Thousands of building sites across Auckland are about to come alive again after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's alert level announcement this afternoon.
But one industry leader wonders about the possibility of mandatory vaccinations.
Chris Haines, a director of quantity surveyors and cost consultants Rider Levett Bucknall, pointed to overseas building sites being Covid hotspots: "It's possible vaccinations may be mandated for workers on sites as it has been overseas and particularly on some important Government projects in the future although this is not yet the case."
The Victorian Government in Australia is considering mandating vaccinations for construction workers after building sites emerged as coronavirus hotspots.
Ardern says Auckland will return to alert level 3 from 11.59pm tomorrow night.
New Zealand building chiefs said preparation work was well in hand for the long-expected return to their hundreds of Auckland sites on Wednesday.
No building work except emergency work has been able to take place since 11.59pm on August 17.
Peter Reidy, Fletcher Construction chief executive, said today big jobs like the $877 million Ara Tūhono Puhoi to Warkworth motorway and $335m repairs to the NZ International Convention Centre would now restart after five weeks of no work.
"Fletcher Construction has had some essential workers in our Higgins and Brian Perry Civil businesses continue safely working under Auckland's alert level 4 but hundreds of people on our major projects, including those two, have been unable to work," Reidy said today.
Fletcher had safety protocols under alert level 3: additional physical distancing, mask-wearing, separating entry and exit points on site and hygiene and tracking and tracing measures.
But Reidy said: "The separation of alert levels between Auckland and the rest of New Zealand impacted the availability of labour in the region while the weeks in lockdown and safety measures needed now lead to inevitable delays, putting considerable pressure on our people and projects."
Rick Herd, chief executive of national builder Naylor Love, said that the business was ready to return staff to its 15 Auckland sites managed by about 120 people: "We have to work hard to minimise people working in close proximity, this can be a logistical nightmare to maintain productivity but it can be done."
Sites were generally well secured but weather damage in some areas was expected.
"We now have to negotiate who carries the delay costs, labour overruns, possible weather damage etc with the clients and subcontractors. We have a policy of sharing the pain equally but not all see it that way," Herd said.
Haines said few Auckland sites were active in the last five weeks but the $4.4b City Rail Link and Watercare's Central Interceptor were exceptions.
Returning to sites wasn't always easy, he stressed.
"The key challenges will be initial remobilisation. Work doesn't happen immediately and remobilisation can often take two to three days on larger sites."
The biggest challenge was material supplies globally and locally.
"This is less about alert level 3 and more of the same issues the industry was facing before lockdown. This may be exacerbated for a period because of some of the Auckland region and National manufacturing that ceased for a period of time. Those not yet manufacturing will also need time to remobilise and catch up," Haines said.
City Rail Link said it expected a rapid and successful return to work at CRL construction sites on Wednesday with 750 workers due to return to its four sites - Mt Eden, Karangahape, Aotea in the central city and Britomart.
Strict health and safety protocols will be in place, including physical distancing, health monitoring, enhanced cleaning, segregation between different work crews and wearing personal protective equipment including masks being enforced.
"We're an important part of the New Zealand economy with our big workforce and our big spend locally on construction materials so we're keen to get cracking again. That's good news for Auckland and good news for New Zealand," said CRL chief executive Dr Sean Sweeney.
"Our restart's immediate priority will be the welfare of our workers and the communities around us. Those protocols worked very well for us before, and they will again help with a safe, successful and quick restart for us."
A karakia led by Auckland Iwi kaumātua will be held at dawn at the Aotea site to bless the resumption of work.
A spokesman for Ryman said this afternoon: "At alert level 3, we will be back at work. We hope to start work again on our sites at Miriam Corban (Lincoln Rd), Murray Halberg (Lynfield), Keith Park (Hobsonville), our new site in Takapuna and William Sanders (Devonport). We would be back up to full speed, but with Level 3 restrictions in place.
"We have already successfully restarted our three sites outside of the Auckland boundary at alert level 3 and they are now in Level 2. Luckily, we've been able to continue building at our other three large sites – Linda Jones (Hamilton), James Wattie (Havelock North) and Kevin Hickman (Christchurch)."
A Covid wellbeing co-ordinator was on every site, screening all workers arriving at Ryman points of entry daily. Workers would fill out a declaration form, have their temperatures taken, will wear masks and observe social distancing.
Ryman was encouraging all workers on its construction sites to be fully vaccinated.
Andrew Moore of Victoria Park-headquartered CMP Construction said workers would return to six big Auckland projects on Wednesday morning including Risland Albany, Laurenson Business Park, Tidal Rd warehouse, Sonata, Victoria Lane and The Arches. The Tidal Rd warehouse was an essential project so work continued under alert level 4.
Fortunately, CMP finished $180m of apartment projects just before lockdown at Alexandra Park and Jervois & Lawrence, Moore said.
Julien Leys, NZ Building Industry Federation chief executive, said most of Auckland's building and construction sites and manufacturing plants and distribution centres would see workers return.
"There are several thousand building and construction sites, manufacturing plants and distribution centres. The value of Auckland's building and construction sites is approximately $6b," Leys estimated.
The state of sites would vary depending on the stage of construction.
"We know there has been quite a big loss of building materials and equipment due to theft because there was little notice time of going into alert level 4. Not all products and equipment could be moved off-site or secured," Leys said.
Exposed timber framing and materials might have degraded because of being exposed to the weather elements for several weeks. Treated timber normally can withstand being exposed to the elements for four weeks but of course some sites were already exposed pre Lockdown because of delays to building materials, he said.
The sector was already short of 25,000 workers so the lockdown did not help that.
Summerset Group construction general manager Dean Tallentire said that business was well-placed to return to its St Johns and Hobsonville sites.
"We have been running regular zoom meetings with contractors and consultants, looking at alert level 3 requirements for trade bubbles and physical distancing. We will have contactless sign-in, as well as additional wash stations and break-out areas to help ensure trade bubbles are maintained," he said.
Around 90 per cent of workers would be back.
"We will be able to accelerate work at sites such as St Johns, which is at an early structure phase and contractors are therefore working some distance apart already. Summerset St Johns is a $280m project," he said.
At Hobsonville, a $42m expansion of the existing Summerset at Monterey Park would resume, he said.
"The key challenges remain material supplies and our workforce, with the latter being hit by the lack of continued immigration," Tallentire said.
Metlifecare said it had five active Auckland sites and all were guarded under 24-hour surveillance so were in good shape for workers to return to.
"We will look at all available options once our builders get their momentum back. The first step is restoring normal productivity and then we will assess what can be done," a Metlifecare spokesperson said.
Brent Pattison, chief executive of Oceania Healthcare, said today: "All our sites continued to operate during all levels of alert, being essential services. We can take admissions for care residents but cannot settle property at alert level 4."
Costs were an important consideration: "We have spent a lot on PPE, processes etc to ensure our staff, residents are always kept safe. We are fixed priced on our construction contracts. It is always our intention to catch up lost time, recognising this has been a prolonged lock-down at high alert levels. It means we probably end up spending more to recover lost time," Pattison said.
An Auckland Airport spokesperson said that during alert level 4, a significant amount of work on critical airport infrastructure projects continued, including:
• Improvements to airfield pavements, aviation fuel pipeline and airfield ground lighting systems;
• Works to safely manage traffic on roads and protect essential services such as power, gas and communications systems required to operate the airport'
• Design and planning for a range of other infrastructure projects including planning for safe operations at alert level 3.
"Overall, these projects have resulted in work for 120 people each day during lockdown. Auckland Airport and our contractors applied lessons learned from 2020 when we continued with a significant amount of construction on the main runway during alert level 4," the spokesperson said.
Auckland Airport had established plans and protocols for hibernating non-essential projects in the event of a level 4 lockdown, including plans for restarting projects safely and in compliance with level 3 protocols.
"Overall, these projects have resulted in work for 120 people each day during lockdown. Auckland Airport and our contractors applied lessons learned from 2020 when we continued with a significant amount of construction on the main runway during alert level 4," the spokesperson said.
Airport projects expect to recommence should we return to under level 3 include:
• Expansion and widening of the northern road access to the airport (the Northern Network) which is due for completion later this year;
• Reactivation of the Pullman five-star hotel project in partnership with Tainui Group Holdings;
• Two investment property warehouse projects;
• Further improvements of airfield pavements;
• Site investigations and civil engineering work that will inform future work in the international terminal building.
These additional projects will provide work for a further 250 people.
Auckland Airport had established plans and protocols for hibernating non-essential projects for a level 4 lockdown, including plans for restarting projects safely and in compliance with level 3 protocols, the spokesperson said.
The workforce is predominantly female which is reflected in the company's leadership.