OFFSITE & COVID-19
CHANGING CONSTRUCTION’S FOCUS
Reds10 Chairman Matt Bennion picks out some of the unsung benefits of using offsite delivery, as the UK struggles to combat COVID-19 and changes in how construction sites are staffed and managed.
1 Shorter programmes, earlier revenue streams, better quality, just three of the well-rehearsed benefits that advocates of offsite modular construction talk of. All are true, but COVID-19 has shone a light on a raft of other benefits, which to date have seemed intangible or have simply not been valued.
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The press has been alive with good news stories of how the offsite industry has provided temporary space solutions for hospitals, prisons, mobile testing centres and sadly mortuaries, quickly meeting the demand that traditional approaches cannot fulfil.
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY/JUNE 2020
This is not new news. What is new is the criticism of working practices on traditional construction sites and the pushback of members of the public, unions and workers alike who object to images of construction workers breaching social distancing measures on overcrowded sites and hundreds of workers crammed into tube trains trying to reach their place of work. It is criticism that is hard to argue with because despite huge improvements that have been made in health and safety and wellbeing on construction sites generally, the simple truth is that