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Studying pandemic effects and mitigation measures on management of construction projects: Najaf City as a case study

  • Ameer A. Alraie , Asaad M. Ali Kadhum EMAIL logo and Ali Abbas Kadhem
Published/Copyright: October 28, 2023
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Open Engineering
From the journal Open Engineering Volume 13 Issue 1

Abstract

The corona virus pandemic greatly affected Al-Najaf construction sector and its economy. This study ex-amines the impact of pandemic on the sector and assesses the mitigation measures used. A questionnaire was given to 66 construction industry experts, covering 38 variables related to contracts, finance, chain supply, risks, and safety. Results, analyzed using the relative importance index, ranked finance as the top priority, followed by safety, risk, and other factors. Operational aspects, supply chain, and contracts were of lesser concern. Key variables included safety concerns, contractor payment delays, risk management, communication, and health projects. Mitigation measures revealed the importance of management actions and health and safety initiatives. Financial and communication measures were significant, while environmental measures ranked lower. Vaccination and emergency loans were highly valued. Evaluation, communication strategy, and cash support were also important. In conclusion, this study underscores the significance of risk management and safety in mitigating the impact of pandemic on the construction sector. Updating Iraqi legal documentation, particularly for crisis management, is crucial. Adopting a modern management approach is necessary to overcome pandemic-related challenges. The study provides recommendations for further investigation, offering valuable insights for decision-makers and future research in the field.

Keywords: pandemic; Al-Najaf construction projects; effected and response categories; relative importance index; mitigation measures

1 Introduction

1.1 General

At the beginning of 2020, the world faced a pandemic phenomenon represented by corona virus (COVID-19), which severely affected the world economy, especially in developed countries [1,2]. Several countries tried to identify the impact of COVID-19 on construction sectors, including the United States, China, and Korea [3]. The statistics provided by the International Air Transport Association indicated that more than 1.7 million jobs in the Middle East were lost because of border closure due to COVID-19 [4]. As a developing country, Iraq has several obstacles and features that might exacerbate the effect of pandemic on the construction sector [5]. The crisis led to deteriorating economic growth [6], increased unemployment, and loss of investment, disturbing the supply chain of construction materials [7]. The construction sector differs from other sectors because it often demands the on-site participation of all project members [8]. No response strategy or guidelines were created to address all steps required to deal with the pandemic’s consequences on construction companies [9]. The unexpected pandemic creates a new focus on prioritizing issues related to the health and safety of construction sector cadres. The new priorities include challenges to the supply chain, communication, contract commitments, and providing alternatives urgent. The topic of health and safety management has dominated the construction industry’s concerns since February 2020 [10]. In addition, it has also disrupted the transportation system and supply of materials [11]. Consequently, the mode of communication for many companies has shifted to video conferencing for regular meetings instead of face–to–face meetings [12]. Changes in contracts anticipating the emergence of risk are very effective on project performance and the cumulative impacts on the process, particularly time delays, additional charges, and contractual provisions of force majeure [13,14]. Different techniques are required to address challenges depending on the size of the company. Similarly, challenges’ impact on construction projects may vary based on infrastructure project types [15]. Previous studies have investigated the effect of COVID-19 on different construction projects and engineering management approaches. To complement this significant research topic, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on construction projects and measures of response adopted to mitigate these effects on the Al-Najaf construction sector.

2 Literature review

This study investigated the previous studies on the impact of COVID-19 on construction project performance and measures adopted in response.

2.1 General

The effect of COVID-19 has been extensively studied in different industry sectors such as health care, trade, agriculture, food, and business. The concept of redefining work-site safety and developing technology that improves project productivity and maintains the safety of workers was investigated by Pamidimukkala and Kermanshachi [2], who identified 17 safety issues categorized into 5 groups and recommended 11 management strategies.

Al-Mhdawi et al. [3] surveyed 388 Iraqi industry professionals from the construction sector. They identified 16 construction factors grouped into 4 construction themes: contractual implications, construction financial market and supply chain operations, safety, and risk management. Furthermore, Nguyen et al. [16] used basic analysis and relative importance index (RII) techniques to survey 129 respondents in Vietnam using an online questionnaire survey. Three principal facets of the construction industry were considered: firms’ business activities, project performance, and workforce demand. They highlighted the multi-level and dimensional nature of the effects of pandemic on the construction industry, particularly revenue and profitability. Rehman et al. [5] studied the effect of COVID-19 on the project construction industry performance in the United Arab Emirates. The aspects of project management include cost, resources, schedule, and contracts. Significant challenges were observed, including schedule delays, disrupted cashflows, delayed permits, approvals, and inspections, travel restrictions, serious health and safety concerns, and material and equipment shortages that hindered the timely delivery of construction projects. The main responses were economic support programs, digitization of processes, fee and fine waivers, and health facilities.

However, Raoufi and Fayek [17] listed 177 possible actions to control and mitigate the pandemic effects within 16 categories. The top five categories of actions were health and public health directives, other issues (assessing the impact of the global economy on the construction market), workforce, communication, suppliers, and subcontractors. Bou Hatoum et al. [10] compiled a list of 100 preferable practices that let employers mitigate the workforce’s concerns and provide insights into construction site safety and health trends. The practices were divided into 11 themes: access points, communication and awareness, compliance, daily tasks and activities, engineering controls, exposure response plan, human interactions, hygiene and sanitization, management of deliveries, physical and mental health, and safety wearables and carry-ons. Zamani et al. [15] interviewed 20 contractors’ companies and presented that COVID-19 caused operational and financial issues, while financial aid and complete information must overcome those impacts. However, Alsharef et al. [18] demonstrated a new opportunity to create construction projects involving the fast-track construction of medical facilities and recruiting skilled workers, construction of residential buildings, and transportation-related work. They also examined new safety measures and other project hazards that had been implemented.

Furthermore, AlSamarraie and Ghazali [19] classified pandemic consequences in Iraq and recommended mitigation strategies consisting of four categories. These include measures of maintaining a stay-at-home policy for unhealthy employees, wearing a face-covering mask, establishing wash stations or cleaning products at various locations, maintaining an attendance log for all employees and visitors, providing safety equipment like personal protection equipment (PPE) for workers, and expanding welfare amenities on-site to ensure laborers feel comfortable reporting to work. Also, Araya and Sierra [20] identified 15 categories and 6 construction stakeholders of COVID-19 impacts. But Timilsina et al. [21] reported three impact levels: financial, operational, and institutional in the construction sectors. However, Umar [22] identified four impacts from the analysis review, health, safety, workforce management, and legal issues. All the previous studies recommended how to organize construction projects during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

2.1.1 Knowledge gap

Current literature identifies a comprehensive list of construction themes and factors to show the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19, and all responses must be based on quantitatively assessing the impact of the pandemic on Iraq’s construction sector/Al-Najaf Province. In addition, this study aimed to cover the knowledge gap and understand the impact and respondents’ expectations for the preferable response measures to the construction sector recovery course.

2.2 Iraqi construction sector and pandemic

Iraq’s construction sector has the characteristics of developing countries and faced similar challenges with massive disruptions and difficulties due to a curfew in March 2020 because of COVID-19. Accordingly, more than 36,000 contracting companies were witnessing the loss of profits and challenges, such as a 52% employment reduction and a 68% production reduction, as stated by the Ministry of Planning’s statistics [8]. The payment rate in the construction sector also decreased by 25%, while 65% of workers were subjected to a reduction in the number of working days, and 2% of workers were completely laid off. Hence, project completion was harder, the supply chain was interrupted, and labor shortage cases emerged – Iraq’s current legislation, such as the Iraqi Civil Code [3]. Based on the presented reviews related to this topic, several factors were selected to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the performance of construction projects in Al-Najaf Province, as suggested by Alraie [23]. These factors were categorized based on their common characteristics: contractual, financial, operations and risks, safety, etc. The list of factors with a brief description is presented in Table A1. The review of previous studies identified many suggested responses grouped into distinct categories, namely, health and safety, finance, management, communication, and environment, as shown in Table A2.

3 Methodology

In this study, an online questionnaire consisting of three parts was developed. Based on the literature review results and interviews/consultations with construction sector professionals who added valuable inputs to the original questionnaire version, samples were prepared by distributing the online questionnaire linked with the construction professionals’ communication groups, engineers, managers, and all sector stakeholders, ranging from academia to components of the services supply chain through emails, social media, and contracts. The collected data were analyzed, and the results were calculated using the RII method and then discussed. Recommendations for further research were made regarding how to build up the management approaches.

The questionnaire was designed based on three parts: the first part related to respondents’ information such as education, position, experience, and infection cases (65%) and vaccination received (only 3%) as the vaccination campaign was just rolled out in the Province. The second part is related to capturing the impact of the pandemic on the construction sector through 38 questions categorized, including contractual, financial, operations and supply chain, risk management, and safety using the Likert scale format of impact through the five-point system (very high = 5, high = 4, moderate = 3, low = 2, and very low = 1).

However, the third part required respondents to prioritize and suggest mitigation measures into five categories: health and safety, financial, management, communication, and environment, according to the pandemic requirements. The online questionnaire was received and answered by 75 respondents, and only 66 respondents were observed to be complete. Then, the collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software. The sample size of 66 respondents was associated with investigating the impact of four category/group levels variables and five response measures groups. The α value of survey reliability Cronbach’s was 0.95, more than the accepted limit (0.7) that revealed a reliable and valid distribution [24]. The analysis data of the 66 respondents according to their education, position (job), experience, and sector are indicated in Table 1.

Table 1

Demographic analysis of respondents

Education No. % Position No. % Experience No. % Sector No. %
Ph.D. 2 3 Consultant 8 12 0–10 11 17 Private 41 62
M.Sc. 4 6 Academic 6 9 11–15 19 29 Public 25 38
B.Sc. 22 33 Site Eng. 17 26 16–20 17 26
Diploma 17 26 PM 11 17 21–25 10 15
Certificate 13 20 Supplier 10 15 25 9 14
Other 8 12 Contractor 14 21
Total 66 100 66 100 66 100 66 100

4 Results and discussions

The circumstances and underlying operations of the particular organizations cause a considerable impact on the breadth of the consequences. Furthermore, the shifting conditions impact each part of the construction process. But it was noted that contract or project defaults, time management, revisions, project suspensions, terminations, and reinstatements stand out. Also, effective individuals and teams with pertinent industry knowledge and technical skill competence are required to create practical decisions in that novel and distinctive setting.

4.1 Impact on project performance

The RII was used to determine the total impact of each factor, where the ranking of each item according to its relative importance was determined by respondents. All factors were addressed and coded from the questionnaire to demonstrate their significance and effect in the order of priority. Their values were calculated using equation (1), and the results of the analysis are summarized in Table 2 [24]

(1) RII = ∑ W / ( A × N ) ,

where W is the weight of each variable presented to the participants with the range from 1 to 5; A: Highest weight (equal to 5), and N is the total number of participants.

Table 2

RII ranking, means, and importance levels result for 38 factors in four categories with averages

Category Factor no. Descriptive Mean RII Rank Importance level Average impact by category
Contractual 1 Planning 3.273 0.655 20 4H-M
2 Feasibility study 3.030 0.606 31 H-M
3 Design 2.636 0.527 37 5M
4 Bidding 3.000 0.600 32 H-M
5 Handover 2.773 0.555 36 M 0.596
6 Mobilization 2.909 0.582 35 M
7 Contract types 2.955 0.591 34 M
8 Staff contracts 3.086 0.617 30 H-M
9 Overhead/contractor 3.136 0.627 28 H-M
Financial 10 Tax, etc. 3.000 0.600 32 H-M
11 Land prices 3.333 0.667 19 H-M
12 Profit/developer 3.500 0.700 12 H-M
13 Bank loans 3.682 0.736 6 H-M
14 Project budget 3.485 0.697 15 H-M 0.689
15 Gross cost 3.364 0.673 17 H-M
16 Contractor payments 3.121 0.624 29 H-M
17 1Contractor P.D 3.788 0.758 2 H-M
18 Labor P.D 3.636 0.727 8 H-M
19 Cost on-track 3.545 0.709 9 H-M
Operation/Technical 20 Maintenance 3.455 0.691 16 H-M
21 Local/for gain labor 3.231 0.646 23 H-M
22 Foreign services 3.545 0.709 9 H-M
23 Machine/equipment 3.364 0.673 17 H-M
24 Local/for gain materials 3.489 0.698 14 H-M
25 Supervision 3.273 0.655 20 H-M
26 Laboratory tests 3.273 0.655 20 H-M 0.675
27 Warehousing 3.152 0.630 27 H-M
28 Operation stage 3.182 0.636 25 H-M
29 Power supply 3.500 0.700 12 H-M
30 Claim/2CO/disputes 3.197 0.639 24 H-M
31 Productivity 3.682 0.736 6 H-M
32 Time on-track 3.545 0.709 9 H-M
Risks management, safety, and others 33 Safety measures 3.818 0.764 1 H-M
34 Risk management 3.727 0.745 3 H-M
35 3GoI response 2.379 0.476 38 M 0.683
36 Companies compliance 3.182 0.636 25 H-M
37 Communication 3.697 0.739 4 H-M
38 Health projects 3.697 0.739 4 H-M

1Payment delay, 2change orders, 3government of Iraq, 4high impact and 5indicated medium impact.

As more impacts of the pandemic on the construction industry members, an initiative-taking approach to search for substantial and practical legal assistance should be crucial for making cost-effective decisions. The direct effects of the pandemic on the construction sector are indicated in Figure 1. The main categories of COVID-19 impact on the construction sector include contractual from factors 1 to 9, financial from factors 10 to 19, operation and supply chain from factors 20 to 32, and risk management, safety, and others from factors 33 to 38.

Figure 1 Average impact of the pandemic per category.
Figure 1

Average impact of the pandemic per category.

According to the category analysis, the average impact by RII revealed that the financial value was the greatest with an average impact of 0.689 with the corresponding mean value of 3.445, followed by safety, risk and others, operations, and supply chain and contractual aspects with values of 0.683 (3.417), 0.675 (3.376), and 0.596 (2.978), respectively.

Safety concerns greatly impacted individual factors, followed by contractors’ payment delays, risk management, communication, and health projects. Sub-contractors represented the most pandemic effects on the construction industry in Najaf Province because they are more vulnerable to bankruptcy due to the huge disruptions in the supply chain. In addition, the relationship between the labor and suppliers had a significant impact because they survive on daily demands to cover their basic requirements. The results of this study agreed with Al-Mhdawi et al. and Alsamarraie and Ghazali [3,19] regarding categories/groups identification although only 16 factors on the country level were used, while in this study, 38 factors emerged at the province level were used.

In terms of financial and operational categories, the results of this study were similar to those of Gamil and Alhagar [9], although they used 14 factors. From the specific elements/factors side, the results of the impact on contracts were similar to Larasati et al. [13]. Furthermore, regarding risk management, the result of the current study was similar to that of Salami et al. [14]. This study had a similar trend (three categories) as Timilsina et al. [21], although they did not categorize contractual issues separately. Also, the results agreed with the nine categories of impact on construction projects (productivity, using local suppliers, stoppage and delay, etc.) as detailed by Araya and Sierra [20]. In addition, cost, time, environment, and communication factors had a signed agreement with Nguyen et al.’s [16] results.

4.2 Response measures

The third part of questionnaire’s results are related to the pandemic response measures and respondents’ evaluation of these measures, whether the public or private sector responded to them. The response results include 5 categories and 15 individual response measures illustrated in Table 3. The category analysis results indicated that the priority for health and management actions was essential to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. They were followed by financial and communication, then environmental actions. The greatest individual score was for the vaccination, followed by emergency loans. At the same time, the communication strategy and cash support were next, according to the evaluation of respondents. These results agreed with Alsamarraie and Ghazali [19] and Iqbal et al. [7] regarding finance. Raoufi and Fayek [17] observed similar results in the health and finance categories. In addition, the communication results of this research agreed with the coping strategies of international organization for migration [8].

Table 3

Analysis of 15 responses divided into 5 categories

Category Overall impact % Response description Item impact %
1. Health and safety 32 1. Vaccination HC1 21
2. Social distancing 6
3. PPE2 5
2. Finance 26 4. Cash support 8
5. Emergency loans 14
6. Flexible cost control 4
3. Management 28 7. Agile management 4
8. Flexible time control 7
9. New technology adaptation 3
10. Varieties in supply management 7
11. Emergency teams formation 7
12. Contracts updates 6
4. Communication 12 13. Diverse communication and collaboration strategies 9
14. Adopting decision-making 3
5. Environment 2 15. Environmental control 2

1Health care and 2personal protection equipment.

The need for an agile management approach, as surveyed in this research, was recommended by Bou Hatoum et al. [10] as the best practice to be implemented as an exposure response plan. Furthermore, the survey results regarding impact and response exhibit that an emerging innovative management approach was evolving, as reported by Assaad and El-Adaway [25]. A modern approach used new communication strategies and features in project management. The results clarified a gap in the legal environment of Iraqi documentation to address such abnormal situations, which did not cover by the force majeure section.

5 Conclusion

The pandemic outbreak significantly affected public health, economic growth, and social life, including the construction industry worldwide. Also, the lockdown caused a great change in organizations’ patterns, delays in construction projects, a decline in workforce capacity, and economic growth. Accordingly, different safety practices were adopted, such as maintaining social distancing among employees, let one task for each worker, monitoring through innovative technologies, and disinfecting all tools and equipment after work. To evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the construction sector in Al-Najaf Province, a survey was conducted on four categories: contractual categories, operation and supply chain, and financial and safety risks. Also, the respondents identified and prioritized response actions to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on this sector.

Regarding the impact ranking, the results identified domination of risk management, safety factors over other factors, and a gap in the legal sphere of Iraqi documentation. It was concluded that a new management approach that used modern communications strategies and management features is required to address such irregular situations as pandemic situations.

Furthermore, reviewing the current management approaches is a suitable entry into the post-pandemic construction sector. The urgency toward rearranging mitigation priorities should be with the health and management, followed by financial and communication.

6 Recommendations

It is essential to highlight the impact of health and safety concerns, management, communications, health projects, off-site construction methods, etc. Furthermore, to ensure construction activities and long-term sustainability in case the COVID-19 pandemic exists, the following recommendations were suggested:

  1. Restructuring the management system should render a more flexible framework.

  2. It created various scenarios for construction work that yielded fewer interruptions in a future outbreak and analysis results, such as using the factor analysis method.

  3. Encourage digital transformation in business processes to decline contacts and maintain distance, which could be implemented at all levels, including enterprise, management, and implementation on-site.

  4. Ensure a sustainable supply chain that includes vendors, backups, alternative partners, contract terms, and insurance policies.

  5. Ensure financial safety, including re-assessing interruption scenarios that affect capital in terms of breach of contract, compensation, and coverage for complicated developments.

  1. Funding information: The authors state no funding involved.

  2. Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no competing interest.

  4. Data availability statement: Most datasets generated and analyzed in this study are comprised in this submitted manuscript. The other datasets are available on a reasonable request from the corresponding author with the attached information.

Appendix
Table A1

Description of the 38 factors used in this research

Category Factor no. Factor name Description
Contractual 1 Planning Lack of information to conduct proper planning
2 Feasibility study Difficult to gather data for the study
3 Design Reducing alternatives
4 Bidding Process restrained
5 Handover Delay and overdue
6 Mobilization Administrative start-up hindered
7 Contract types Preference for lump sum/turnkey affects the quality
8 Staff contracts Released and shrink staff
9 Overhead/contractor Unrealistic and exaggerated
Financial 10 Tax, etc. Government is unable to collect proper taxes
11 Land prices Unstable and unpredictable
12 Profit/developer Decreased sharply/discouraging new projects/losses for suppliers
13 Bank loans It decreased and became harder to get
14 Project budget Increase and overstep planned
15 Gross cost Unclear and unpredictable
16 Contractor payments Untimely and challenging
17 1Contractor P.D Disturbed cash flow
18 Labor P.D Poor control and commitment
19 Cost on-track Deviation and overstep planned
Operation/Technical 20 Maintenance Loss of contingency control
21 Local/foreign labor Workers are unable to reach their workplaces
22 Foreign services Stoppage and missing
23 Machine/equipment Limited access and supply
24 Local/foreign materials Less available and costly
25 Supervision Limited offers and quality
26 Laboratory tests Acute shortage with lockdown
27 Warehousing Discouraged and limited
28 Operation stage The supply chain has been disrupted
29 Power supply Shortage and costly
30 Claim/2CO/disputes Increased and nested
31 Productivity Lowered and quality challenged
32 Time on-track Delay and poor scheduling
Risks management, safety, and others 33 Safety measures Increase and dominate
34 Risk management Shortage of alternatives
35 3GoI response Overdue and limited
36 Companies compliance Arbitrary and limited awareness
37 Communication Difficulties and system inadequacy
38 Health projects Prioritized and funded

1Payment delay, 2change orders and 3Government of Iraq.

Table A2

Response measures analyzed in this research

Category Response Description
1. Health and safety 1. 1Vaccination H.C. Encourage restoring activities
2. Social distancing Provide basic protection
3. 2PPE Masks & gloves provide additional protection
2. Finance 4. Cash support Quick recovery
5. Emergency loans Support work resumption
6. Flexible cost control Encourage speedy restart
3. Management 7. Agile management Quick and cost-effective in uncertain conditions
8. Flexible time control Better time management
9. New technology adaptation Reduce deviation
10. Varieties in supply management Quality choices
11. Emergency teams formation Control unpredictable events
12. Contracts updates Flexible adaptation for emergency
4. Communication 13. Diverse communication and collaboration strategies Reduce contact and increase productivity
14. Adopting decision-making Making right choices
5. Environment 15. Environmental control Improve access to sustainable tools

Note: 1Health care and 2Personal protection equipment.

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Received: 2023-02-24
Revised: 2023-04-28
Accepted: 2023-05-04
Published Online: 2023-10-28

© 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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https://doi.org/10.1515/eng-2022-0459
Keywords for this article
pandemic; Al-Najaf construction projects; effected and response categories; relative importance index; mitigation measures
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