How construction is reacting to covid-19 across the globe

The Berlin Messe, where the German army is to build a 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital

Coronavirus is having an impact on the construction industry not just in the UK, but around the world.

Construction Manager sister publication Global Construction Review (GCR) has been following international efforts both to build hospital capacity to deal with the pandemic, but also how it has affected sites internationally:

• Germany. The German army is to build a 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital on the Berlin Messe trade fair grounds for quarantine and treatment of patients if other medical facilities are overrun.
• China. Demand for “no touch” hologram lift buttons has surged in China, as the Chinese look for ways to avoid touching surfaces that may harbour the covid-19 virus.
• China. A Chinese 3D printing company is marketing printed, while-you-wait isolation pods for people diagnosed with covid-19. Each 10sq m “isolation house” can be printed in two hours.
• USA. Oil giant Shell is instituting strict hygiene measures at a vast project to build a polyethylene plant near Pittsburgh in the USA, after workers voiced their concern about spreading the virus.
• Malaysisa. All construction work in Malaysia stopped yesterday as a country-wide lockdown took effect until 31 March.
• USA. Boston has become the first US city to shut down all municipal construction projects to prevent covid-19’s spread.
• USA. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has suspended all its construction projects in the state as a result of the pandemic.