Construction is starting back up in Boston, and its going to be more complicated – The Boston Globe

Two months later, Walsh is opening up the construction industry again, with far more rules in place.

Like anything else, there will be a learning curve, said Jeff Gouveia, general manager for the Northeast at Boston-based construction giant Suffolk. But people are taking this very, very seriously, trying to figure out how to do their job and be productive, while also making sure theyre safe.

Projects that want to restart have to file detailed safety plans with the city Bostons Inspectional Services Department has received more than 2,000 so far and sign an affidavit pledging compliance. Approved outdoor work digging foundations, erecting steel framing was allowed starting Monday, with full construction beginning next week. Wednesday morning, major projects all over downtown Boston had at least modest crews on site.

Some of the citys largest general contractors, along with the subcontractors and labor unions they employ, have spent much of the last two months devising safer ways to perform the thousands of small jobs that go into a big building.

Suffolk has crafted unique plans complete with training videos for each of its projects in Boston, and plans to use sensors to warn workers when they stand too close, among other new technology. Consigli Construction Co. has been stocking up on personal protective equipment, buying hand sanitizer from local distilleries and masks from a factory in Maine. Commodore Builders plans to stagger shifts, having some people start earlier, or work later, to reduce crowding at peak times.

As workers trickle back onto job sites, theyll get detailed training and new rules. Temperature-taking will be common, and hand-washing stations everywhere. When possible, workers on some jobs will be limited to one for every 500 square feet. When they must work in close quarters, theyll wear extra masks and goggles. Elevators that might lift 20 or 30 people up a high rise to start a shift might now hold 10, standing back to back so theyll face toward the open air.

The rules are not only designed to keep workers safe, contractors say, but also to give them confidence to come back. As COVID-19 cases flared on job sites in the early days of the pandemic in March, many workers decided to stay home rather than risk getting sick, and a few unions and subcontractors walked off jobs entirely.

You have people with their own health concerns, or a family member theyre concerned about, and thats going to take a dent out of the workforce, said Commodore CEO Joe Albanese. How do we make sure the workplace becomes so safe that people really feel like the risk is minimal?

The sort of rules being put in place, at least on larger unionized jobs, should help, said Bert Durand, spokesman for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. His union the largest single construction union in Massachusetts pulled all its 10,000 workers off job sites for two weeks in April over safety concerns. He said the progress on safety since is encouraging.

Weve gotten really positive reaction so far from our members and contractors, Durand said. These are the sort of protocols we were hoping to see.

They will, though, likely cost more, both in money and time a precious commodity to a developer with a big construction loan. Several builders said its hard to estimate yet just how much the new protocols will slow down projects, and but said they hoped technology, as well as more use of off-site fabrication, could help make up for lost time.

Their ability to do that, of course, depends somewhat on the stage of a construction project.

The HYM Investment Group is building two neighboring towers atop the Government Center Garage downtown. The first a 45-story apartment building was supposed to open its first units this month. Now, after the shutdown, theyre looking at a September date, said managing partner Tom OBrien. Next door, HYM broke ground in June on One Congress, a 600-foot office tower half leased to State Street Corp. The financial services giant expects to move in in January 2023, and OBrien said he was confident he can still hit that deadline, but scheduling the work and sourcing glass and other materials that may be harder to find now just got a lot more complicated.

Its early on and you have some time to catch up, OBrien said. But on a job like that, every day matters.

And for some projects that havent yet started, the added complexity not to mention the broader economic woes and even doubts about the future of dense downtowns like Bostons could be the difference between moving forward with work and putting a halt to it altogether.

No Boston developers have yet scrapped projects they have planned at least not publicly and contractors say theyre still bidding on future jobs. But several builders acknowledged that some slices of the development market hotels, office towers are moving slower than they were two months ago.

There are definitely still opportunities out there, said Jeff Navin, vice president of project management at Consigli. "But with some of the newer stuff, people are sitting a little longer before making decisions.

Still, for those who have projects partly done, theres little choice but to push forward, as safely as possible.

Jordan Warshaw and his partners spent years working to plan and finance the $314 million Raffles Back Bay Boston Hotel and Residences, a 33-story condo and hotel tower on Stuart Street. They broke ground in September, and were set to start digging the foundation when construction shut down in March. This week, workers were back, with a temperature-taking tent and even a special generator to boil hot water for hand washing, all tucked within the tight confines of the site.

Work is a couple of months behind schedule now, but Warshaw said he was confident Suffolk could have things up to speed by the time full interior construction gets underway, and it will still hit its target opening date of mid-2022.

Warshaws been a developer long enough to expect the unexpected, and ride it out. This, he said, is just one of those times.

Things happen in construction, he said. You never like surprises. But you expect them. That said, I dont know that theres ever been a surprise quite like this.

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.

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Construction is starting back up in Boston, and its going to be more complicated - The Boston Globe