I am sure that most of you have been going a bit crazy with the lockdown measures the COVID-19 crisis has brought and a lot of you are eager to get back to work. Don’t worry, you are not alone on the desperation, this situation has tested us all from the beginning and its important that we keep our heads up and make the best of what is to come. There is a lot of worry of the economic loss that this virus will leave behind and how the pandemic has been -and will- impact architecture. As cities begin to slowly ease up on the quarantine measures, authorities in different countries have begun re-opening construction sites. Many of the construction projects which were at a halt for the past few months, have begun to continue their work as of beginning of May. Which is good news for all the construction workers, designers, and engineers involved in the project.
However, with the reopening of these constructions and projects, there will have to be several changes and implementations to retrofit continuing projects to make them safe for during and after the construction phase. A lot of thought will have to put forth to help keep the measures of social distancing and fight the challenges that have been presented because of the virus. In order to help aid the situation and not let the economy be completely devastated by it, projects in New York City have begun operation again. Now, new hygienic measures are being explored so that the health of construction workers is not put at risk during the construction. If these safety procedures are ignored, the city has announced that they will issue fines and warnings at inspections placed at random times. That means that worker’s health will also be evaluated at different points during construction, which may be thermal scan of the head to check if there is any individual with a rise in temperature. Additionally, city workers will be required to wear masks throughout the area during all times.
With the implementation of different safety measures and the addition of sanitizing areas, there are high hopes that the world can slowly begin easing up on lockdown measures and that we can bring the number of cases down. Rapid adjustments to day to day operations will hopefully aid in the mission to bring this epidemic to a halt and not have not add more to the long-lasting economic impacts that this will bring. There are other cities across the US that have allowed «essential» deemed projects to continue, such as health facilities of any kind and affordable housing, but other cities which still have stops on construction activity. As we find out more about the situation and we have any news that we find helpful to you we will share in the upcoming blog posts.
So, keep your heads high and with everyone’s collaboration hopefully we will see an end to the situation in the near future.
