{"id":101828,"date":"2020-05-01T15:42:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T22:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101828"},"modified":"2020-05-01T15:42:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T22:42:02","slug":"resumption-of-construction-in-harmony-with-covid-19-is-the-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/01\/resumption-of-construction-in-harmony-with-covid-19-is-the-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Resumption of Construction in Harmony with Covid 19 is the Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandana Jayalath, University of Vocational Technology<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Building-product imports from China account\nfor nearly 70 percent of all Sri Lankan building supplies, making China the largest\nsupplier of items such as machinery and equipment, iron and steel, drywall, and\nother components. Because many raw materials used and consumed in the local\nsite assembly originate from China, the construction market quickly felt the\nimpacts of COVID-19 on trade as well as resultant disruptions to supply chains.\nGoing forward, disruptions will almost certainly impact the prices of\nconstruction products and materials. Simply put, we can expect significant\ndelays and disruptions throughout all sectors of the construction industry.\nThey are also a result of shortages of vital personal protective safety\nequipment\u2014such as respirators\u2014for workers. Furthermore, there are delays\nstemming from a shortage of craftspeople due to shelter-in-place restrictions and\ndelays occasioned by shortages of government workers available to perform\ninspections, issue permits, and conduct other actions. A number of contractors\nreport jobsites shutting down daily because they feel bad in case someone on\nthe jobsite the day before has tested positive for the virus, requiring\nshutdown and extensive cleaning. Meanwhile, there will be an unprecedented loss\nof productivity among workers because of distancing requirements, new safety\nprotective gear requirements, and safety procedures\u2014all in addition to the sick\nand quarantined workers who are absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction projects are not yet being\ndeclared critical infrastructure\u201d to allow operations to continue. These\nlobbying efforts in time to come may result in partial success. The implications\nof the suspension with no date to resume declared will otherwise undoubtedly\nmean laborers will be unemployed. The construction industry employs over 1\nmillion people of whom the majority is labourers and semi-skilled workers.\nMostly, they belong to the lower echelon in society and are the sole wage\nearners of the family. As Architect Jayantha Perera rightly said, the companies\nrequire a stimulus package as a short term measure to ensure wages to employees\nfor the months of April, May and June.  Additionally,\nthere are reports that with stock market losses, projects in the private sector\nmay slow as investors seek more secure funds. As the impacts of the pandemic\nare being felt, parties are racing to read what they may have bargained for in\nthe contracts. Legally speaking, force majeure and\/or comparable excusable\ndelay, suspension of work, change in law, material escalation, safety\/health\nrequirements, protection of work, and notice requirements are a couple of\ndefensive means available to contractors to establish their eligibility for\ntime extension and prolongation costs. Also, the loss may lie where it fell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 is not, broadly speaking,\nrendering projects altogether impossible to complete. But it is slowing them\ndown, causing delay and disruption, even if only because supply chains have\nbeen severally disrupted. Many projects have even stopped, usually with the\nintention to resume work at a later date. In Sri Lanka, the Construction\nindustry has generally not been the subject of \u2018ordered\u2019 shut down. However,\nsites are implementing the social distancing requirements. In a few countries,\nthere have even been specific orders requiring construction sites to close, or\nentitling contractors to suspend works and extensions of time until the end of\nthe state of emergency period, especially in public works. Despite, certain\nactivities (e.g., design activities) can be continued, while others cannot. The\nrequirement that the consequences of force majeure cannot be overcome is also\npotentially significant, because a contractor may be able to take measures to\nallow the works to continue, although at a reduced rate. Placing restrictions\non the movement of people or goods between or within countries, and requiring\nthat certain people be \u2018locked down\u2019, usually represents a change of the law,\nwhich has an impact \u2013 perhaps an impact even greater on a contractor\u2019s ability\nto progress works than the pandemic itself. For instance, in certain\njurisdictions, the hardship may allow parties to seek relief on the basis of an\nexceptional and unpredictable change of circumstances that affects the\nbusinesses. Under many laws, parties must continue to exhaust all reasonably\navailable means to continue performing their obligations, notwithstanding the\nexistence of a force majeure event. For example, mitigation is of high\nsignificance. Computer servers, electronic items, manufacturing tools, testing\nequipment, and documents idle in offices, sites and workshops would be damaged\nor destroyed due to non-maintenance. Also, there can be damages to important\ndata due to overheating, rats and termite attacks. We all must understand that\nfact that working from home is not possible unless computer facilities,\nsoftware, essential hard copies, soft files etc. are provided to the employees.\nHence, it is high time the professionals and industry regulators together revisit\nthe circumstances and work out a strategy to work in harmony with Covid 19 for\na less interrupted construction move thought-out the Island. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandana Jayalath, University of Vocational Technology Building-product imports from China account for nearly 70 percent of all Sri Lankan building supplies, making China the largest supplier of items such as machinery and equipment, iron and steel, drywall, and other components. Because many raw materials used and consumed in the local site assembly originate from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}