Coronavirus

[Sniffer]

So, going to float some exceptionally speculative thoughts.
Was in an online conference today. Picked up a couple of signals that the University sector is exploring delaying the next academic years start. Thinking about this, it makes a lot of sense. The start of the academic year must see millions of people relocate into and throughout the UK.
This view is re-enforced by receiving a notification this week that my usual work location looks unlikely to be reopen before September. Yes, september.
If the above speculation is true, it is likely the whole sector is liaising with the government to agree this. No way would one institution be considering this alone.
If the government are considering this within the HE sector, what other sectors are they already having similar discussions with in a similar vein?

Did you say that your university would be used for coronavirus testing? If it is it will mean that the science department could be busy for months. I

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...en-white-house-and-cdc/ar-BB128LUw?li=BBnb7Kz

"But Trump immediately undermined the announcement by noting it was voluntary and he would not choose to do it, even though "it may be good,” "

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Wow. Trump was incredible tonight.

It seems this is all Obama's fault. At least the uninsured are being directed towards Obamacare that this fuckwit has spent five years trying to dismantle.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Was part of an online meeting earlier involving two blokes from our schools framework team and they were saying that they've not had anything to suggest that work will dry up for us. The DfE are still pushing ahead with all projects that are currently in the pipeline, so ones like ours that are awaiting planning will still look to get into contract and prepare for works commencing on site as normal. Other projects which are further away but already begun the initial feasibility stages will also continue and looked to be pushed further down the procurement process.

I'd have thought government departments might have shied away from pushing too much construction, as it seems to be getting a bit of flak generally going against what most would deem essential work. Though I suppose they also want to look to protect the economy where they can and so providing a stream of work where possible helps to do that. More cynically perhaps they could be looking to get the best deal out of the situation, going to be some contractors struggling with their cash flow and effectively buying the work to keep things ticking over.

One thing that did seem more cautious though, and perhaps gave a little insight into the forecast for this disruption, was the way they're perhaps looking to structure any new projects starting on site. Apparently they're considering sort of 'soft starts' where contractors aren't immediately bound to a rigid contract in terms of fixed final costs and handover dates, instead agreeing a sum of money to a certain point in the works and seeing how it goes. Those type of agreements are supposedly being considered on any new work up until Christmas at the moment, at which point they'd look to secure more typical contracts with guarantees on cost/duration.

Directly funded DofE schemes could push ahead, the problem is most schools schemes rely on additional funding through selling land or additional funding schemes.

I think theres going to be issues coming up pretty soon, been trying to deal with a key subbie but they have furloughed all their staff, effectively meaning that they wont be in a position to pick up new work until they start back.

Not sure how a contract without a fixed cost or date would look, well I know what it would look like, a license to print money.

The biggest bump in the sector will be housing, that pushes so much of the industry at the moment with land prices.

The only good thing I can see is that once we come out of this, and I'm very hopeful that it's a year we can find a vaccine for this, there should be nothing stopping a rapid boom.

It's not nice thinking about the financial side if this virus, but it's hard not to when so many peoples lives will also be effected by this.

A friend of the wife has been unwell with this, it's looking like shes coming out the other side now thankfully.

 

[leedswolf]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news...up-to-100-mourners-amid-coronavirus-lockdown/

Beggars belief...

 

[Keef]

The place I work for,has been given a contract for the next three months from wolverhampton council to follow the bin lorries with a minibus,so the loaders who work at the back can social distance,by getting in the minibus,as three in a cab is now frowned upon,the interesting point is we've been told to use school minibuses as they wont be needed for schools,so maybe(almost certainly) no schools until june

 

[Paul]

 

[Deleted Cyber]

America is looking increasingly fucked. Their government and state systems are being proven to be too clunky. Trump is picking the economy over people. China and Russia will be the two global powers after this. The EU has no ability to do the lock down effectively and quickly. Freedom of movement is gone. Borders will be back. Britain will become more serlf sufficient. Life for all has changed for all of us

 

[Templeton Peck]

Who possibly could have foreseen this?

Cheltenham Festival ‘spread coronavirus across country’


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cheltenham-festival-spread-coronavirus-across-country-vbzmn5p9q

Some people are going to get hammered when the public enquiry happens.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Directly funded DofE schemes could push ahead, the problem is most schools schemes rely on additional funding through selling land or additional funding schemes.

I think theres going to be issues coming up pretty soon, been trying to deal with a key subbie but they have furloughed all their staff, effectively meaning that they wont be in a position to pick up new work until they start back.

Not sure how a contract without a fixed cost or date would look, well I know what it would look like, a license to print money.

The biggest bump in the sector will be housing, that pushes so much of the industry at the moment with land prices.

The only good thing I can see is that once we come out of this, and I'm very hopeful that it's a year we can find a vaccine for this, there should be nothing stopping a rapid boom.

It's not nice thinking about the financial side if this virus, but it's hard not to when so many peoples lives will also be effected by this.

A friend of the wife has been unwell with this, it's looking like shes coming out the other side now thankfully.

All the schools we build now are through the DfE Contractor Framework, all entirely funded from central government, the only exceptions being any optional extras or upgrades that schools might request through the design development stage but if they fall outside the scope of the framework then it's either down to the school to pay or contractor to use them as sweetener in a bid to win the job and take the financial hit.

The half way house contracts to get schemes up and running will either come as an extension to the PCSA or as a letter of intent, they've not got to this stage yet on any project that I'm aware of but the idea at the moment is that they'll use one of the those mechanisms to pay a contractor the value up to a set date, thought to be Christmas 2020. In the case of our project we were discussing yesterday that would probably be the value of foundations, drainage, steel frame, PCC planks, SFS and the 4G pitch. They'd let look to let those works with no threat of LADs so that schemes can at least get underway during this period of uncertainty without having contractors stuffing a load of time or money into their bids to cover off the threat of things being heavily disrupted by Covid-19. Then they'd hope to be in a position to enter into the full contract following these works, with all the extra controls that would entail, to complete the job in full by a set date/budget.

We've not had too many extreme issues with subcontractors as yet, most of our jobs on site at the moment are still in fairly early stages so the distancing rules aren't proving a huge problem to comply with, it's generally been more difficult around the welfare facilities than actual work. We're starting to see some problems from the follow on trades that are meant to be starting in the coming weeks though, generally supplier issues for them rather than internal staffing issues, so we might end up delaying some of the next trades until they can find new suppliers or potentially even change materials to mitigate the issues.

Most annoying one we've had so far is the gas membrane people who are now refusing to come out to site, probably only need them for a day or two, to finish off their works around the slab perimeter and validate the finished works. They won't accept anyone else doing the works in their absence nor validate it remotely via photographs, which we've had some others do in the past, and we can't go anywhere else as another subcontractor wouldn't be able to validate the works already completed beneath the slab to provide a complete validation.

 

[AndyWolves]

America is looking increasingly fucked. Their government and state systems are being proven to be too clunky. Trump is picking the economy over people. China and Russia will be the two global powers after this. The EU has no ability to do the lock down effectively and quickly. Freedom of movement is gone. Borders will be back. Britain will become more serlf sufficient. Life for all has changed for all of us

Ive been thinking about this too

The countries who will benefit the most out of this will be the ones who can get their economies going again which means the countries who come out of lockdown first will be the big winners. I was thinking some 3rd world countries have struggled to properly lockdown so they'll be hit hardest but will also be the first to get out the other side

 

[Johnny75]

The place I work for,has been given a contract for the next three months from wolverhampton council to follow the bin lorries with a minibus,so the loaders who work at the back can social distance,by getting in the minibus,as three in a cab is now frowned upon,the interesting point is we've been told to use school minibuses as they wont be needed for schools,so maybe(almost certainly) no schools until june

Deputy head teacher mate of mine reckons the school year has been written off. New start in September.

 

[BGreenWolf]

They’ve already said as much- there won’t be any summer exams this year, for instance.

 

[Rui_CostCo]

Wow. Trump was incredible tonight.

It seems this is all Obama's fault. At least the uninsured are being directed towards Obamacare that this fuckwit has spent five years trying to dismantle.

Classic Don. Misdirection. Say something inflammatory to move the spotlight away from the real issue at hand.

 

[AndyWolves]

https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/

Compare our mobility to Italy is frightening

That suggests we'll be more exposed than Italy

 

[Templeton Peck]

They’ve already said as much- there won’t be any summer exams this year, for instance.

Due to staff isolating for 12 weeks most schools couldn't open until mid June at best. It would be very stupid to open schools for the last 4 weeks of the year when you can lock them down to September.

 

[Rui_CostCo]

"We get judged every single day of our lives. The time now is to go forward and make a donation."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52163997

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent."

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The schools are definitely shut until September. Mini has effectively left and will get graded A levels based on teacher recommendation.

 

[ndorsetwolf]

Just been out to do some grocery shoppimg. First time this week. Waitrose was very quiet, no queue to get in, availability on everything bar flour.

Given how quiet it was, seemed a lot more cars on the road. Hope the lemmings are not heading for the beach/beauty spots etc because of the sun.

 

[ndorsetwolf]

https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/

Compare our mobility to Italy is frightening

That suggests we'll be more exposed than Italy

Not sure you can read too much into those figures on their own, just compare us to say Japan and S Korea, where there appears to be much more movement. Most other Western European nations are similar to us, other behaviours (mask wearing, family proximity etc) must also have an effect.