Risk Factors in Construction Project Management for Contractor in Chiang Mai Province: The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This research aimed to study on risk factors in construction project management for contractor in Chiang Mai province, which impact by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic situation and to study the importance of preventive and problemsolving approaches including the opinions on the government (or project owner) assistance measures. Data was collected using expert sampling by interviewing 35 persons of construction organizations in Chiang Mai consist of company executives, project managers, project engineers, assistant project engineers, site engineers, and project consultant. Risk assessment and basic statistics were employed to analyzed data. The results of this study reveal eight risk factors in the building construction project management, which impact by COVID-19 at a high level. The first three most important risk factors are (1) labor shortages due to COVID-19, (2)acceleration of construction work and (3) personnel infected with COVID-1 9, respectively. As a result, there are four groups of risk factors at a high level, and the first three groups of risk factors are (1) human resources, (2) construction techniques, and (3) design
and contract, respectively. The study of the prevention and remedy for the epidemic situation of COVID-19 was found that theexperts have focused on the public health measures in construction projects more than the construction technique measures. In addition, they agreed that the government or the project owners must provide the measures to help construction companies (extension of time measure and suspension or reduction of fines) and person those infected with COVID-19 (medical expenses and income compensation).