Tyce Hudson
Project Executive, Turner Construction Company
Project Executive
Turner Construction Company
Tell us about your business and team…
At a national level, Turner is the largest general contractor in the country and a leader in all major market segments. We foster innovation, embrace emerging technologies, and make a difference for our clients, employees, and communities at every opportunity. Turner’s Huntsville office has been building throughout Alabama for more than 60 years, serving clients in the industries of aerospace, government, industrial, healthcare and commercial. We have an extremely successful history of working at prominent Huntsville businesses including Cummings Research Park and Redstone Arsenal. We even built the iconic Saturn V rocket replica at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and, more recently, the brand-new Toyota Field for the Rocket City Trash Pandas baseball team.
The Huntsville team is truly a family in every sense of the word. We support each other, our clients, and our trade partners, staying true to the Turner values of service, quality, integrity, and personal attention. We greatly enjoy living and working in Huntsville, taking advantage of everything that this city has to offer, which makes supporting its growth even that much easier. We are also invested in our local community and are proud to have the opportunity to contribute in ways that go beyond the built environment.
Tell us about the challenges your company has encountered during the pandemic…
As an essential business, the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges that caused us to adapt quickly and safely, so that we could continue working while keeping our staff and trade partners healthy. Initial conversations consisted of what and how we needed to adjust both on the jobsites and within the office, as well as how to keep Turner’s culture alive while keeping people safely distanced. We had to get creative on jobsites for tasks that traditionally required multiple people to work in close proximity. To do that, we instituted multiple pieces of equipment for one task and required very specific and intentional personal protective equipment to complete the task safely.
We also had challenges with communication and implemented a detailed and thorough process to take the necessary precautions while still keeping in touch with employees and measuring the morale across the company. A supplementary challenge was keeping staff engaged and responding when people felt burnt out. We fostered virtual activities, like trivia and happy hours, and sent care boxes to people’s homes to make sure we stayed connected.
Despite the challenges, I feel that our company has only grown stronger in how we operate, communicate, and care for each other.
This article appears in the October 2021 issue of Initiatives magazine, a publication of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber.
