The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 22nd it will announce on the 23rd the standard production unit costs and standard market unit prices for construction projects that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
The two benchmarks are data (direct construction costs) used to calculate the estimated price of construction projects under the National Contract Act. The standard production unit costs are data that quantify the labor, equipment, and other inputs per unit task for general and common work types in construction projects. The standard market unit prices are standard unit prices calculated based on market transaction prices of projects already performed (used for projects worth 10 billion won or more).
First, the standard production unit costs for 2026 were revised for 349 out of a total of 1,459 items (254 common, 28 civil engineering, 30 building, 24 mechanical, 13 maintenance) to reflect changes at construction sites, such as equipment and labor usage, based on field surveys.
This revision also includes items identified by discovering a demand-responsive standard unit cost consultative body, and content to ensure worker fall prevention and safety at excavation sites, in addition to areas that are periodically updated through annual survey plans.
In fall prevention and temporary works safety, the labor for installing and dismantling scaffolds and shoring will be made more realistic. To ensure worker safety, improvements will include incorporating protective net installation around scaffolds into the unit costs, and newly establishing standards for installing and dismantling protective shelves at entrances to protect pedestrians from falling objects.
In addition, ▲ lifting equipment (cranes) used when working with system scaffolds and shoring will be reflected in the unit costs ▲ a specification of 5 meters or less, which is frequently used among system shoring, will be added ▲ when additional wall ties are installed or dismantled on scaffolds, the costing method will be specified, among other efforts to actively reflect in construction costs the work to secure safety for on-site workers and the surrounding area.
In the reinforced concrete work sector, cost standards for the reinforced concrete field, which are commonly used across fields such as building and civil engineering, will also be updated. The number of uses and material quantities of Euroform formwork, which shapes concrete during placement, were adjusted to better reflect depreciation. In addition, to reflect changes in construction environments, standards for on-site assembly of GFRP (Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer), which is corrosion-resistant, lightweight, and has good constructability and is used as a substitute for rebar, will be newly established.
Smart construction unit costs will also be expanded. New cost standards will be established for using intelligent compaction rollers that check compaction in real time and can reduce the time required for related tests during earthwork, and additional work conditions and specifications will be presented for MG/MC (Machine Guidance/Control) excavators.
In addition, to ensure underground safety, new cost standards will be established for the use of the cast-in-place continuous pile retaining wall method (C.I.P, installing a retaining wall by continuously driving concrete piles underground) and the seepage control grouting method (S.G.R, creating an impermeable wall by injecting chemicals between soil particles underground), which are widely used in foundation work. Also, as rest time standards are strengthened during heat waves, surcharge standards will be newly established to reflect productivity declines, and efforts were made to capture changing site conditions, such as reflecting the difficulty level of roundabout construction.
Next, for the standard market unit prices, 686 items out of 1,850 (191 civil engineering, 251 building, 244 mechanical) reflected field survey results. For the remaining 1,164 items, revisions reflecting changes in market prices and other price fluctuations found an increase of 2.98% from a year earlier (2.15% from May).
In particular, this year the number of "key management work types," which are frequently applied in design and construction and are revised annually after surveying market prices, was expanded from 315 to 569. The plan is to expand it further to more than 700 next year. In addition, for work types related to scaffolds and shoring, which carry high risks such as falls and collapses, productivity spent on inspections such as checking conditions during construction and safety checks will be reflected, and considering the increasing use of crushers on demolition sites in urban areas, efforts were made to reflect the changing environment by newly establishing the "crushing method" for existing structure demolition work types.
Kim Tae-byung, director-general for technology and safety policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "To create a safe construction environment, it is essential to calculate appropriate construction costs," adding, "We plan to continue cooperating so that changes in on-site construction practices can be reflected more quickly in construction cost standards."
The standard production unit costs and standard market unit prices for construction projects applicable in 2026 can be viewed on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport website or the Construction Cost and Cost Management Center website of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT).