November - 2020CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM8COVID-19 pandemic has impacted how people work in many industries. Conducting in-person meetings and diligence has been challenging. As we all know, remote meetings via Zoom have become the norm in our everyday work life. Historically, the construction industry has been centered on hands-on, in-person interaction. The question is, how will the construction industry adapt to new norms and will the changes last? Many building owners and real-estate developers, commonly visit their sites to track progress and watch events unfold on their job sites. We all know defects, logistics and contractor coordination issues cause delays in projects and delays bring huge costs. Conducting site walkthroughs has always helped understand what is happening on-site and proactively address issues before they happen. However, in the current COVID-19 environment, it is not feasible to visit sites at will, yet real-time project visibility and accountability is still a must. Practically, overnight remote construction monitoring solutions are a must-have technology versus nice-to-have as we are no longer able to travel to sites for scheduled tours. Photo Documentation is not enoughIn the past, we relied on still photos sent by contractors or captured by full-service photo documentation solutions for remote monitoring and visual documentation of sites. These photos and videos have been helpful, but over time they lack full context; they are not measurable, and they can be very quickly outdated. Builders also had to create new workflows. They spent time taking pictures of every area of the project and pinned images against floor plans to attempt to get an idea of what has been accomplished. This workflow has challenged their productivity. Turnkey full-service solutions were helpful from a liability perspective, however, considering their REMOTE CONSTRUCTION MONITORING: PRE AND POST PANDEMICBY TIM HOERR, CEO, SERRA VENTURESIN MYOPINION
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