Inslee reopens low-risk, residential construction

John McCallum, Managing Editor | Last updated Apr 24, 2020 1:10pm0

OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee announced that low-risk construction activity could resume in the state as long as contractors follow safety plans at each site agreed to by state, labor and industry leaders.

Inslee made the announcement at a news conference this morning, April 24, joined by members of a committee assembled to devise safety recommendations that included Building Industry Association of Washington Executive Vice President Greg Lane and Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary Mark Riker. The governor cited measures taken in his “Stay Home, Stay Health” orders as helping bend the curve of the coronavirus that has impacted most of the state since late-February and enabled state and industry officials to implement the beginning of a return-to-work plan.

“We have reached the first step of that plan,” Inslee said. “We have found a way to safely allow low-risk construction that is underway to resume.”

Inslee said the collaborative work by a group of state and industry officials that began meeting in early April has led to a very “comprehensive safety plan” with “high standards.” At a news conference on Tuesday evening, April 21, Inslee’s Chief of Staff David Postman said the work resulted in a 30-point plan for jobsites to follow to ensure worker safety.

The plan requires establishing controls to implement social distancing guidelines while complying with state and federal construction site and labor safety regulations and guidelines. It also requires jobsite safety plans show they can provide adequate personal protection equipment, and have a site supervisor designated to monitoring and implementing the plan conditions.

The plan also requires sanitary and cleanliness conditions be met. Specific notices of the work to be performed must be posted, and workers must leave the jobsite if coronavirus symptoms develop and remain at home until cleared.

Inslee said the plan had been agreed to by state regulators and safety experts, health officials, building and labor and local government officials.

“It’s our job to do it right,” Riker said addressing workers in the state. “If we do it right, we move to the next step. If we do it wrong, we will be shutting ourselves back down.”

Lane said the move will help the industry begin to readdress a housing shortage that is occurring in the state. He added the state is short about 200,000 affordable housing units, with the shortfall working towards pricing working families out of the home ownership market.

“We’re going to safely start addressing that housing shortfall again, and hope to make housing more affordable for everyone in Washington,” he said.

Inslee said the work can begin once he signed the orders to do so today. No specific numbers were given on projects that would resume and how many workers would be back on site.

As for signs of reopening the state for business, Inslee said he hoped data over the next few days would possibly lead to allowing hospitals to resume performing elective procedures, especially in rural areas hard hit by the loss of revenue from such procedures. He also said state officials would be looking at data and consulting with health experts over the next couple of days about ways of resuming some outdoor recreation activities.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

Poll: Most WA voters wary of reopening economy too soon

SEATTLE -- A Crosscut/Elway Research poll released today, April 24, indicated that 76 percent of Washingtonians are believe that restrictions and precautions ordered by government agencies have worked to slow the spread of the coronavirus, with 17 percent saying the danger had been exaggerated and most restrictions were not needed.

Those numbers held up across political parties, geographic locations and demographic groups, although they were more pronounced in Western Washington and among Democrats. Ninety-two percent of Democrats said the restrictions were working, as did 52 percent of Republicans.

An overwhelming majority, 61 percent, said the risk to public health was greater than the risk to the economy, while 31 percent felt the risk to the economy was greater. Eight percent had no opinion. The Crosscut/Elway Poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percent.

The political divide on this question was stark, however. While 82 percent of Democrats said lifting the restrictions too soon was the greater risk, 64 percent of Republicans said keeping restrictions on too long was the bigger problem. Independents more closely aligned with Democrats on this question, with 59 percent more worried about public health, and 29 percent more worried about the economy.

Interestingly, 56 percent of poll respondents said both that the restrictions are working and the greater risk is lifting them too soon, while only 15 percent said the opposite: that the danger was exaggerated and the greater risk was keeping restrictions on too long.

The poll was done between April 18-20 with 405 registered voters responding online or by phone.