LANSING, Mich. — Millions of American workers considered to be essential don't have the luxury of working from home. That includes construction workers who often work in close proximity to one another on sites, but as Maya Rodriguez explains some are using new technology to make sure their work remains socially-distanced.
Tom Stefanko oversees hundreds of construction workers every day all of them wearing what looks like an old-school pager, but the technology involved is new.
Tom Stefanko, construction project manager: “I think it gives workers a little bit of comfort.” These are proximity tracers designed to make sure workers on construction sites remain socially-distant during these pandemic times.
“If i was in contact another person, it would start beeping red. and if i stayed there longer, it progressively beeps louder.”While they alert workers that they’re too close to one another the proximity tracers also record that data in case a worker later ends up testing positive for COVID-19.
Robert Costantini of triax technologies CEO shared “it provides the ability to have a real-time alerting system and then also be able to go back historically and see who's been in contact with whom to do the contact tracing.
Robert Costantini is CEO of triax technologies which began developing these proximity tracers when the coronavirus outbreak began.
“The stakes are really high if you get it wrong. I mean, you know, workers could be infected. you can shut your site down. the cost can be enormous. ”The contact tracers, though, cost about a dollar a day per worker.more than 15,000 of them are now in use on more than 70 construction sites around the country.
Tom Stefanko explained “we have a thousand tags here on site.” including the one-million square foot building Tom Stefanko and his team are working on in philadelphia.
“Most workers just keep it on their hardhat. and take it with them as they come and go – so, making it as part of their personal protective equipment that’s now a requirement to try and keep COVID-19 out of this workforce.
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