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The COVID-19 pandemic forced many industries to regroup, rethink and revamp the way they were doing business—the construction and building industries were no exception. According to analysis performed by the International Code Council (ICC), half of the jurisdictions surveyed in September 2020 did not have the capability to do electronic or remote inspections. CityView recognized this need and helped fill the gap by introducing its own Virtual Inspections application.

During the pandemic’s onset, social distancing requirements forced radical changes in the way building departments operated, virtually overnight. While some jurisdictions (typically larger ones like L.A. and North Las Vegas, as cited by the ICC) already had virtual inspections programs for simple projects, many smaller (usually rural) jurisdictions adopted remote inspections to cut down on travel times.

Leveraging its adaptive technology and integration expertise, CityView created and launched its own Virtual Inspections application, which is fully integrated with CityView Permits & Inspections.

CityView Virtual Inspections can help jurisdictions comply with physical distancing while saving time and fuel driving back and forth between job sites. Best of all, because it is fully integrated with the CityView permitting system, it allows you to maintain a permanent record of the virtual inspection directly within the permit. It also provides options to include screenshots and annotations so that all activities related to the permit are visible within the record.

Building departments that began conducting remote inspections during the pandemic plan on continuing to use this method into the future, making it a long-term investment in efficiency. The Code Council has produced best practice recommendations on remote inspections from building officials, industry professionals and inspection agencies to help those who are new to the methodology get up to speed. The Code Council predicts that as departments become more comfortable with remote virtual inspections, use of such technology will grow, especially in off-site construction.