Is construction essential? Industry chafes against Inslee’s COVID-19 restrictions
Construction projects across the state are stalling in light of Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order, and Pierce County is no different.
Many commercial and residential construction sites have ceased work to comply with the order from the state, which declares construction a non-essential service.
“In our residential segment of our company, we are completely shut down,” said Scott Walker, vice president of homebuilder Rush Residential.
Rush has seven housing divisions in the South Sound and builds between 80 and 100 homes a year, said Walker, who is also the current president of the Pierce County Master Builders Association. The company also manages 1,700 residences and a commercial division for medical facilities and apartments.
“We’ve had to board up all of our sites, so we don’t have theft or vandalism, which has already begun,” Walker said.
Absher Construction, a Puyallup-based company, is working on both the $125 million Tacoma Town Center project and the new hotel at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center.
“They are both currently shut down,” Absher marketing manager Erin Mayer told The News Tribune on Monday.
Not everyone has halted work — some projects in the Tacoma area are allowed to continue under the governor’s order.
As companies work to determine which projects can continue, some advocacy groups are banding together to get the state to roll back some construction restrictions while ensuring workers are safe.
The Pierce County Master Builders Association (MBA) is following the lead of its state association, which has been in contact with Inslee and his office.
The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) also is seeking some changes to the order.
“We continue to talk to the governor and his staff about the impact to our industry, and we have been joined by a number of industry associations,’ said Jennifer Spall, communications director for the BIAW.
Schools, Link rail projects continue
Residents in the Tacoma area might see some construction continue.
For private residential and commercial projects, construction crews are allowed to work on site for the purpose of emergency repairs, preventing spoliation of materials and damage or to prevent unsafe conditions.
Once those sites are secured, they’re expected to halt work.
Inslee’s order also allows some projects to continue that meet specific guidelines, including construction that “furthers a public purpose related to a public entity or governmental function.”
In the city of Tacoma, that means street projects continue.
“Routine street/grounds maintenance, such as pothole repair, minor asphalt pavement repair (larger than a pothole), street sign repair, and mowing in right-of-way /City maintained parks is still occurring,” the city’s public works department told The News Tribune. “Crews are practicing social distancing while performing their work.”
School construction is continuing, according to Tacoma Public Schools, where three projects are underway. Hunt Elementary started construction on Wednesday. At Birney Elementary, work will be scaled back as the number of crews on site are reduced.
For crews that are on site, workers are maintaining a safe distance while they work, according to the district.
Two projects by the Tacoma Housing Authority also will continue: the Arlington Drive Campus for Homeless Youth and Young Adults (at South 38th and Portland) and The Rise on 19th (at South 19th and G Street). The contractors on the projects, Korsmo and Marpac, are adhering to social distancing requirements.
THA executive director Michael Mirra said the two projects are exempt from Inslee’s order as low-income housing projects that are publicly financed.
“We are watching all this carefully,” Mirra said in an email to The News Tribune. “Both projects are financed with investor equity from the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC). In normal times, that program imposes important deadlines to get the projects built and occupied. Normally, if you miss those deadlines, you lose this financing. So we hope we do not face that prospect or, if we do, the federal government will grant some flexibility.”
Sound Transit announced Monday it would halt almost all of its construction projects, but a handful of projects are allowed to continue to avoid mobility, environmental or other impacts, including the Tacoma Link extension project.
Work will continue in both Hilltop and the Stadium District, where work is “highly disruptive” to the public.
Last week, Sound Transit temporarily stopped construction in Hilltop after the contractor, Walsh Construction, was not meeting COVID-19 safety requirements, said Sound Transit spokesperson Scott Thompson. That has since changed.
“The contractor is implementing expanded safety measures and training,” Sound Transit said in a construction alert Wednesday. “As long as the contractor follows these safety measures with additional oversight, critical work can continue.”
Businesses, elected officials seek change to order
Inslee has stood by his decision that residential and commercial construction are not essential, citing the progress Washington state has made in flattening the COVID-19 curve.
Still, some are working to change his mind, citing growing impacts.
“Our industry employs more than 165,000 people in our state, generating $23 million in family wages every day to our economy,” Spall said. “We are hearing from members across the state who are concerned about the future of their workforce and of their business; with more immediate concerns such as theft and working to ensure job sites are safely secured from spoilage.”
Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, sent a letter to Inslee’s office on Wednesday, asking him to re-open private construction.
“Working to stop the spread of COVID-19 is not only a matter of public health, but also a matter of economic stability,” Corry wrote in the letter. “It is not my intention to downplay the significance of the health measures that are necessary to mitigate and prepare for the medical management of this pandemic, but rather to simultaneously protect our workers and economic future. We must create a path for Washingtonians to get safely back to work.”
Corry included a 39-page General Construction Health and Safety Plan published by Fulcrum Environmental Consulting, a Yakima-based environmental services provider supporting construction owners and contractors for both private and public development. The plan outlines safety standards for contractors.
In Pierce County, Walker didn’t think that construction would halt in light of a stay-home order.
Walker had kept watch of other states that had implemented stay-home orders across the country, many of which had allowed construction to continue.
“We thought we were going to be able to continue to operate,” he said.
Now, he says the impacts are trickling down to families — for Rush Residential, it’s eight families — who had purchased a home and are waiting to move in.
“They’ve done everything in preparation for moving their family, and they’re stuck,” he said.
The MBA sent a letter to Inslee this month, requesting that homes under contract to a buyer be allowed to complete construction and inspections using remote/electronic means.
The BIAW is confident that construction can continue while remaining safe for workers, as other states are doing amid stay-home orders.
“Across the nation, residential construction is continuing and embracing best practices from other states and from the National Association of Home Builders,” Spall said.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
