CONSTRUCTION business and tradesmen across Sunraysia are hammering on despite ramped-up COVID-19 restrictions.
The Victorian Government this week imposed a stage 3 lockdown on regional Victoria for a six-week period and a stage 4 lockdown on Melbourne.
As part of the metropolitan lockdown, commercial construction sites would be allowed only five workers on site to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Victoria.
JD Construction owner and builder Josh Dawson said fortunately the same restrictions had not been applied to regional Victoria’s construction sector.
However, he said if the five-person limit was introduced regionally, it would become a “logistical nightmare” to manage.
“We would have to be more organised with our scheduling and it would just be a one crew, per job, per day type of thing, so there is no overlap with multiple trades coming to the site, I guess.”
Mr Dawson said his team had adapted to the COVID-19 changes and was wearing masks and sticking to the 1.5 metre social distancing measures.
“We try and isolate our teams to the site, without swapping and changing crews through the week, to minimise the contact.
“Most of the time, being outdoors, it is generally OK to keep that distance and generally we don’t have too many trades onsite at the same time, so it is usually only one crew of tradesmen there at a particular time.
“This makes it reasonably easy to manage at this stage.”
JD Construction has a team of 20 tradesmen with about for crews onsite, split up into teams of three or four workers.
Mr Dawson said when the first COVID-19 announcement hit the region earlier this year, construction inquiries died off.
However, since the Federal Government introduced the Housing Stimulus Package, phones had been ringing “off the hook”.
He said his business’s ordering and access to materials had been affected by the virus.
“That’s probably going to get worse now that they have brought in the stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne and restrictions on businesses and warehousing,” Mr Dawson said.
“I think that’s going to impact us fairly soon with our ordering because a lot of our materials come out of Melbourne and Adelaide.
“At this stage that is probably going to be the only hiccup we have for now.
“We are crossing each bridge as we get to it.
“The border closure issues are another issue, not only for supply, but also trying to get (supplies) across the borders.”
Mr Dawson said bordering two states provided minor problems due for suppliers travelling between SA and NSW.
He said shortage of materials had been the “biggest headache” his business had experienced during the pandemic.
“Even overseas products — appliances and that — which come from offshore and have to go through customs, there’s been delays with those sorts of things.
“So far those delays are months, so we are basically ordering supplies at the start of jobs now so they are here in time.
“It can have a little bit of an impact on cashflow then, because obviously you are trying to purchase items ahead of time to save any delays.”
