While much of the country is now united in terms of limiting social gatherings and shutting down nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there does not yet seem to be a consensus on how to handle construction projects. Last week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced that the city would be “suspending all regular activity at construction sites” in Boston. The mayor ordered existing job sites to be secured by March 23, with only skeleton crews permitted at job sites thereafter. Only emergency construction work, which would need to be approved by Boston’s Inspectional Services Department, would be allowed to go forward after that date.
At the state level, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf took similar steps to curb construction. Per the state’s response to COVID-19, construction was classified as “non-life-sustaining” business. However, it seems as if certain critical infrastructure projects would have some leeway. The state notes that any decision about whether or not to continue operations of critical infrastructure “should appropriately balance public health and safety while ensuring the continued delivery of critical infrastructure services and functions.”
Pennsylvania’s decision is not without its critics. According to the Reading Eagle, construction industry trade groups Associated Equipment Distributors and Association of Equipment Manufacturers penned a joint letter urging Wolf to relent and treat construction as an essential business. “Building and maintaining Pennsylvania’s vital infrastructure is key to ensuring critical goods are delivered in a timely manner, expanding health service capacity, and guaranteeing water, electricity and other crucial services are uninterrupted,” the groups stated.
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In California, both city and state leaders have decided that construction projects can go on. Last week Governor Gavin Newsom declared construction projects (both housing and commercial) an essential service, a stance reiterated by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose spokesperson Alex Comisar described construction as “essential to the economy” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Given that California is contending with an ongoing housing shortage, it can perhaps make a stronger case that its construction (or at least residential projects) should be considered essential. “I am entirely supportive of the need to continue to build during this time period,” State Assemblyman David Chiu, who represents San Francisco (where the Department of Buildings just reopened), told the Los Angeles Times. “The construction industry is adapting to the new normal and figuring out how to build the shelters, navigation centers, affordable housing and other types of housing that we need. We can’t slow down.”
Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Association, framed the situation more bluntly: “You can’t shelter in place with no shelter.” Those who remain on California’s job sites are taking extra steps to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Workers who spoke to the Los Angeles Times note that they’re more cognizant of keeping at least six feet apart. Contractors have ordered extra site cleanings and installed handwashing or hand-sanitizer stations. Some workers have added gloves and masks to their outfit, but this PPE (personal protection equipment) is proving just as hard to come by as it is for workers in other essential sectors.
In New York City, the country’s current epicenter of cases, Mayor Bill de Blasio has allowed construction projects to continue despite vocal objections from some city officials. Last week, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, as well as City Council Members Brad Lander and Carlos Menchaca, wrote a letter to the mayor imploring him to direct the Department of Buildings to suspend all nonessential construction. The letter classifies “work on hospitals and health care facilities, transit, utilities, public infrastructure, [and] supportive housing and homeless shelters” as examples of essential construction but argues that other projects pose too much risk.
“Construction is a core component of New York City’s economy, and this is a drastic and painful call,” the letter concludes. “At this urgent moment, however, it is necessary as part of our social distancing policy, to slow the spread of the virus, give our health care system a chance to meet the dire need that is growing, and save lives.”
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