Auckland Transport will reopen 160 worksites and get 2500 workers back on the job next week. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland Transport will reopen 160 worksites and get 2500 workers back on the job next week. Photo / Michael Craig
Around 2500 construction workers are set to head back to work on Auckland Transport projects next week.
AT had earlier closed down 160 worksites across the city during the Covid-19 alert level 4 lockdown, but they would now reopen from next Tuesday.
"These projects are worth hundreds of millions ofdollars," AT chief executive Shane Ellison said.
"Some are high profile, like the huge Eastern Busway project, the Downtown programme and Karangahape Rd enhancements, while others are smaller local projects, like road sealing, footpath works and building pedestrian crossings."
"But it's also important that we can start to regenerate economic activity and contribute to a growth of income and jobs needed to drag the city and country out of recession."
AT's Ellison said that while reduced traffic on city streets offered a great chance to get on with the projects, going back to work would look different for some time into the future.
"Lunch break, for instance, is going to be very different with the workers still having to maintain safe distancing and bubbles," he said.
Each project site has developed a health and safety plan based on Ministry of Health guidance and the Covid-19 Standard for NZ Construction Operations.
These measures include physical distancing, construction bubbles, compulsory personal protective equipment, hygiene practices on-site and separating teams into zones on larger projects.
One of AT's most high-profile projects was in the city centre, where 190 construction workers would be back on the job from Tuesday.
Programme director Eric van Essen said workers would be kept in about 30 bubbles on six sites.
"Each worker will be assigned to a bubble and, if they need to go between bubbles, they will have to wear a mask and keep 2m distance.
"We will keep a strict record of anyone entering or leaving a bubble, including anyone making site deliveries," van Essen said.
The first activity on the site will be setting up cleaning and hygiene stations and bubble entry and exit points.
"We will do this preparation work ahead of Tuesday and then be ready when alert level 3 kicks in on Tuesday and the workers turn up for this new, more challenging way to work."
AT said it had helped construction companies keep workers in jobs by making $18 million in advance payments to contractors on existing projects.
The cash injection came through an Advance Entitlement Payment scheme for construction contractors, with the NZ Transport Agency also offering a similar scheme to its contractors.
How AT plans to keep workers safe during alert level 3
* Inductions for new project staff and compulsory Covid-19 education and training will be part of ongoing site protocols while in level 2 and 3 scenarios
