Construction work here will gradually resume from June 2, starting with critical projects, and a comprehensive set of safe management guidelines is in place as Singapore seeks to cautiously get its economy back on track.
To guard against another spike in new cases, workers will not be cross-deployed between projects while also being segregated into different work zones, it was announced yesterday.
Construction work has largely been suspended since Covid-19 circuit breaker measures kicked in on April 7, with only 5 per cent of the sector's workforce - about 20,000 workers - continuing to work on a small number of critical projects, and those that have had to continue for safety reasons.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) expects another 5 per cent of the workforce to resume work gradually, meaning about one-tenth of the usual workforce will be active next month.
There will be "end-to-end precautions" to cover workers - from the dormitories they stay in to transportation to activities at work sites - said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong at a virtual press conference.
One new requirement is for all workers involved in a project to be housed together, no matter who their employer is. Previously, workers from various contractors would likely have stayed in different dorms.
In the dormitories, workers will be prevented from inter-mixing, and communal facilities such as stoves and showers will be assigned to those staying in the same room.
Employers also have to provide dedicated transport between work sites and places of accommodation. In addition, they need to ensure their workers are masked and seated at safe distances, using at most half the seating capacity for open-air vehicles like lorries.
Work sites will also have to deploy technology such as TraceTogether and SafeEntry to ensure tracking and compliance.
The caution in reopening the sector comes as migrant workers make up the bulk of Covid-19 cases here, with transmission in dormitories, at construction work sites and in social settings believed to be the key reason for the rapid spread over the past few weeks.
BCA said yesterday that all works will require its approval before they can restart. Foreign construction workers must be tested before being allowed to return to work, and plans are also being put in place to test workers regularly, at two-week intervals to start.
Because these are "massive changes" to the construction sector here, the Government will select a few projects comprising the estimated 5 per cent of the sector's workforce and work with the contractors and workers involved to put the measures in place, said Mr Wong.
BCA chief executive officer Hugh Lim said the authorities are moving cautiously to observe how the construction sector implements the new safety measures.
"If our industry partners find it difficult to implement (these measures) even on a limited scale, you can imagine that if we expand too quickly there will be breaches," he said. "We do want to avoid a situation where the industry has to stop again on a large scale, after having restarted."
Mr Wong said new regulatory requirements such as a regular testing regime for workers will undoubtedly raise construction costs, but these are necessary for safety reasons.
"I have no doubt that it will mean construction costs in Singapore will be higher because of these regulatory requirements, and all of us have to be prepared to pay this higher cost because we want construction work to be done safely in Singapore henceforth," he said.
Yesterday, 793 new cases were reported in Singapore, the bulk of them migrant workers.
