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To navigate the current building boom amid a labor shortage, Walsh Construction and other Oregon builders have been hiring less-experienced workers as well as older beginners.

But Walsh’s project leaders for the Couch 9 mixed-use tower say the practice hasn’t affected their commitment to safety. They say they’re doubling down. Each new hire at the jobsite is partnered with a journeyman worker and doesn’t work alone.

鈥淚t’s communication and training, every step of the way,鈥� Walsh superintendent Ted Friedman said. 鈥淭here’s an emphasis on the simpler things.鈥�

In the U.S., construction regularly tops all other private industries for 鈥� 899 in 2014, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Of those, 40 percent involved falls from height.

Walsh is using a new fall-protection system featuring highly adaptive guardrails 鈥� simpler and easier to use 鈥� at the jobsite, according to project manager Ryan Wilde.

鈥淚t’s a constant topic,鈥� he said of safety.

Since starting work for Couch 9, Walsh has dug two stories, installed shoring around the perimeter and added two levels of subterranean parking with post-tensioned concrete. Now, the team is building upward with the concrete decks. This week, crews tackled level four of the 11-story tower.

鈥淲e’ll cycle floor to floor every 10 to 12 days,鈥� Wilde said.

Work is scheduled to wrap in August 2017. Aside from the decks, the remaining work includes steel-stud framing; mechanical, electrical and plumbing elements; and finish work.

Building elements聽include window walls, second- and 11th-floor gardens, metal-panel framed skins on the building exterior, many cantilevered decks and a wine room.

鈥淚’d say, personally, it’s a pretty typical construction type,鈥� Friedman said.

The construction labor shortage has had an effect.

鈥淲e have to take it into account when we’re scheduling, and in making sure the quality is upheld,鈥� Friedman said. 鈥淲e have less-experienced people that are backfilling the talent pool. And it’s not only a labor shortage, it’s a material shortage too.鈥�

Metal panels, insulation and steel stud framing have proved difficult to procure.

鈥淭he lead times are doubled, sometimes tripled; where something would normally take two to three weeks, now it’s taking four to six,鈥� Friedman said.

The Couch 9 project occupies three-quarters of a half-block at the corner of Northwest Ninth Avenue and Couch Street in the Pearl District. Plans call for 137 residential units, 87 parking spaces and 8,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. A roof garden will provide stormwater management. Exterior finishes will include cast-in-place concrete; three types (12-foot-wide flush, interlocking and flat lock) of zinc and prefinished metal panels to be installed vertically and horizontally; bright red, perforated metal panels for balcony guardrails; metal wire mesh for rooftop screen walls; aluminum storefronts and fiberglass windows.

Walsh Construction is building Couch 9 for developer Urban Asset Advisors under a construction manager-general contractor negotiated contract. Vallaster Corl Architects is the designer. The building is replacing West Side Auto Body and Paint, across the street from landmark breakfast spot Fuller’s Restaurant.

Subcontractors include concrete specialists RDF Builders, ironworkers with Farwest, MEP contractor Hunter Davisson, Merit Electric, Peninsula Plumbing, Western States Fire Protection.

Walsh these days is tackling a lot of multifamily projects as well as health care projects and academic ones, like Oregon State University’s new Bend campus. The firm is handling an OSU project in Corvallis incorporating cross-laminated timber, and has been named contractor for the Framework CLT tower planned in the Pearl District.

Access to the site has been a tricky issue for the builder. The foremen estimate that most of their crew carpools to work, and about a third takes public transit 鈥� in part due to the price of parking. Walsh provides bus passes to employees.

In general, employees are happy working downtown, according to Friedman.

鈥淭he pay is definitely better for the downtown commercial scene,鈥� he said.