Hartford Business Journal

18 Hartford Business Journal • May 4, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com W hen Trevor Howlett visits a construction site nowadays, there are no hand- shakes, while masked workers do their jobs at least six feet apart. Construction firms are also re- ducing by half the number of crew members on-site to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. "It's been a change alright," said Howlett, a project lead at Hartford construction company Infinity Group, which focuses on workplace remodels. "This is just the new real- ity we've got to cope with." While Connecticut construc- tion companies are being forced to do business in new ways amid the coronavirus pandemic, the industry itself hasn't suffered an immediate downturn in business, said Don Shu- bert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association. In fact, according to the Associ- ated General Contractors of Ameri- ca, Connecticut actually added 700 construction jobs between February and March, a 1% increase in employ- ment — fourth highest in the U.S. Companies working on large civil engineering projects like bridges and roads have been unaffected — or are increasing work since so few people are driving on roads — and firms working for private clients have seen delays, but not many proj- ect cancelations, Shubert said. But the question of whether business will slow down longer term as clients forego new projects amid economic un- certainty looms heavy in the industry. "As a whole, I think the industry is doing as well as can be expected," Shu- bert said. "But it's very hard to predict anything from day to day right now." A number of Infinity Group's customers have put their office re- design projects on hold, said Verne Markham, the company's CEO. But those companies are in the minority, as Infinity continues work on about 40 projects across the country, in- cluding 12 in Greater Hartford. COVID-19 may force some workplac- es to rethink their office layout, which could lead to more work for Infinity. "The psychology piece of it, when employees are going to be going back into the office, it's going to be a tough sell to get employees in an area that's congested," Markham said. "We want to continue to be a strong point of solution to all our clients." Tom Panczner, president and CEO of Bloomfield construction firm Bartlett Brainard Eacott Inc. (BBE), said about 90% of its work has gone uninterrupted, and the company is now involved in 14 projects. BBE has built large-scale proj- ects like UConn's Gampel Pavilion and American School for the Deaf's Gallaudet-Clerc Education Center in West Hartford. And even though proj- ects are mostly continuing on sched- ule for now, Panczner said he sees a possible canary in the coal mine in the form of architects and engineers without current projects to work on. "I'm definitely concerned with the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2021," said Panc- zner, who noted BBE is capitalized enough to ride out a downturn. "Some of our clients said, 'We're put- ting a hold on all future construc- tion projects for the time being.' " Contact tracing While Connecticut's construction Safety First CT construction firms adopt innovative protective measures as COVID-19 slows, but doesn't stall sector CT construction industry employment 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Number of Workers, March of each year 69,400 53,400 47,600 49,200 47,000 51,200 50,600 54,600 58,000 60,500 65,600 65,300 65,800 60,700 64,400 66,300 67,600 68,100 68,600 56,700 47,900 50,500 51,900 52,900 53,700 56,700 60,500 58,400 58,400 60,200 61,200 Source: CT Dept. of Labor Trevor Howlett, a project lead at Hartford construction company Infinity Group, on a job site in Simsbury. HBJ PHOTO | SEAN TEEHAN

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