A Brave New World Post COVID for Construction?

I want you to use your imagination for a moment and look into the near future. Let’s imagine that COVID-19 is no longer mentioned in the news. Its finally been eradicated or reduced to the extent that life has resumed to some sort of normality. On construction sites the rise of technology has changed the industry.

Although drones and robotics are common, the industry is still labour intensive. However, when labour arrives on site, RFID tags monitor their entry and location on site. This data then gets used for analysis of productivity and delays. On a monthly basis the labour attendance is automatically fed back from the labour only supplier to the subcontractor via a smart contract on the blockchain as a payment application.

Meanwhile the brickwork subcontractor gets his monthly output surveyed, (perhaps with the assistance of drones) and the quantities are also fed back via a smart contract to the contractor as their monthly payment application. The contractor has also received a number of Non-Conformance Notices (NCRs) which the Engineer has raised via a smart contract on the blockchain as a result of quality and safety lapses which require attention. These are received in real time and those not closed are automatically valued for deduction on the monthly application. He is also pleased to receive the release of other NCRs deducted…