OPI NION
Precast concrete wall panels being installed on a building project.
Irish construc tion has still not realised the f u ll p ote ntia l o f M M C MICHAEL O’REILLY, Director, O’Connor Sutton Cronin, writes about how modern methods of construction, and in particular off-site manufacturing, is delivering solutions for Irish construction, but the sector needs to address several issues before it can fully benefit from the construction method.
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Michael O’Reilly, Director, OCSC.
50 irishconstructionnews May 2021
he construction industry is constantly evolving, sometimes in reaction to impositions on the market, sometimes with a longer-term strategic view. But in the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic turned everything on its head, forcing us as an industry to review everything that we do, overhaul how sites operate and reassess the process by which we deliver our built environment. One aspect that will change irrevocably for many consultants and contractors is the increased reliance on Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). But several elements need to put in place before we can say that we have a workable system that will get the full benefit that MMC has to offer. Health and safety requirements, compliance with building standards, skills shortages, achieving high levels of thermal
and acoustic performance, reducing waste and site vehicle movements, and achieving greater efficiencies and shorter build times are all factors that have been ushering in the use of MMC on projects over the past 20plus years. And it now appears that MMC is set to play a more significant part in how we build somewhat earlier than might have been imagined hitherto.
AN UMBRELLA TERM
MMC is an umbrella term used to define numerous processes that encompass preengineered and prefabricated elements, which reduce the level of on-site labour required and also provide programme certainty. Today, MMC covers many forms: Concrete insitu formwork systems; jumpform and slip form; precast cores and
