A new study quantifies how construction activity during the COVID-19 pandemic raises health hazards for workers and the general public in Austin, Texas, and emphasizes the importance of job-site safety methods, according to www.constructiondive.com.
Commissioned by Austin Mayor Steve Adler, the study found keeping the city’s job sites open without any special safety precautions could triple the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the general population—from 10,000 to 30,000—and raise construction workers’ risk of hospitalization eightfold by the middle of August.
The model from a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin is based on a scenario that assumes the surrounding community is under a highly strict shelter-in-place order—about 90% of residents staying home—while construction work continues with no special safety precautions. It also assumes construction job sites have double the transmission risk of a typical workplace because of the “nature of construction work and/or the elevated concentration of construction workers at essential worksites.” The researchers also looked at other scenarios that varied the intensity of contact among construction workers at job sites and the number of workers allowed to be at the sites.
Since the pandemic arrived in Austin in March, Adler has expressed concern for the health and safety of construction industry professionals and those they are in contact with—particularly those living in the city’s working-class east side. In March, Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt issued a mandate stopping all nonessential construction in the city and county; however, on April 2, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reversed that decision with his executive order, allowing construction across the state to continue.
Researchers said the study’s worst case scenario is avoidable because strict job-site safety measures can minimize the spread of the virus. It found the risk of increasing community hospitalizations and worker illness can be greatly diminished using measures such as temperature screenings, use of personal protective equipment, tool disinfection, hand-washing stations and rotating shifts.
Phil Thoden, president of the AGC Austin Chapter, said Austin’s building community takes job-site health and safety seriously, and in many cases, local builders are going beyond city and county guidelines to keep workers safe.
“The study shows that if no safety and health procedures are implemented then our industry is at risk for increasing the spread of the virus,” Thoden said. “But if the safety and health procedures required by the city and county are being followed, then there’s negligible if any spread of the virus.”
