Letter: Bay Area is not suddenly re-opening construction

Bay Area is not suddenlyre-opening construction

Your editorial, titled “The Bay’s Area’s risky COVID-19 gamble” (Mercurynews.com, May 1) in which I was quoted, asserts that the decision to allow construction projects to resume threatens lives. What it misses entirely is that most construction in the Bay Area has been proceeding, safely, for the past eight weeks.

The Bay Area is not suddenly re-opening construction. Construction of roads, bridges, utilities, airports and more continued with little to no COVID-19 incident or spread. It is because our industry was already widely recognized for effective safety practices that more flexible policies were approved.

Every project has a qualified safety representative. Our contractors monitor and document the enforcement of site-specific COVID-19 safety plans, including social distancing, job-site personal hygiene, sanitizing, PPE and other COVID-19-related safety requirements.

We take seriously the opportunity to lead by example and are confident in our industry’s ability to work safely through COVID-19 because we’ve been doing it all along.

Emily CohenExecutive Vice PresidentUnited Contractors

 

 

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