In late February, Clayco founder Bob Clark canceled his company’s annual meeting, planned for Chicago two months later.
Having employees travel from across the country was something Clark, executive chairman of the design-build construction firm, was uneasy about having watched news about the new coronavirus spreading across China at the time. Experts expected it to spread around the world, but the virus hadn’t yet reached the U.S. Clark canceled the meeting anyway. Hundreds of construction cancelations—meetings and some whole projects—have occurred since.