Massachusetts construction halted as efforts to curb pandemic increase

With the Massachusetts death toll for the virus climbing to over 1000 people, Governor Charlie Baker has ordered construction throughout the state to halt, along with many other states, to create costly new measures to lower infection risk. This closing of sites does not extend to critical infrastructure like bridges and roads, or specific forms of housing under construction.

Erland construction has restricted its workers that are allowed to show up on site – no more than 50 crewmen and 10 contractors or other managers. Workers also are urged to use applications like Zoom and Skype to stay connected and help lay out plans for the future of their sites.

photo: Erland Construction

“You cannot manage a major construction job from the home office, you just can’t. I’m going to have to be fixing mistakes and miscommunications for the first few months after this pandemic is over,” said Mark Robinson, senior contractor for Erland construction.

Local union representatives have also been checking in on sites with greater frequency to make sure workers are following guidelines properly, as the concern for infecting workers must be kept in mind.

Erland has hired licensed nurse practitioners to take the temperatures of employees as they enter the job site, an expensive measure to ensure their workers thought of on site. These implementations have put deadlines in limbo, as teams of workers a quarter of their operational size are expected to finish the jobs they are tasked with.

In addition to the monetary cost of these changes companies like Erland have to keep in mind the cost in quality of labor now that workers have to segment their teams, can’t carpool to the site, and have restrictions on how they can work in general that follow social distancing guidelines.

Many jobs, in the construction industry or not, will be upgrading their standards for worker and public safety.