Office building under construction in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
For the last several weeks, StructureTone construction company has been able to keep a handful of its health-related projects on track, but not without instituting a series of protocols to keep workers safe.
Before walking onto a job site, workers have their temperatures checked and complete a questionnaire. Have they traveled to New York or New Jersey in the last 14 days, or been within proximity of a person later diagnosed with Covid-19? Do they have any symptoms of the coronavirus? Have they been to a job site that was closed down because of possible exposure?
After a worker is checked, they are given a wrist band indicating they are cleared to work at that construction site for the day. Face shields or masks are mandatory and orders are given on social distancing while on the job. There are extra hand-washing stations located throughout each project, and the number of people in hoist is limited.
“It’s hard to social distance on every operation but we have been doing remarkably well,” said Frank M. Stulb, president of Bala Cynwyd-based L.F. Driscoll, which is part of StructureTone. “A lot of it is to give them a level of comfort to let them know we're trying to do all we can to protect them, but we have to be vigilant.”
The protocols being used by StructureTone and other area construction companies are already established as Gov. Tom Wolf prepares to issue his own set of safety guidelines before reopening construction sites across the state on May 1.
Learn more about what construction projects might expect when building resumes at PBJ.com.
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