Addressing COVID-19 Spatial Restrictions on Construction Sites Using a BIM-Based Gaming Environment

Spatial conflicts affect crews’ productivity and workers’ safety. The idea of considering workspaces as a limited resource has brought a remarkable contribution to the effectiveness of traditional scheduling techniques that generally do not consider the spatial-temporal dimension of construction activities. In previous studies, the detection of spatial interferences among main workspaces has proven to be an effective way to track down spatial issues inherent to the works schedule. In light of recent events, this research considers spatial interferences among workspaces as occasions of COVID-19 transmission, which must be avoided. The number of spatial issues detected in previous studies must be extended by also including spatial conflicts affecting crews moving to and from main workspaces in transfer spaces (i.e., the support workspaces). A BIM-based spatial conflict simulator, integrated within the work planning process and developed using a serious game engine, is presented in this study and tested on a real work scenario. The possibility of simulating working operations in gaming environments enables investigating on how behavioral constraints, such as social distancing, can be considered during work planning. The first research outcome is that the developed prototype can read the work plan and the BIM model to provide spatial interferences due not only to the main but also to the support workspaces. The second research outcome, emerged from our preliminary simulations, is that even in a short time span (e.g., 2 days and 3 activities), interferences involving support workspaces account for 33% of the complete list of detected conflicts.