Late last week, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee announced that he is allowing private construction to restart in the state after his office shut it all down in late March as part of his “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” directive intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Lifting of the private construction shutdown is a relief to the developer of Terrace Station, the three-building, mixed-use project being built on 14.6 acres alongside I-5 in Mountlake Terrace. But don’t look for too many workers to be on the job right away as Sierra Construction and the many subcontractors on site will need some time to ramp up after the six-week stoppage.

“We did get the Governor’s order (last week) but there are some specifics in that order that we’ve got to work through,” said Brendan Lawrence, senior development manager of Lake Union Partners, one of the project developers.

Work on the Terrace Station development — and all private construction in the state — has been given the go-ahead to restart but only if certain guidelines are followed: maintaining social-distancing practices, the use of PPE (personal protective equipment), health screenings and more. Maintaining 6 feet of separation between workers is the biggest concern for Lawrence.

“That’s obviously a very difficult thing to achieve in construction,” Lawrence explained. “Simple tasks like loading drywall or unloading and installing appliances require a couple of guys to be closer than 6 feet.”

Subcontractors may be the first to get back to work at Terrace Station, but those companies will need a few days to re-hire their workers (most were laid off following the governor’s March 23 directive), complete the necessary paperwork to restart and secure enough PPE for the jobsite.

Lawrence had been hoping that work at Terrace Station could restart on May 4, the end date of Inslee’s latest stay-home order (an order that the Governor said on Wednesday would be extended). Now that the state has given construction companies the okay to resume work right away, Lawrence is pleased that workers will be back on site even if it isn’t an immediate return.

“We’re not seeing a huge benefit in terms of the earlier start date,” Lawrence said, “but hopefully it gets us up to speed quicker next week.”

Phase 1 of Terrace Station, a six-story, 470,000-square-foot mixed-use building, is expected to be completed this fall. The entire project will likely be finished in January 2022.