Is now the time to embrace construction software solutions?
Many experts predict a government backed infrastructure boom following the Covid crisis with the construction sector being uniquely placed to drive economic recovery.
The construction industry is huge - worth a worldwide 7.4 trillion pounds per year with a pre Covid predicted increase to almost 11 trillion pounds by 2030.
Infrastructure, a world-wide opportunity
It is true to say that both the construction of new and the repair and maintenance of failing infrastructure presents a significant opportunity for the construction industry. In the US alone an investment of $2.1 trillion is needed to restore the nation’s failing infrastructure,
The UK is no different, the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2016–2021 (Infrastructure and Projects Authority, 2016) identifies that:
- There are 2.4 million properties at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea as well as about 3 million properties at risk from surface water flooding in England, with government investment increasing to more than £700 million by 2020-21,
- Water and waste infrastructure are essential for health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability and economic stability with an investment of £44 billion required to deliver, maintain and improve services
- Housing construction supports around 600,000 jobs in the UK – up to 4.3 for every new home built, with a target of developing 400,000 new homes by 2021.
- Social infrastructure requirements include investment of £23 billion to deliver 500 new free schools, with additionally more than 250 other schools needing refurbishment or rebuilding.
The UK construction industry, which employs 3.1 million workers and exports billions of pounds of products and services, is set to play a vital role in the UK’s national economic recovery post Covid.
Roadmap to Recovery
Specifically in the UK, The Construction Leadership Council’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’, a three-phase strategy, Restart, Reset, Reinvent, aims to support the recovery of the construction and built environment sectors, and consequently the wider national economy.
This report outlines key deliverables relating to infrastructure which have valuable investment outcomes, such as delivering the national strategic infrastructure priorities identified by the National Infrastructure Commission, and a better co-ordinated approach to the planning and delivery of infrastructure.
Construction Software has a key role to play
It’s very clear from industry wide productivity data that construction sector productivity is amongst the lowest in the world, just ahead of forestry and fishing. It’s equally clear that one of the substantial factors that has driven increased productivity in other industry sectors is a broader adoption of technology. And, whilst it is always dangerous to generalise, as some construction companies have invested in such things as:
- Manufacturing and Modular ‘off-site’ construction methods
- Building Information Modelling (BIM)
- Digitisation
many still have not, which is why the construction sector is widely viewed as being a laggard in the adoption of technology. With the predicted infrastructure boom, now is the time for the construction industry to embrace technology in order to take advantage of the opportunities that exist and at the same time boost their productivity.
Transformation is coming and needs to be embraced. Whilst some will continue to see transformation as a threat to their jobs, it will make the whole construction sector more efficient and there will be different jobs that emerge as a result of it.
Larry Sullivan, Group Chairman Global, COINS
With 40 years of domain knowledge and experience within the construction sector, the transformative construction industry technologies provided by COINS are vital to support the construction sector as it rises to this challenge, offering the ability to achieve more through time saved, streamlined business processes and better asset management to name just a few.
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