused great threats to the construction industry. To prevent further damage occurring to the industry, identifying the consequences is necessary. This is to avert the worst level of economic deterioration in decades in the construction industry. However, the adverse effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry is still unclear and defined. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry with the main objectives of to analyze the current state of the construction industry, then to investigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry and lastly to develop technology adaptation measures to reduce the negative impact towards the construction industry. The study was conducted through the method of quantitative study with the use of a closed-ended online questionnaire survey as the research instrument. The data of the survey was collected from 64 construction personnel all over Sarawak and was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software which enables the data collected to be summarized in the nominal and interval scale. The findings of this study show that the outbreak of Covid-19 has caused drastic changes in the construction industry which has led to a few impacts such as delays in construction works, shortage of workers, financial problems, supply chain management issues as well as safety and health conditions. However, through the identification of appropriate technology adaptation measures such as technology development and application as well as e-monitoring site logistics and control, the impacts may be reduced and the adverse effect that is to suffer by the construction industry may be lessened.