As the coronavirus pandemic upends normal operations for numerous organizations, Business Insurance is running daily profiles of risk managers who are adapting to the crisis.

Life for most of America has changed, but for many risk managers in the construction industry, business is still running as usual — but maintaining a safe workplace has become even more complicated.

For Dale Lindstrom, Vancouver, Washington-based risk and safety manager at DeWitt Construction Inc., the risks on a job site have expanded to include the new invisible threat, and his days are spent navigating constantly changing federal and state safety guidelines.

“We’re spending an exorbitant amount of time looking at emails and how does this apply to my organization,” said Mr. Lindstrom. “Up until this point of time, I didn’t spend 50 to 75% of my day on pandemic-related activity.”

As a subcontractor that specializes in deep pile foundational work and structural components for commercial buildings located on the Washington-Oregon border with job sites in both states, DeWitt must comply with two different sets of COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders, and Mr. Lindstrom is tasked with interpreting fluid orders coming out of both states, the federal government and the general contracting community. In Oregon, construction has been deemed an essential service, but in Washington construction is only deemed as essential if it is tied into industries deemed essential.

“The thing that really keeps me up at night is continuing to maintain the health and safety of our employees,” he said. “Each owner and general contractor, particularly in Washington, is really asking themselves the question, ‘How essential is my project today to fulfilling the critical needs of community?’” he said.

At a construction site deemed an essential project in Seattle, Mr. Lindstrom was faced with determining how to staff the project and ensure the protection of employees. He had frank conversations with crew members to see if they were comfortable with the idea of working in a COVID-19 hotspot like Seattle.

“The project site itself is well controlled in terms of protocols, but we had to determine what to do to ensure employee weren’t going to be out in the public or exposing themselves unnecessarily,” he said. “In our workforce, there’s a lot of anxiety … (workers) have to make their own decision to the degree of risk” they want to take by being involved in a project, he said.

Ultimately, DeWitt decided that the best way to protect the crew of three while they worked on the construction project and ensure their comfort and safety was to set up a home for the crew via Vacation Rentals by Owner, now known as VRBO, so that they are away from the public and don’t have to worry about taking the virus home to their families.

“If we have a COVID outbreak … I don’t want to be caught up in a work comp-related struggle or an OSHA recordable,” he said. “That whole side of our business is still pretty fluid and there’s no bright line.”

More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.