Now, in addition, an inquiry must be made at the National Committee of Protected Areas to determine if a construction project is within a protected sector.
The headache of getting a construction license in Guatemala will get worse now that a new process has been added to the list. In addition to the 13 agencies that must "rule " whether or not a permission can be granted, Government Agreement 20-2016 by the Ministry of Environment, establishes in Article 13 a new requirement for the construction sector: a consultation with the National Committee on Protected areas (CONAP), said Jorge Benavides, research associate of the Foundation for the Development of Guatemala to Republica.gt.
The proposal made by public sector employers will update the structural safety standards for bridges, dams and minor works, and includes guidelines for reinforcing existing works.
Twelve public and private entities are preparing a code to mandate the construction of earthquake-resistant buildings, for its submission to Congress this year.
"It is important to have a building code that integrates all the rules of planning, design, construction, materials, quality control, monitoring, and for its application to be made obligatory" said Luis Alvarez, CEO of Institute of Cement and Concrete of Guatemala (ICCG) to s21.com.gt .
While in the US the number of man hours needed to build a house is 9.4 hours per square meter, in Costa Rica it takes between 40 and 60.
Low labor productivity, on top of the cost of building materials, social charges and high costs of other materials such as energy, are preventing firms from being more competitive in an industry where both end house prices for completed works and gray works, exceed those in neighboring countries.
The destruction caused by the recent earthquake has raised questions about the lack of a unified seismic building code.
An article in Prensalibre.com reports that Luis Alvarez Valencia, vice president of the Institute of Cement and Concrete in Guatemala (ICCG), a member of the Guatemalan Association of Structural Engineering and Earthquakes (Agies), said "There is no building code combining all the rules in the country. "
Latin American construction chambers are demanding from their governments a level playing field between foreign construction companies and domestic ones.
A statement from the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction reads:
FOREIGN AND NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANIES ON EQUAL TERMS
• A joint statement was made in the Twenty-Eighth Congress of American Building Industry in Lima, Peru.
There is no more space to build in the municipality of Guatemala, reason for which authorities are promoting "different density," i.e., taller buildings.
There are very few metropolitan areas where there is still room for growth. Green spaces are decreasing and the streets are becoming narrower. Many of the residential developments are already moving to the adjacent municipalities, especially in Santa Catarina Pinula.