Impact of COVID-19 on inspection of Turkish public construction works and recommendations for the post-pandemic era

Abstract

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly disrupted construction projects worldwide, studies on its impacts on building inspection services remain limited. Ensuring adequate quality and safety through inspections is particularly important for projects delivering critical public assets. Thus, this study aims to investigate Turkish building inspectors' perspectives regarding the effects of the pandemic on public construction works between 2020 and 2022. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 66 professionals involved in public inspection services. The findings revealed the established problems in the building inspection system, independent of the pandemic period, as well as the additional impediments caused by COVID-19, such as changing work routines, site operation issues, and quality problems. Furthermore, the agreement analysis verified the high level of consensus on the impacts of the pandemic among different participant groups, except that more experienced inspectors considered their tasks more challenging during this period. Implementing a balanced set of incentives and accountability measures, adopting remote inspection technologies, promoting modular construction applications, providing support programs for inspectors, and establishing long-term policies were presented as the key recommendations to build more resilient inspection mechanisms for the post-pandemic era. This research is believed to provide valuable insights into the theory and practice by exploring the diverse pandemic disruptions and response mechanisms.