Covid-19 and Construction in Peru-Investigation of Main Impacts on Project Management

Authors

Madera Arnao, Yeni

Camacho Portocarrero, Milena

Muñoz Ventosilla, Andrés

Merino Flores, Nikolay

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many projects in the pre-construction and construction stages were negatively impacted, various private investment technical files were paralyzed because the investors' strategy in general was to keep their investments cautious until they had certainties of the projections of release of restrictions since many of them had zero income due to the quarantine. Likewise, as infections increase and Peru is the country in the world with the highest mortality rate, we are immersed in highly changing and variable restrictions. For the projects in progress, all work schedules were impacted with deadline extensions that generated cost overruns, other projects found it convenient to terminate their contracts and generate addenda that contain protection clauses for both parties. The costs were diverted due to the fact that various interventions were carried out due to the low solvency of some companies, especially subcontracts that, due to the emergency, could not assume their sunk costs, and at the same time have had to implement health and safety plans to avoid contagion according to the regulations provided by MINSA, which meant, according to our investigation, a minimum increase of 3% in the direct cost of the works, which in most cases was established to be administered directly. Likewise, the procurement process was affected due to the container crisis and the stoppage of factories for materials and equipment imported from abroad. Communications management and stakeholder management were impacted due to the transformation of project coordination from face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings. Therefore, this situation led us to investigate the proceeding of various projects to recommend good practices and lessons learned according to our criteria for proper management of project management so that they are considered in various contingency plans to avoid this risk. that is still latent and need to generate little impact.