In addition to the usual safety guidelines, contractors now have to make sure their employees are adequately protected from getting infected by the coronavirus. A recent article in the Commercial Observer looked at the challenges faced by New York construction sites one week after their phase 1 reopening.
Now that the construction industry is restarting in most of the country, some contractors are using the help and advice of medical professionals. to keep the deadly virus out of their job sites. Medical consultants are being hired to make sure the new Covid-19 safety guidelines are applied proprely and health and safety staff are being seen on job sites screening construction workers temperature. Industrial hygienists are being hired to work on safety protocols. Infectious disease experts are providing consulting to construction companies with large amounts of workers to make sure they get advice on proper infection control practices across construction sites such as installation of washing stations, cleaning, new protocol with food vendors, proper face covering and contact tracing procedures. Many large contractors have also created their own Response Team in charge of working with medical experts to make sure recommendations are proprely implemented. They also try to hire health care providers with pandemic preparedness background to join theses teams on a full time basis. However because of the actual shortage of healthcare providers these positions are difficult to fill.
In New York, employers are responsible for the safety of their construction workers. A large contractor not only consulted with medical professionals for its construction sites but also for its corporate offices. The contractor uses automatic temperature checking stations, barriers between open offices as well as staggered start times with rotation schedules for their employees. The flow of offices has been re-designed to one way. Employees received personal lunch kits, and silver defender virus-killing tape was applied on door handles, coffee stations and copy machines. Additionally the marketing team of the company has been creating various videos to proprely train employees on how to access their job sites or their office, how to behave on the jobs site and in offices, how to socially distance while at work as well as how to use sanitation and cleaning.
Read more in Construction Dive
Construction workers are going back to wok at 33,556 non-essential construction sites today as New York City enters phase 1 of NY State re-opening plan. To prevent workers from getting contaminated by the coronavirus, any employer hiring workers for a a construction site requiring permits from the DOB or otherwise regulated by the NYC Construction Codes and the NYC Electrical Code must comply with the Interim Guidance for Construction Activities during the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency.
To make sure construction workers are adequately protected, DOB inspectors will conduct safety inspection sweeps and periodic checks of NYC construction sites.
In New York State, the general contractor and/or the owner of the construction site are responsible for the safety of their employees and, in addition to the regular safety guidelines applicable on construction sites, they now will have to make sure that:
As New York construction workers are gradually heading back to work, OSHA only provided minimal “safety guidance” in regards to Covid-19 safety and it is mostly up to the construction companies to create their own Covid-19 safety rules to protect construction workers from contracting the Coronaivirus.
In a recent article, The New Yorker followed Putrelo Building Enterprises, a small family construction business in the Mohawk Valley, in their efforts to re-open their business while making sure their employees are safe. As they were looking at re-opening, the Putrelos realized that no Covid-19 related protocol was in place in regards to construction workers safety and that OSHA guidance was so minimal that it was mostly up to them to make sure that their employees were protected from Covid-19 as they restarted work.
With the Coronavirus pandemic, the construction industry is adopting new technologies to make sure workers are protected.Remote monitoring, online inspections and video conferencing are becoming more and more common on construction sites and governmental entities are considering technologies that give them the option to conduct virtual inspections.
Because the cost of labor is cheaper in the US than in Europe, American construction sites have not relayed on technology as much as their European or Australian counterparts. However with many construction sites being deemed essential during the Covid-19 crisis, American contractors are now catching up and integrating new technologies that might become the new norm in the future.
By the nature of their work, construction workers have a high risk of getting injured in accidents on NYC construction sites. Now many of them are facing another deadly threat as they have recently been asked to return to work after the State expanded the list of “essential building work” from hospitals, affordable housing and infrastructure projects to schools, hotels, restaurants, banks, convenience stores, appliance stores and storage facilities among others as long as ground has already been broken.
As a results thousands of construction sites are kept open in the city putting at risk construction workers and their families to catch the deadly virus.
1 worker died and 158 others were injured on construction sites in New York City during the first quarter of 2020 compared to respectively 0 and 137 for the same period of 2019. When looking at a 5 year period, the first trimester of 2018 was the worst for New York City construction workers with 170 of them sustaining injuries and 3 of them dying in accidents.
Most accidents resulting in injuries occurred in Manhattan with 96 workers injured, followed by Brooklyn, 35, Queens, 14 and the Bronx, 13. No injuries were reported in Staten Island during the first trimester. With the exception of Staten Island all other boroughs recorded an increase in construction accident injuries during the the first 3 months of this year compared to the same period a year earlier.
Working on construction sites is one of the most dangerous activities in New York and in the US. The Department of Buildings classify injuries in 6 different categories. The largest category is “Other”. Injuries in this category are usually not life threatening or not critical. Many of them are small cuts and lacerations that do not require ambulance transportation or hospitalization. Most of the time a visit to an emergency call center is sufficient to treat the injury. It is also rare that a safety violation is issued after these types of injuries. The second largest category of NYC construction accident injuries are injuries related to falls. Falls often result in serious injuries. An ambulance is often called and workers end up most of the time at the hospital after a fall. Most fall injuries could be prevented if workers were fully protected. During the first quarter of 2020, 45 hart hats were injured in falls in New York. This is the highest number of fall injuries recorded during the first quarter over the last 5 years. Another very common cause of injuries is when material fell onto workers. 12 workers were injured in that manner during the first three months of the year compared to respectively 22, 21, 23 and 10 during the same period of 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016. 6 people were also injured in scaffolds accidents and 2 sustained injuries related to mechanical construction equipment.
Two weeks ago a 45 year old construction worker died after he fell from a roof in Troy, NY. The worker sustained serious injury and was pronounced dead upon his arrival to the hospital. (read more here)Roofers are the construction workers that are the most at risk of dying in a fall accident. According to previous statistics between 35 and 40 roofers out of 100,000 die every year in fall accidents. This is 10 times the rate of fatality of the construction industry globally. 75% of roofing fatalities are caused by falls. Falls are often deadly but when they are not, injuries can be devastating and sometimes result in lifelong disabilities. Traumatic Brain injury is one of the most common injury sustain by roofers in fall accidents. Broken bone injuries can also occur depending on how the worker lands. Broken spine, broken neck, arms, and ribs are the most common as well as broken knees, ankles and feet.
11 construction workers died and 586 were injured on the job in New York City last year according to statistics from the NYC Department of Buildings. Half of the fatalities occurred in Manhattan, 2 in Brooklyn, 2 in Queens and one in the Bronx. No fatalities were reported in Staten Island. 12 construction workers died yearly during the 4 previous years. When looking at these numbers it is important to keep in mind that the NYC Department of Buildings has very narrow criteria to count construction fatalities in the city and an estimated one third of the construction deaths recorded by OSHA in New York City dot not appear in the DOT stats.
The number of workers injured in construction accidents in New York City last year declined compared to the 3 previous years but was higher than in 2015. 586 construction workers sustained injuries on construction sites in the city last year compared to 761 in 2018, 666 in 2017, 599 in 2016 and 472 in 2015 according to the DOT statistics. Most accidents occurred on Manhattan construction sites followed by Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. The monthly number of hard hats injured on the job reached a peak in August at 62 and were above 50 during the warm season in May, June, July and September. During all other months of 2019 the number of injuries recorded on NYC construction sites in 2019 was below 50. This is quite an improvement compared to the year before during which injuries almost reached 100 in May and were above 50 every month except for November and December.
Manhattan Construction accident deaths and injuries are still on a rising trend despite a decline in both deaths and injuries last year. 4 construction workers died in Manhattan during the 3 month period of April, May and June and 2 others in October. July and August had the highest number of injuries with 38 workers injured in July and 34 in August.
Safety on construction sites is not only about preventing accidents but also about keeping construction workers healthy and preventing injuries.
Because of the nature of the tasks they perform on a daily basis, construction workers are at a high risk of developing work-related muskuloskeletal disorders (WMSDs) also known as soft tissues injuries.
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