Yesterday, the Construction Leadership Council’s co chair Andy Mitchell wrote that the sector is “doing our utmost to keep construction sites operational wherever it is practical and safe to do so”.
For the time being, he added, construction sites of any size “need to ensure they are protecting their workforce and minimising the spread of infection”.
The Council has published a ‘site operating procedures’ document which it says should be followed by every operational construction site. Andy added that if an activity cannot be undertaken safely “due to a lack of suitably qualified personnel being available, or social distancing being implemented, it should not take place”.
However the British Safety Council chair Lawrence Waterman said: “On most sites social distancing will be impossible or simply unsafe. All non essential construction should end now so that construction workers can go home and stay home like everyone else.”
Highways England’s chief executive Jim O’Sullivan said yesterday that social distancing had been put into action where possible, but Traffic Officers will continue to patrol the roads – in some cases with a single crew member. "Our operational work must continue, mindful of the risks to our staff and to our road users,” he wrote.
Jim added that in relation to road improvement schemes: “We know the safest thing our construction teams can do is to stick to the plan and get jobs completed on time and return the road to normal.”
He also said that companies working on projects “need to make sure their teams and their suppliers have the maximum possible protection, that they are up to date on Government advice and that they have minimised the risk of the spread of Coronavirus”.
In the capital, London’s Transport Commissioner Mike Brown said that Transport for London and Crossrail “will be bringing all project sites to a temporary safe stop unless they need to continue for operational safety reasons”. He added, however, that essential maintenance of the transport network in London will continue.
“This is being done to ensure the safety of our construction and project teams and also to further reduce the number of people travelling on the public transport network,” Mike added.
Highway maintenance activity across the country, it seems, looks set to continue. The Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board chairman Ian Hudspeth said: “Councils will try and continue to deliver services including essential road maintenance, with transport staff identified as key workers.
“It is more important now than ever that roads are kept open during the Coronavirus response so that freight can continue to deliver essentials such as medicine and food to pharmacies and supermarkets.”
(Photograph: Crossrail)
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