Commercial Building Site

This scenario considers a newbuild or large refurbishment on a commercial building site.

It may seem to be a relatively simple task to attempt to instruct builders to maintain social distancing during their normal working practices. However, some trades may find it impossible to maintain the distance through the practical needs of their work, and so face masks may be necessary. If face masks are necessary then it is questionable whether it is practicable to wear a mask to FFP2 or 3 while carrying out a physically strenuous task. Remember PPE is not there to create a problem.

Workers will need to travel to the worksite. Unless site staff are from the same household they should travel in separate vehicles. This may have both an environmental impact and create the need for more site parking.

A typical scaffold is less than 1.2m wide, it is therefore not possible for two site workers to pass without infringing the 2m social distancing measure. This is not a major issue, as it is likely to be outside and both operatives should be able to face away from each other.

A major consideration on building sites is that the rest and welfare areas are not usually designed for any form of distancing. Social distancing may be factored into this if use of the rest areas is staggered to reduce the number of workers using them at any one time. Given the nature of the construction industry this may prove difficult to manage practically.

The cleaning of the kitchen/rest area is the same as offices. The kitchen/rest rooms will need to be cleaned/disinfected regularly. This will need to be specifically organised probably by the site manager and carried out by either a member of staff or a cleaner. It is probably unrealistic to have a cleaner on site the whole time, so a member of staff or several members of staff will need to be delegated the task. This opens up the question of whether people on the cleaning rota are putting themselves at risk and this should be manageable by use of suitable PPE.