Beginning today, construction workers across the state are allowed to get back on job sites, albeit with masks to go along with their hard hats and brightly colored safety vests.
For a workforce that has been mostly sidelined for more than a month, new precautions will change the way building and construction processes commence. On April 23, Gov. Tom Wolf issued guidance for construction businesses and employees to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 when they go back to work.
“My administration has taken measured, aggressive steps to protect public health and safety, including strictly limiting the types of businesses and projects that may continue to operate during this unprecedented time,” Wolf said.
“Thankfully, these actions are working, and we are flattening the curve. As we start to take steps to reopen the state, we recognize that the construction industry is vital to Pennsylvania’s economy and may operate safely with stringent guidance in place that will protect employees and the public.”
Around the country, most states deemed construction essential during stay-at-home orders and work was allowed to continue. But Pennsylvania and a few other states closed job sites to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
Now that crews can get back to work, Dan Hawbaker, president and CEO of Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc., said the day couldn’t come soon enough, but he agrees with the precautions that are now in place.
“I think it is an excellent thing. I think we needed to start this sooner, but we have Friday and we are gonna go after it,” he said.
Hawbaker crews have worked a number of PennDOT jobs deemed essential over the past few weeks, such as the Potters Mills Gap project on Route 322, but many have been sitting idle.
“It (Potters Mills Gap) was outlined as one project in 60 that PennDOT deemed critical to the season,” said Hawbaker.
“So, we got that started earlier, along with a couple others in Pennsylvania. Now we can go full force and get everybody back to work, not only in the public sector, but also the private side.”
With more than 50 percent of the workforce not heading to construction sites over the past month, the impact has been significant, said Hawbaker. But now they will move forward with an added goal of protecting the employees out on the job.
“When you lop off half of your workforce and you have less than half of them working, it certainly has an impact on the financial side,’ Hawbaker said. ‘Others are suffering a lot more than we are, but still, construction is an open-air job, and there are a lot of things that we can do to keep it separate naturally.”
Crews will start back slowly.
“It won’t be like the race starting; it will be 200 to 300 people starting out projects,” Hawbaker said.
He added that the company will need to share its precautions with site owners so everyone is on the same page. He also said he expects to see private work projects and public projects with townships get back up and running.
PennDOT wants to see the Potters Mills Gap project completed by fall, so Hawbaker’s crews will be working hard to make that happen.
“We are working diligently in cooperation with them to look at our schedule to see what we have to fire up in overtime to get there,” said Hawbaker.
Wolf said construction crews will follow the guidance, created by the General Contractors Association of Pennsylvania, which provides universal protocols for all construction activity, as well as specific additional guidance for residential, commercial and public construction projects.
Every person present at a work site is required to wear a mask and/or face covering unless they are unable to do so because of medical or safety reasons. All businesses must establish protocols upon discovery that the business has been exposed to a person who is a probable or a confirmed case of COVID-19.
All construction projects must maintain proper social distancing and provide hand washing and sanitizing stations for workers, as well as cleaning and sanitizing protocols for high-risk transmission areas. Businesses must identify a “pandemic safety officer” for each project or work site, or, for large-scale construction projects, each contractor at the site.
Residential construction projects may not permit more than four individuals on the job site at any time, not including individuals who require temporary access to the site and are not directly engaged in the construction activity.
For non-residential or commercial projects, the number of individuals permitted on enclosed portions of a project varies depending on the size of the enclosed site.
Commercial construction firms should also strongly consider establishing a written safety plan for each work location containing site-specific details for the implementation of this guidance to be shared with all employees and implemented and enforced by the pandemic safety officer.
Contractors performing work at the direction of the commonwealth, municipalities, or school districts should defer to those public entities to determine what projects may continue, according to the protocols.
