Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: PennDOT Resuming Construction Projects As Vacant Roads Provide Unique Opportunity
MOON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- For road crews, the delay amid the coronavirus pandemic is over as projects are kicking into high gear.
But there are some adjustments coming.
"There's a safety COVID officer required on every job," said PennDOT District 11 Executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni. "And that person's job is to make sure they are maintaining all the COVID safety requirements."
PennDOT says 111 construction projects got the green flag to resume work this week, though they have to operate under the cloud of coronavirus and a new worksite environment
"All the contractors are required to have wash stations on every job," Moon-Sirianni says. "They're required to wear the mask and practice social distancing. All of the tools are not to be shared. And if they are shared, they are to be cleaned thoroughly between sharing."
The PennDOT inspector who has always been assigned to every site is now also overseeing the work of the COVID safety officer.
Moon-Sirianni says, "If they see something they are not comfortable with, they'll shut down the project or have that person leave the site or whatever the instance may be."
With most of the region's workforce still working from home or not at all, there are no daily rush hours and that is proving a benefit for PennDOT.
Contractors are being allowed to work longer days and "We can allow daytime work, which is much more productive than night work," Moon-Sirianni said.
Those adjustments are helping to get work caught up.
Also, the lack of baseball and hockey games are a plus for work zones.
"The 579 cap project had to stop every time there was a Penguins game," Moon-Sirianni said.
PennDOT's maintenance crews, who have been on a COVID layoff for the last month, will return to work on Monday.
Moon-Sirianni says, "So we should have a full maintenance field staff back to work on Monday, trying to attack the potholes and slides we haven't been able to work on the past month or so because we had skeletal crews working."
The quiet of the highways means people aren't buying gas and gas tax money is lighter than normal.
Moon-Sirianni says the word from Harrisburg is to anticipate a money pinch, look at every project planned for this year "and prioritize them as high, medium and low. Depending on how much money we have to cut, some of them on there as low may not be able to go," Moon-Sirianni said.
One unknown is what impact the coronavirus safety requirements will have on productivity.
If a worker can't hand a tool to another worker without it being wiped down, that could impact costs.
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