Duke’s Properties and Construction, based in Raleigh, NC, successfully completed a 13-unit residential housing project in 2020 by implementing policies and strategies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Nasir Dukes, managing partner of Dukes Properties and Construction shared his firm’s best practices for promoting safety on the project during an interview with Shelton A. Russell, publisher of American DBE Magazine. These strategies and policies should help many DBE, MBE and WBE business owners create a safe environment for their essential workers during the pandemic.
Dukes knew that moving forward on the project was critical for his company in 2020 and committed to find ways for his crews to keep working when the pandemic hit in early 2020. He first shut the company down briefly to fully understand what was going on and to determine how he could bring his employees back to work safely. He then implemented a work-from-home policy for all administrative workers; and created several safety policies for his construction and on-site workers. These policies included 6-foot social distancing requirements, mask wearing requirements, and creating hand sanitizing stations throughout the project. These strategies allowed the company to complete the project in 2020 without any workers contracting the COVID-19 virus.
