Marker Construction representatives report that the new Airstream and Topre America manufacturing plants, in Jackson Center and Springfield, respectively, were recently completed with minimal interruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The expansive, state-of-the art Airstream plant encompasses more than 50 acres and approximately 725,000 square feet of manufacturing, corporate office and museum space. Completed in less than 18 months, the work continued through the pandemic and only shut down for a brief period when Airstream closed the plant temporarily in April.
Similarly, the project to construct the new $300 million Topre America heavy metal stamping facility in Springfield was unaffected.
Marker CEO Randy Marker explained that during late March, the company formed a COVID task force after Governor Mike DeWine made the announcement that all non-essential businesses had to close.
“We met each morning, every day of the week and some days, more than once. It was a tremendous effort on our part, and I could not be prouder of our team and all our associates,” he said.
“Safety protocols were developed based on the CDC guidelines and other regulatory organizations and continuously updated as the guidelines changed.
“With over a quarter billion of work under contract, we are responsible for the safety of about 800 workers on our job sites. Educating and training our subcontractor partners was the greatest challenge and took the most effort.”
The CEO also related one challenges that had to be overcome in April occurred after an employee of an equipment controls contractor “contracted the highly infectious virus and soon after, another five individuals were tested positive.” The individuals were working on a large dormitory project for Marker.
“With close to 100 workers on the site and working with the local health departments to complete the contact tracing and identify those that needed to quarantine, the project staffing was reduced to 20,” Marker explained. “Over the next two weeks, the workers were able to return.
“Fortunately, none of those that tested positive suffered any extended illnesses and we were able to accelerate the work to ensure the dormitory was completed in time for the students this fall.”
Staffing in Marker’s offices in Bellefontaine and Columbus also was temporarily thinned earlier this year, with many people working from home.
“We had the infrastructure in place to support working from home, so we were fortunate – that was relatively seamless,” Marker said.
At this time, all of the office staff have returned, Marker said. However masks are used, and social distancing continues, with 90 percent of their meetings still being virtual, rather than in-person.
On the job site, “of course our diligence continues and will continue until the risk of exposure is abated,” the CEO said.
“Temperature monitoring, masks, gloves, social distancing, added sanitary stations, building disinfection and continuing education were key to ensuring our essential workers would be safe.”
The company’s associates working on the project sites during the uncertain time were rewarded with bonus pay.
“We are fortunate that our work and our associates were declared ‘essential’ and we were able to continue working,” Marker said. “We are grateful to all our associates and especially those that work on the project sites where physical separation is the most difficult. Our people are the greatest.”