construction and related services are permitted, including public works, roads and bridge projects.
But work is not the same as it was before.
A table near where staff park their vehicles contains a temperature scanner, and anybody who enters the site has the scanner pointed at their forehead, and their temperature is noted.
“Ah, you have your own pen,” noted one of the site staffers, who was about to get a new and unused pen out of a box for the visitor sign in.
Olivier said the hardest part of coming back was getting all of the coronavirus screening protocols in place, making sure of personal protective equipment and masks for everybody, and that everybody knew what was expected in terms of limiting the spread of the virus.
The unions had been very helpful in preparing them to get back to work.
They also figured out a system of staggering shifts, so that there would not be too many people on site at once, and so that workers would not have to be exposed to crowded transport.
For construction supervisor Clive Langtrey, returning to work this week is bittersweet.
Although he has the sprightly well-toned body of a construction worker, he is over 60, and so is regarded as being at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus than his younger counterparts .
He also has to think about his wife and child at home in Thornton, much further down the highway towards Goodwood.
READ | Coronavirus delays hit local construction industry
Western Cape transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela popped in to see how work was progressing, and whether the contractors and staffers were abiding by the coronavirus work rules.
“Everybody was willing to work,” said Madikizela.
He acknowledged that there was a debate over whether people should actually be returning to work, given the increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases.
“I think it is a forced dichotomy because you need the economy to fund the health[care].
“I am very happy with what I saw today,” said Madikizela, adding that there was enough space on site for everybody to work a distance away from each other.
