Page 41 - BusinessWest September 14 2020

Among the firm’s recent seven- figure projects are a large sewer project in Shrewsbury, a large culvert replace- ment in Pittsfield, and a drainage pond for Barnes Airport that had to be com- pleted on a tight, 45-day schedule.
The company also created a road for the installation of two wind turbines
in Russell and replaced a 100-year-old culvert in Swan Pond at Forest Park in Springfield, a job that involved build- ing a temporary dam, as well as creat- ing new walkways and overlooks in the area. And the company’s workload for the fall and winter, and beyond, looks strong.
“We have enough work to keep going,” Raymaakers said. “But we’ve also worked very hard keeping employ- ees safe. It was very difficult in the beginning, trying to get sanitary sup- plies for sites, like masks and sanitizer, and follow all the standards of the CDC and prepare all the proper paperwork. We value our employees, and we want- ed to keep them safe. We’re very fortu- nate we work outdoors, with the type of work we do.”
David Fontaine Jr. tells a similar story about his company, Springfield- based Fontaine Brothers, when it comes to being essential.
“During COVID, a lot of our projects stayed open the entire time because a lot
of work we were doing fell under the category deemed essential — a lot of public projects. t was a mixed blessing because it was great to continue working, but also difficult to adapt to the changes day by day.”
“We’ve got a lot going on — we’re pretty busy this year and into 2021,” he said. “Prior to COVID coming along, we had a lot of backlog and a lot of work we had underway, so we were in a pret- ty healthy spot.
“During COVID, a lot of our projects stayed open the entire time because
a lot of work we were doing fell under the category deemed essential — a lot of public projects,” he went on. “It was a mixed blessing because it was great to continue working, but also difficult to adapt to the changes day by day.”
Recent and ongoing jobs include building new high schools in Worcester and Middleboro, as well as a new K-8 school in Easthampton; the firm was also recently awarded a job to combine the Deberry and Homer schools in Springfield, with construction to begin
next summer.
“The nice part about the public
work is it’s funded with reliable state dollars; projects being constructed now were funded a year or two ago, so it’s an ongoing source of work,” Fontaine said. “It looks stable going forward next 12 months at least.”
The biggest concern right now, actually, is that some planned projects will hit a funding stall, which would manifest in a slowdown of projects a year or two from now, he added. But so far, 2020 has been a healthy year, even if uncertainty looms around the corner for many firms.
Reading the Signs
The signs were all there in February, Fontaine said, when COVID-19 was already starting to disrupt some mate- rial supply chains.
“We started preparing for it before some of our peers; we were already planning for how we were going to approach it when it came,” he told BusinessWest. “We put into place a pan- demic protocol from a safety stand- point for all job sites, and tried to stay ahead of it as much as we could. We wanted to be proactive and make sure the job sites stayed open and safe.”
That involved measures that have become common in many businesses,
including personal protective equip- ment like face coverings and gloves, worn 100% of the time.
“We also put additional handwash- ing stations and sanitizing stations on all job sites,” he explained. “We also require, on every job, a daily check-
in process; before anyone enters the job site, they have to self-certify they have not had any symptoms or been in contact with anyone COVID-positive the last 14 days. We’ve also been doing temperature screenings on a couple of job sites.”
Those efforts have paid off, he added. “Knock on wood, but all those measures have been effective in not
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