Building with Confidence: The Christman Company

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Over the last six months, COVID-19 has truly transformed every aspect of our world and, the construction industry is no exception. Safety has always been a top priority for The Christman Company  on construction sites, but the coronavirus has made maintaining safety even more of a challenge.  As The Christman Company moves forward through these unprecedented times, we continue to innovate to keep our work crews, clients and partners safe. 

As essential infrastructure projects carry on across the Knoxville area, The Christman Company continues to implement plans for protecting workers. As every construction project is different and unique, The Lodge at Shannondale is an example of how Christman has led innovation and taken preventative measures to keep our partners safe and the project on schedule. With a completion date of Spring 2021, The Lodge at Shannondale project team has accepted the challenge of figuring out the new normal. 

As we strive to safeguard our team, we have established additional safety measures to ensure worker safety and help minimize the spread of the virus:

Site Entrance

Christman has developed a proprietary online health app, CopperShield, which is used at the point of entry to each of our project sites and offices. CopperShield screens each of our staff members and visitors and speeds the process of entering a job site. It helps reduce the likelihood of a person who is feeling ill from coming onto the site, and the technology is safer because people use their own mobile device to access the app. Users scan a posted QR code with a smartphone or tablet, which removes the necessity to share common clipboards and pens across the team, and it gets people through the gate faster. Processing workers quickly reduces the amount of time people are gathered in small groups to check in. The secure survey asks health and social contact questions, and automatically notifies site personnel if an answer to one of the questions is reason for concern. 

Daily Huddle

The Project Superintendent on site hosts a daily morning huddle with all of the foremen on site – staying 6 feet apart and limiting the time to less than 10 minutes when possible. The first thing that is talked about each day in this huddle is COVID and if any of our workers are out sick, have symptoms or anything else related such as testing or quarantine.  We also discuss close contact with other workers and proper precautions.

Portable Hand Washing Station

To address the need for adequate handwashing, we have taken additional steps to place a portable hand washing station outdoors for easy access. Having easy access to wash more often helps reduce the risk of virus spread and health issues that are common when working in close quarters. It is our responsibility to take care of each member of our project team and all of our contractor partners, it is the right thing to do.

As the pandemic evolves, The Christman Company will continue to offer innovative solutions for our partners and the best possible conditions to work in a safe and healthy manner.