Promotion of Regulatory Relaxation Related to Smart Technologies Such as Construction Methods

Establishment of Cost Estimation Standards for Smart Construction Technology
Simplification to 5 Types of Documents for Turnkey Bids Over 30 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] The government will establish cost estimation standards for smart construction technologies such as modular construction methods. Additionally, the documents required for general turnkey bids for projects under 30 billion KRW will be simplified from the existing 15 types to 5 types.

On the 10th, the government announced regulatory improvement tasks containing these details at the ‘4th Economic Regulatory Innovation TF’ chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho. Previously, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport formed a public-private joint regulatory innovation TF and collected industry opinions to select prioritized tasks with many improvement demands.

Regulatory improvements will be promoted to facilitate the early adoption of smart construction on-site. Currently, the standard specifications do not include regulations on smart construction technologies, causing difficulties in utilizing these technologies on-site. The standard specifications refer to the standard construction criteria established to ensure the safety of facilities, appropriateness of construction execution, and quality assurance. Regarding this, Construction Company A expressed, "We want to use remotely controlled excavators for efficient work, but it is difficult to use them hastily due to the lack of standardized construction criteria."

Accordingly, the government plans to continuously incorporate standards related to smart construction technologies, such as the MC·MG construction standards prepared in January, into the standard specifications and to establish common standards for construction automation-related construction and safety management by the end of this year.

Cost estimation standards for smart construction technology projects will also be established. Even if a construction company proposes a modular construction method to shorten the construction period, there is no standard unit price, making it difficult to organize the total project cost, leading to the selection of existing methods. The government intends to prepare cost estimation standards for modular construction, MC·MG applied earthwork equipment, and other smart construction technologies to support project owners in reflecting appropriate costs in the total project budget.

Furthermore, the submission of construction performance records will be improved to be after passing the first screening, providing additional time to secure construction performance. This is to prevent expenses incurred to secure construction performance when failing the first screening during new technology designation. Also, the documents required for smart turnkey bids for projects under 30 billion KRW will be simplified from 15 types to 5 core documents.

Redundant or unnecessary regulations at construction sites will also be improved. For small-scale aggregate extraction with minimal environmental impact, the procedure will be simplified to require only extraction permits without designating the planned site.

The safety management plan procedure will also be simplified. Currently, overlapping items between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s safety management plan and the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s hazardous risk prevention plan increase the documentation burden on construction companies. Going forward, overlapping items between the two plans will be excluded, and the safety management plan will be simplified focusing on core items by June.

The burden of underground safety evaluation consultation procedures will also be reduced. Although a special regulation was established to improve the timing of completing underground safety evaluation consultations from before project approval to before construction notification, its application to housing projects under the ‘Housing Act’ was ambiguous, causing difficulties in utilizing the special regulation on-site. The government plans to propose an amendment to the Underground Safety Act by June to explicitly include housing projects as subjects of the special regulation.

Additionally, the system will be improved to allow companies with no penalty points to save penalty point reductions, encouraging active participation in safety activities within the industry. Related standards will be revised to consider the type and scale of mechanical equipment management difficulty when appointing mechanical equipment maintenance managers.

Kim Sang-moon, Director of Construction Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "We will promote speedy institutional improvements so that the effects of regulatory improvements can be felt early on-site," adding, "We will continuously communicate closely with the field and actively discover additional regulatory improvement tasks."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.