It's July. It has been a long time.

I have been a little unsettled about the public health crisis, of course. I live in LA and the pandemic situation is even worse than ever, as far as the statistics go. You have heard all about it, you aren’t reading this for news on the health crisis. This disease is a disease of uncertainty. Not a good thing for the construction industry, and I haven’t been able to write coherently about it. Here are some serious concerns.

Delay. Having worked on delay for many years, it is a difficult topic regarding entitlement, usually. But not now. I fearlessly predict that nobody is going to argue about causation. It is a force majure claim. We, in the industry, didn’t know it was coming. The owners didn’t know. The lenders didn’t know. We aren’t reading the PDB everyday and ignoring the pandemic risk. So, there maybe will be claims of delay because of errors in responding to the growth of the pandemic in late March or April, but I fearlessly assert that they will be hard to prove for any party to a delay claim. The problem will be, in claims terms, quantum. What is the size of the damage to any and all parties? What is the quantum? And, as previously reported, this is a disease of uncertainty. Builders, designers, owners will all be affected, some crushed, if not already. My recommendation: If you have a project underway now, track everything. Proving your damages will be difficult, meticulously gathered data will be your best tools for any compensation, if any is obtainable. Keeping in mind that the pandemic is, or should be, an excusable, non-compensable delay. Like rain. It rains on everybody.

Supply Chain. More precisely, rebuilding the supply chain. Can we get 50 widgets as soon as we restart the project in -what- September? Like any chain, it is only as strong as its weakest link. The Lean Construction people are Supply Chain nutcases. (You know, “just-in-time-delivery” etc.) They have webinars on exactly this topic now. Really good thing to be working on while the pandemic is still going crazy. Get in touch with your people, your subs, second-tier subs, suppliers if you can. They will be essential to restarting. Those of you who are working on essential projects and still underway will know much more about this than I. I would love to hear from you. Can you still get the widgets that you need? How is the supply chain or lack thereof, affecting your schedule? (See problem #1 above)

Labor Force. We know that the best team is the best tool we have to fight off entropy. Entropy is still going to try to wiggle its way into our projects. Immediately upon reopening, entropy will be there waiting to throw monkey-wrenches into our projects. The best tool for catching the wrenches is experienced team members. I’m saying this as if you don’t know this perfectly well already. But we will have to rebuild teams that have been shredded by the virus. Some teams have been shredded in tragic ways. You know how hard this is going to be. Even so, we must be cooperative with each other. We must rebuild our labor forces with good intentions for the industry as a whole. You know that ol’ Mr. Entropy is lurking out there to screw up your project and we all will be restarting as fast as we can at approximately the same time. How we prepare for the skilled labor competition, I have no idea, but I know that we should start now to prepare for this. Construction was one of the highest new job creators already in June 2020.

Overall. The construction industry is limping along as of now. Repairs to larger buildings, those with maintenance budgets, such as larger condominiums are proceeding with necessary repairs. The HOA magazines all contain articles about the potential of future defaults on dues, so the future looks dim. So, there is some activity now, and some major hurdles to come.

As of now, Independence Day 2020, there is money available in real estate. My son is struggling with buying a house in Oakland, CA and people are bidding 20 to 30% over asking. So, there is still money out there in the real estate market in the hottest markers, even though the overall sales are off by 25% in gross number of sales. I will be researching how this might effect the construction industry. Our focus is the health of the construction industry as viewed by its efficiency and control of its contentious nature. The reopening of our society will be difficult and no better time for cooperation to be our guide.