Page 26 - BusinessWest March 31, 2021

projects increasing, Bradbury said an already- competitive labor market gets squeezed even further.
“Between the demand for commercial/indus- trial as well as residential, everyone in the trades is busy, and they can’t find enough workers,” Bradbury said. “On top of that, solar companies are hiring all the electricians they can find at
a time when electricians were already in short supply.”
The biggest hurdle to doing business right now, according to Bradbury, involves managing
“Over a period of months, we’ve seen multiple price increases in steel and lumber products. Those two create a trickle up that affects prices for every other building material.”
enormous price increases for materials, in some cases rising by more than 100% compared to this time last year.
“Over a period of months, we’ve seen multiple price increases in steel and lumber products,” he said. “Those two create a trickle up that affects prices for every other building material.”
Bradbury noted that steel manufacturing has been affected by labor outages due to COVID, leading to product-supply shortages. He also pointed to increased demand for lumber, espe-
cially on the residential side, where housing starts are booming. In addition, his company and many others receive a great deal of lum- ber from Canada, where the U.S. still has tariffs in place on lumber.
Bradbury said COVID issues are not affecting proj- ect schedules because his firm will not start a job until it has a guarantee that mate- rials are available. “We are also adding cost protections in our contracts as a way to guard against the constant increases in materials.”
It’s too early to determine
what immediate impact
the pandemic will have on
building design, but Brad-
bury said clients from cur-
rent and future projects have
begun asking about air handling and filtration.
“For sure, air handling and using UV light
to sanitize a space are areas where people have been putting more focus,” he said. “I think these requests will continue as there is an increased emphasis on clean air and other ways to keep facilities sanitized.”
At Worcester South Community High School, workers installed air-handling units that use bipo- lar ionization, or, as Fontaine described it, a sys- tem that cleans the air and removes many of the germs and bacteria from the building.
“The motivation to install this system was
In this Associated Builders project in Bloomfield, Conn., a local chemical company will occupy part of the building and lease the remaining space.
driven by COVID, but there are other benefits, too,” he said. “Systems like this provide a better environment for people with asthma and other health concerns.”
Spring of Hope
The arrival of spring and increased numbers of people receiving COVID vaccines gives all the construction managers we spoke to a sense of optimism about life and getting their projects done.
At press time, asphalt plants in the area had begun to open. Because the plants close for the winter, municipalities will not allow road
26 MARCH 31, 2021
CONSTRUCTION
BusinessWest