93 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 10 TORCOM CONSTRUCTION INC. Deco, International, and early Modernism architectural styles. Part of Torcom’s work – somewhat unlike most of its other projects -- was removing asbestos insulation inside one of the taller building’s structural steel elements and replacing it with safer fireproofing. “We did renovations on 19 floors over six or seven years,” Madian reports. The pandemic changes the construction game Of course, in normal times, when prices are generally stable and good workers are available, projects like the ones Madian mentions can be brought in on time and on, or under, budget pretty regularly. However, the last several years have been far from normal due to the havoc that the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed upon the wider population and economy. “Shortage of labor and material is something that we’ve been dealing with for the past three years, every day, on every project,” recounts Garo Kababejian, a Torcom project manager. “For the past three years, we’ve seen a very unstable market as far as prices go; prices of material shot up, some by 50 or 60%,” he continues. “It has become very challenging to maintain schedules and costs. After you submit your bids, you get accepted. Then, suddenly, you realize that your suppliers can’t honor their prices because the material is not available, or it’s a long lead, or the prices have gone up by 30 or 40% from the day that they tender. So, they give you a new number and you’ve got 15 days to make up your mind otherwise the price will change again. So, it’s been challenging.” Saedi agrees. “The shortage of material during COVID impacted us on every single project. Either an item was not available, or there were long lead times, or we had to look for substitute material. It was a constant effort for all of us to maintain the timeline and stick to the given schedule.”
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