Empire Chapter Members –

The old adage of April showers bringing May flowers may actually be true this year. We’ve been planting many “seeds” this month hoping that they will bring brighter days. We’re looking forward to what promises to be an interesting May. A month that brings us new hope that our world will be getting back to normal, or whatever we’ll be calling it.

The “seeds” I reference above are actually ideas we’ve been advancing to get construction back to being 100% essential. We’ve been working closely with our elected officials and the Governor’s office to advance a plan that will re-open construction soon. We’ve been focused on two key pieces: a commitment to safety and controlling density by phasing in stalled projects in measured steps. 

I’m pleased to say that yesterday, at his daily press briefing, the Governor took a step in our direction. He announced a two phase approach, re-opening plan, that would start with construction and manufacturing with time to measure any potential spread of COVID-19. If all goes well, step two would commence with more measuring for the virus.
Now comes the part where we need to get to work developing the plans you’ll need to get things restarted. We’ve been sharing information with you about creating safety plans that will help prevent the spread of the virus.  Prior to recommencing work all contractors should develop and post at each job site a comprehensive COVID-19 exposure control, mitigation, and recovery plan. The plan should include:

  1. PPE utilization
  2. On-site social distancing
  3. Hygiene and sanitation
  4. Symptom monitoring
  5. Incident reporting
  6. Site decontamination procedures
  7. Exposure response procedures
  8. Post-exposure incident project wide recovery plan

We’ve created a draft plan for you to use as a template that you can locate HERE .

The next step is for you to join us tomorrow at 1:00 PM for our webinar, Bringing Your Project Back Online: Tips to Ensure a Smooth Restart , presented by our Statewide Safety Director Jason Ashlaw. You can register for the webinar HERE .
 
This is just the first step in what we hope is a good month of May and the start of a great summer of construction. We have a great burden to bear in that we don’t want construction to falter and take a step backward. We’ll do our part by continuing to plant the “seeds” to keep you as essential. We need all of you to keep your ongoing and unwavering commitment to use the best safety practices and policies to keep your workers, your sites and the public safe.
 
Spring has sprung!

Brian Sampson
President
ABC Empire State Chapter