Posted on 12/19/2020 4:22:27 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Eran Polack is hunkering down for a long, cold winter. As CEO of HAP Construction in New York City, he knows the signs that precede government orders to stop construction work, and lately, he’s been seeing a lot of them.
“We’ve heard this song before,” Polack said. “They closed the schools, so that’s a sign. You can’t have a restaurant open after 10 p.m. You can’t open a gym, or have a gathering of more than 10 people. So, it’s getting there.”
Those signals have spurred Polack and his crews to step up work at Maverick, the 20-story, 312,500-square-foot condominium and ground floor retail project on West 28th Street where they’re in the final stages of construction, in a race to beat the shutdown clock. That includes going to three shifts and working weekends before what Polack now feels is inevitable comes to pass.
“We will see another lockdown in New York City,” Polack said. “I’m 100% sure about that.”
He’s taking other steps to prepare, too. For example, going into the Thanksgiving holiday, he shut down his firm’s Midtown Manhattan headquarter offices with the plan of not opening again until Jan. 15, at the earliest.
“Safety’s the most important thing,” Polack said. “I’m closing the gates, and asking everybody to work from home.”
Nervousness about winter work
Polack isn’t alone. As national virus case counts spike, and daily death tolls of nearly 2,100 people reach their highest levels since May, contractors around the country have been fretting about the potential for more stop-work orders to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19, similar to initial shutdowns that were put in place in the first weeks of the pandemic, prior to construction being deemed essential in most regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at constructiondive.com ...
I have seen NO reduction in construction projects, in fact my city has seen opportunity to rip up major roads and leave them in shambles with fewer drivers on the roads.
And office, apartment, and retail construction has not let up. They didn’t take off one day for lockdown even at the earliest or worst of it.
Yet with 30% of businesses vacated, do we even need to new retail spaces and restaurants?
The governors manipulate the figures. Hit by a truck-—but was catching Covid says the autopsy? Covid death. Unknown cause of death in a city alley for guy with really bad lungs, bad heart and drank too much? Call it Covid. Test showed asymptomatic but he had been exposed to it.
So after they destroy the Trump Presidency, is their next stop to cause revolution of the new out of work millions who say “where is my government money?”
West coast seems to be going pretty strong...even with earlier shutdown they are meeting their goals...says my construction Mgr son
Down I26 west below Richland county, a new Peterbuilt shop just went on line.
The exit just past there, a big gas station and deli is going up.
Well...with all the trucks on the road I’m not surprised.
That area for years was kind of sparse.
As someone active in private equity transactions in this market space for 30+ years,I can report that most of my clients are doing OK for the moment, BUT, while their WIP, current operations, etc. are holding up, the backlog is drying up. Washington DC is the exception. This industry sector is just one of many ‘canaries in the coal mine.’
This is 2008 on steroids coming up. We are on the cusp of historic change...for the worse. We are caught up in a Greek tragedy in slow motion.
Trump bought us a little time and isolation from the global corruptocrats, but that is winding down.
Freepers, if they aren’t already, now absolutely must become preppers.
We have been in lockdown for 8 months? If they work; why are we having a spike in cases?
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