"In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom labeled construction an 'essential service.' New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same..."

"... listing construction alongside child care, grocery stores, and hospitals. While some construction work easily passes this test, including repairs and maintenance of road, water, and transit infrastructure, what’s so essential about that building going up by my house? Developers, contractors, and labor unions have offered a handful of reasons that construction ought to continue through the coronavirus shutdown, a combination of blue-collar bravura, engineering needs, hygiene logic, and societal necessity. Mostly, the economic expediency of everyone involved....  If you abandoned a project halfway, materials like insulation and exposed wiring degrade in the elements....  'There’s a sense that a 100-year-old building will deteriorate but continue to perform its job,' said Ehren Gresehover, a structural engineer in New York. 'But when you start opening things up, start demo’ing a little slab, you might unbrace a column, and that column has temporary shoring, or perhaps it’s only temporary braced, and that’s less stable.' What’s safe for a weekend might not be safe for several months unattended.'... Developers also take on a construction loan... meaning the bank can come for everything you’ve got if you default.... Powerful construction unions, contractors, and developers thus far seem to agree that job sites are not likely to be virus incubators in the same way that white-collar offices are...."

From "Why There’s So Much Construction Still Happening/Cities have shut down, but cranes are still in the sky" (Slate).