At the beginning of March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic became an existential threat to the economy. Businesses and public institutions were closed. In Austria, the social partners agreed on a solution for the construction at short notice, which provided for further work subject to conditions.
The legal, building law and construction industry consequences only became apparent afterwards. Nevertheless, the pandemic and how it is dealt with in operational business keep raising questions.
The present conference proceedings of the online event Grazer Baubetriebs- und Baurechtsseminar answers these questions.
The constitutional judge Christoph Herbst is discussing the extent to which the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic can be qualified as force majeure.
Wolfgang Wiesner presents the ÖBV leaflet on dealing with construction-related issues and demonstrates how the contractual partners deal with Covid on construction sites in a cooperative manner.
The article by Florian Müller, Detlef Heck, Martin Schiefer, Markus Allram and Philip Albrecht gives an overview of the problems of construction sites under Covid. They describe the development of the pandemic, the turmoil of March 2020 and the consequences of the construction operations. They also deal with new construction contracts, taking Covid 19 into account.
A major problem is the loss of productivity due to the wearing of protective masks. This so far little investigated area is discussed in the present conference proceedings by sports medicine specialist Peter Hofmann, who transfers the state of research to the construction industry.
Construction models in particular are experiencing a renaissance in times of disrupted construction processes. Dieter Schlagbauer and Detlef Heck only analyze the existing models based on the extra hours and the changed batch sizes and describe their inadequacy with regard to adequate use.
The conference proceedings are intended to provide a legal, building law and construction management overview and pointed statements on the subject of “Covid and the construction industry”. It is of course subject to the dictates of the current regulations according to which the construction sites are currently operated. Nevertheless, indications can be given here as to how the current situation is to be assessed.