Policies and Guidelines for the Resumption of Nonessential Construction in New Jersey

This week, Executive Order 142 was put into action allowing the resumption of all construction projects that were previously considered “nonessential” in past Executive Order 122. This has been a big step in the Governor’s plan: The Road Back: Restoring Economic Health Through Public Health.

All New Jersey construction projects are permitted to resume subject to the conditions as follows:

• Prohibit nonessential visitors from entering the worksite
• Engage in appropriate social distancing measures when picking up or delivering equipment or materials
• Limit worksite meetings, inductions, and workgroups to groups of fewer than ten individuals
• Require individuals to maintain six feet or more distance between them wherever possible
• Stagger work start and stop times where practicable to limit the number of individuals entering and leaving the worksite concurrently
• Identify congested and “high-risk areas,” including but not limited to lunchrooms, breakrooms, portable restrooms, and elevators, and limit the number of individuals at those sites concurrently where practicable
• Stagger lunch breaks and work times where practicable to enable operations to safely continue while utilizing the least number of individuals possible at the site
• Require workers and visitors to wear cloth face coverings, in accordance with CDC recommendations, while on the premises, except where doing so would inhibit the individual’s health or the individual is under two years of age, and require workers to wear gloves while on the premises. Businesses must provide, at their expense, face coverings and gloves for their employees. If a visitor refuses to wear a cloth face covering for non-medical reasons and if such covering cannot be provided to the individual by the business at the point of entry, then the business must decline entry to the individual. Nothing in the stated policy should prevent workers or visitors from wearing a surgical-grade mask or other more protective face covering if the individual is already in possession of such equipment, or if the business is otherwise required to provide such worker with more protective equipment due to the nature of the work involved. Where an individual declines to wear a face-covering on the premises due to a medical condition that inhibits such usage, neither the business nor its staff shall require the individual to produce medical documentation verifying the stated condition
• Require infection control practices, such as regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, and proper tissue usage and disposal
• Limit sharing of tools, equipment, and machinery
• Where running water is not available, provide portable washing stations with soap and/or alcohol-based hand sanitizers that have greater than 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol
• Require frequent sanitization of high-touch areas like restrooms, breakrooms, equipment, and machinery
• When the worksite is an occupied residence, require workers to sanitize work areas and keep a distance of at least six feet from the occupants
• Place conspicuous signage at entrances and throughout the worksite detailing the above mandates

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