I hear from people who argue that I’m being too negative about the future, that real construction market recovery is just around the corner.

On the virtual stage of the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association’s annual conference Oct. 1, ENR interviewed Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Global Projects Co.

While the big impacts of the coronavirus on construction and its broader client base may not be known for weeks, even years, the industry is responding as nimbly as it can to the effects already being felt.

Because construction projects are highly complex, collaborative, interdependent and long-lasting team efforts, the exact final cost is impossible to estimate.

Six months after an explosion and fire destroyed a grid-connected energy-storage battery facility in Surprise, Ariz., investigators are still trying to figure out all that happened. 

For more than two decades, science has recognized that building fires have become hotter, faster-spreading and more toxic. 

Enough isn’t said about general contractors on rocky, out-of-control projects who take the lead in solving problems they didn’t create.