Woburn's Cummings Properties Resumes Building As Shutdown Eases

WOBURN, MA — As the tentative early stages of Massachusetts' reopening began May 18, Woburn's Cummings Properties resumed construction at its range of projects across the north of Boston area.

From a large business campus in Beverly to modifications and finishing touches on offices from Andover to Sudbury, the company had more than ten projects put on hold for the two month lockdown. They're picking up where they left off, said Vice President Steve Drohosky.

The biggest projects are at the campus in Beverly, where the company has a 55-acre site and is working on multiple large, speculative projects. Drohosky is that project's general manager and said work is starting up again.

Construction sites will not look the same as it did before the outbreak. State guidelines require construction companies to take extra care to protect their workers, including providing handwashing stations, requiring personal protective equipment and distancing workers.

Fortunately, Cummings has other projects serving essential industries, so it had already put many of those precautions in place — as much as 90 percent, Drohosky said.

"We'll just have to broaden it," he said. "The state has come out with some pretty detailed requirements and checklists for construction sites."

"We want our people to be safe as well," he added.

Spreading people out at the Beverly site isn't hard, he noted — they have 150,000 square feet to work with. They just have to put more thought into who works on what, when.

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Cummings shared its construction site coronavirus prevention plan with Patch. Provisions include:

• Workers are required to self-certify every day that they have not experienced any coronavirus symptoms or had close contact with someone with symptoms.
• Extensive rules are in place to prevent congregation, including avoiding face-to-face meetings.
• Workers are required to wear gloves.
• Workers must wipe down shared tools and vehicles regularly.

These measures are not likely to affect the economics of the business greatly, Drohosky said. The delay is another matter.

"There's an opportunity cost with being delayed, no matter what you're doing," he said.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.