• The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released new guidance on the requested use of face coverings for residents who go out in public to perform essential services exempted from the "stay at home" order. That guidance, released April 6, is HERE. The guidance comes on the heels of similar orders in Riverside County (HERE), San Bernardino County (HERE) and elsewhere. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said this week that people who go to the store, for example, should wear face coverings, and the county set up a number for people to report violations. The Centers for Disease Control website with face-covering guidance is HERE.
• During an April 7 conference call with construction industry officials, Caltrans executive managers said transportation infrastructure work managed by the state agency was continuing, noting that only about 20 projects out of about 700 on-going statewide have been suspended due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. They projected that the fourth quarter of 2020 (April-June of the state fiscal year) will be a very busy quarter for project delivery, with more projects scheduled to go out to bid in that quarter than the number of projects that were put out in all of 2019. This was largely to the continued influx of SB1 gas-tax revenues. Caltrans had no firm projections on the long-term prognosis for road funding given the greatly reduced traffic volumes in California and corresponding reduction in fuel consumption.
• The non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) released a report April 5 that concluded that "California could face a budget problem as a result of the coronavirus emergency.," potentially reducing state revenues by tens of billions of dollars. That report is HERE.
• New COVID-19 safety training videos have come on line and are available for use by the asphalt pavement industry. One 9-minute video produced by CRH Americas Materials and distributed by NAPA is HERE. A 12-minute animated safety video made available by CalAPA member PRS is HERE.
• Caltrans has released new COVID-19-related guidance to the construction industry. A "Construction Policy Directive" 20-8, covers source inspection procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. CPD 20-9 covers the procedure for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) substitution. Both CPD's, along with other directives issued recently, can be found HERE.
• CalAPA has moved its most popular technical training class, "Asphalt Pavement 101," to an on-line webinar format. The class, taught by Roger Smith, a former senior materials engineer for Caltrans and the Asphalt Institute, as well as a former executive director for CalAPA, will be held April 23 (register HERE) and April 28 (register HERE).
• The Conractors State Licence Board (CSLB) announced today (April 8) it has launched a new website and is offering new options for contractors to renew their licenses on line. Click HERE to read the announcement. Click HERE to visit the CSLB on-line renewals website.
• The asphalt pavement industry in California continues to participate in various activities to train workers on safe practices as they relate to COVID-19 and to ensure compliance.
• CalAPA continues to contact agencies and members to assess the impact of the health emergency statewide on operations and will continue to compile and summarize that information in upcoming "Member Alerts" as conditions warrant. In general, member companies continue to perform work under new safety protocols.