EDUCATION • GOVERNMENT • HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL HOSPITALITY • MULTI FAMILY • PROFESSIONAL SPACES RELIGIOUS FACILITIES • RETAIL • TRANSPORTATION • AND MORE! Trusted Partner for Flooring Solutions in Texas Since 1974 Over 50 Years of Excellence (281) 598-6001 | 5510 Brittmoore Rd., Houston, TX 77041 | www.mekfloors.com to draft emergency orders. The last time Texas declared a public health disaster was nearly 120 years ago in 1910. Amidst the confusion, no one knew with any cer- tainty whether the construction industry would be the next to be shut down. “Early on, it was almost surreal,” recalled Corbin Van Arsdale, president and general counsel of the AGC-Texas Building Branch. Van Arsdale, mayor of an Austin suburb when the pandemic hit, received warnings from the governor’s office and the White House that COVID was going to be a big deal. “The first step was to make sure we could keep construc- tion deemed ‘essential’ so we wouldn’t face shutdowns like what was happening in New York, California and other states.” AGC Houston’s leadership team sprang into action and wasted no time. Instead of speculating about what could happen, they moved fast to collaborate with Houston’s general contractors and trade partners to put proactive stopgap measures in place. Very quickly, the group realized that if every jobsite adopted different rules, the industry would look disorganized and unsafe to regulators. So they created a unified set of common best practices and preventative protocols, and dis- tributed guidelines to local and state government officials. Jerry Nevlud, former president and CEO of AGC Houston, remembers how quickly it came together. “We had big companies and small companies all contributing lots of valuable feedback,” he said. The goal was consistency, so there wasn’t one GC doing one thing and another doing something completely different. “Association business isn’t essential; what our members do is.” Safety directors were texting each other asking questions as simple as where they were getting their respirators, face coverings or gloves. Kim Mason, AGC Houston’s director of safety services, was suddenly fielding calls from dozens of companies trying to figure out how to operate in a pandemic. “Everyone was asking the same thing,” she said. “How do we keep people safe and keep the jobs open?” And, the protocols the team developed became just as essential as the industry they were designed to protect. When county judges and mayors were draft- ing emergency “Stay at Home” orders, AGC Houston handed them a document showing exactly how construction would operate safely. “We didn’t just say, ‘Trust us,’” Van Arsdale shared. “We said, ‘Here’s how we are going to do this.’ That made all the difference.” Within days, Harris County designated construction as part of critical infra- structure and it was officially deemed essential. Houston jobsites stayed open while other states went dark. “It was the Houston chapter’s finest hour,” said Pat Kiley, former chief staff executive of AGC Houston. “Every reason to have a trade association was invoked that year.” Legislative Changes that Became Permanent Five years since the onset of COVID, the pandemic’s enduring legacy in Texas construction isn’t a jobsite rule: it’s law. According to Van Arsdale, three major legislative changes stemmed directly from the COVID pandemic. Under Texas statute, construction is now permanently classified as an essential business. “A governor or a mayor can’t shut construction down anymore during a pandemic,” he explained. “Local officials no longer have that authority.” That single change fundamentally altered the industry’s risk profile. Before 2020, a single executive order could halt billions of dollars of work overnight. Today, and thanks to the diligent work of AGC Houston, that uncertainty is gone. Texas also passed a sweeping state preemption law that prevents cities and counties from creating their own patch- work of regulations unless the state leg- islature has already authorized them to do so. Prior to this and especially during COVID, contractors faced wildly different rules depending on which side of a city limit they were working on. “If the legislature hasn’t already given a city the power to regulate something, such as police, fire, garbage, water or electric utilities, they can’t just make it up anymore,” Van Arsdale stated. “It’s more uniform now.” Additionally, there was an important change that addressed vaccines and employment. Now, in most circum- stances, Texas law limits the ability of private employers to require vaccinations, or even ask about vaccination status. However, this regulation did create some friction for health care projects and other sensitive facilities where owners were worried about vulnerable patients. “It caused an issue for hospitals and senior living facilities,” Van Arsdale noted. “Some contractors pushed back, but at the end of the day, it became law.” Together, those three changes created a more uniform regulatory environment for contractors, even if everyone doesn’t agree with each outcome. Changes on the Jobsite Although the pandemic is firmly several years in the past, its lingering effects are still evident on jobsites all across Hous- ton’s commercial construction landscape. Today, sign-in logs and digital check- ins are common. Staggered start times and break schedules, originally designed to keep workers apart during COVID, remained in use because of how effective they were in reducing congestion and making sites safer. And although it may seem trivial, traditional communal coolers have since been replaced with individual water bottles. “Coolers were unsanitary anyway, with so many people reaching their hands into the ice to grab a drink during the course of the day,” said Phil Nevlud, division president at MAREK and brother of Jerry Nevlud, who took COVID exposed vulnerabilities, but it also accelerated innovation and professionalism. agchouston.org Spring2026Cornerstone25
