Safety

Construction giant Bechtel has publicly released findings and announced internal safety changes stemming from three fatalities at its Port Arthur, Texas, liquified natural gas project in April 2025.

The Reston, Virginia-based contractor identified seven major factors that contributed to the deaths of three workers who plunged from an elevated platform in an open letter published October 2025 by Craig Albert, president and chief operating officer, and Paul Marsden, president of the firm’s energy division.

“The purpose of sharing our findings is to promote transparency, accountability, and learning, helping Bechtel—and the wider industry—anticipate risks and act proactively on safety,” the letter reads.

Directly following fatalities, Albert addressed the incident on his LinkedIn page, signaling early on Bechtel’s intent to learn from it.

“Our safety culture has been a point of pride, built through thousands of actions over many decades,” he wrote. “In the wake of this heartbreaking event, we are committed to understanding exactly what went wrong and ensuring we do everything possible to prevent it from ever happening again, at Bechtel or anywhere.”

Addressing jobsite fatalities in a public manner, such as how Bechtel did in its public letter, is unusual, but not wholly unprecedented, said Jim Frederick, principal for Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm NexusHSE and formerly the deputy assistant secretary of OSHA under former President Joe Biden. 

At times, Frederick said, even sharing such findings within a company could pose challenges due to the nature of litigation stemming from fatal events. He applauded Bechtel for publishing what it had learned.

“This is a refreshing way of sharing the information. Ultimately a learning culture can't happen if you're not having openness,” Frederick told Construction Dive.

Of particular note is that Bechtel elected to publicly address the matter in a letter dated Oct. 8, 2025, three weeks before OSHA’s final deadline to issue a citation, which the agency must do within six months of an initial inspection.

OSHA still has yet to issue a citation publicly, as of time of publication. The deadline to do so remains even during the government shutdown, meaning that if the agency doesn’t do so by then, the inspection cannot yield a citation, Frederick said.

On April 29, a five-person crew was performing a formwork jump at elevation on the project. The task involves lifting a multilayered formwork system and resetting it higher on a tank. 

At 1:44 a.m., the platform on which the crew stood gave way. Reginald Magee, Felipe Mendez and Felix Lopez Sr. died, and two others were injured.

The firm’s internal report found an improperly attached bracket made the platform unstable and susceptible to breaking free. In addition, the three workers who died wore fall protection but appeared not to have fall arrest lanyards attached to an approved anchorage point, Bechtel said. The two injured workers had properly anchored lanyards.

Other findings from the letter indicate:

• Workers lacked adequate training, having not received a 30-minute lesson prepared by supervision for the formwork jumping system they used.
• Experienced crewmembers or leadership were not physically present at the time of the incident to mitigate risks.
• Noncompliance with a company policy where new crew members are mentored by veteran colleagues.
• Night work elevated the potential risk due to darkness, fatigue, reduced supervision and visibility challenges.
• The firm’s overall safety culture was not applied consistently.

To improve in the future, Bechtel outlined the changes it will make for each factor, such as halting work until all employees receive proper training, mandating foreman presence for tasks such as the formwork jumping conducted at the time of the incident and efforts to reduce “microcultures” that can develop within a large company to better ensure adherence employer-wide safety practices.

Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab has released a first-of-its-kind rating system for construction hard hats and helmets that mirrors rankings used for sport helmets.

The findings, shared publicly in September 2025, indicate that Type II helmets — or those with interior energy-absorbing materials and protection for the top and sides of the head — better protect workers from severe injury. Results show the shift to Type II reduces risk, on average, by 34% for fall-related concussion and by 65% for skull fracture. 

The research, which began in 2024 with funding from industry partners, simulated real-world collisions in an attempt to accurately assess how a helmet or hard hat protects a worker. 

Scott Greenhaus, a 40-plus-year construction veteran, was working on the Florida International University bridge in Miami when it collapsed in 2018.

“When we got to the site, we noticed their hard hats were all lying on the ground where the structure came to rest,” Greenhaus said in the Monday news release. “So we looked into it and said, 'Wow, we’ve got to change the way we do business from here.'”

Greenhaus, who co-founded the advocacy group Hard Hats to Helmets, believes the Helmet Lab’s rating system is a step in the right direction to keeping workers safe and improving awareness around headgear.

Assessing construction gear differs greatly from studying football and bike helmets, Barry Miller, director of outreach for the Helmet Lab, told Construction Dive. The team attempted to recreate 14-foot to 25-foot falls. 

But the methodology isn’t as simple as dropping the personal protective equipment from height.

“You do everything you can to avoid hitting your head first,” Miller said. That meant 14-foot to 25-foot falls create impacts similar to plunging from 5 to 7.5 feet. That’s a lot higher than the industry standard of testing 2-foot drops, Miller said. 

“I think we’re better at simulating real-world accident scenarios,” he added.

The result is a one to five star ranking for 17 helmets, both Type I and Type II. The scale includes ratings for predicted incidence of skull fractures and concussions compared to the average Type 1 helmet. Miller says the lab intends to continue to do more research on more kinds of headgear, too.

The rankings signal a clear winner between hard hats types in effectiveness. Out of nine Type II helmets on the list, only two don’t have five stars — they each have three. On the other hand, the highest-ranked Type I helmet has four stars, but the majority have either one or two stars.

Miller said the Helmet Lab’s ranking system is the first to definitively show one kind of protective gear is safer than another.

“It’s the first real data set that says something concrete. Type II saves lives,” he said.

When Jaime Garcia was working on construction jobsites, he saw multiple Spanish speaking tradesworkers on the jobsite who did not receive the proper safety training in their native language. 

“The amount of people that took the training but did not understand the training was massive. It was a huge gap,” said Garcia, who worked as an electrician and safety manager. When he urged leaders and subcontractors to conduct classes in Spanish, he was told there was no time for that.

“I'm like, ‘Hmm, we need to train them, big time. We're going to get someone hurt or killed out here,’” he said. As a result, in 2020, Garcia founded All-In Safety Professionals, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based firm offering bilingual safety training. 

“We had a lot of subcontractors that I knew that needed training,” Garcia said. “They were just showing up to these places, somebody would collect their money, sit them in their class talking English. They play one or two videos and sign a card and dip. And I didn't like that.”

The number of Hispanic or Latino workers in all industries who died on the job increased 42%, to 727 from 2011 to 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In that time, the percentage of construction workers who were Hispanic or Latino who died at work also steadily increased. 

“We know without a doubt that it's massively impactful to the safety of and wellbeing of these workers, but also then to the safety and efficiency of all of these operations as well as from a damage and delay standpoint,” said Loretta Mulberry, a language access consultant. 

In addition, that language barrier, or lack of resources, can create a system that holds back great workers, Mulberry said. That’s a disadvantage to both the business and the individual.

“It's either ‘I don't have the language skills to pass this English test,’ or ‘I am too self-conscious. I'm too nervous about my lack of English to get after that opportunity,’” she said. “So you see it from both sides. People are holding themselves back, but also the system is holding them back too.”

For a long time, experts say, the “no-time” attitude has pervaded around providing extra education or resources, though that’s beginning to change. However, Garcia and Mulberry still believe more can be done.

Translation and interpretation

Often, one member of a working crew — the person who speaks the best English — steps up as a de facto interpreter. In addition to doing other work on the jobsite, that interpreter communicates with crews about any and all important information from the general contractor. Though that role is vital, it also should require additional training, according to Mulberry.

“Speaking a language is not the same thing as being qualified to do translation and interpreting,” Mulberry said. “The skills are not the same.”

In fact, translation refers to the act of copying language in written form, while interpretation is done verbally. Each case requires both specificity and nuance. 

In addition, not every person who speaks Spanish speaks the same kind of Spanish. A single jobsite could feature workers from Mexico, Cuba, Honduras, Puerto Rico or other Hispanic regions that have differences in dialect, small or large. 

Mulberry said she sees firsthand how much people want the most important information to be communicated as familiarly as possible. 

“Anecdotally, you talk to anybody who's ever studied a second language, even being very comfortable, fluent in their second language, and you ask them, ‘If your life were on the line, what would you want this information in English, Spanish, Polish, whatever it may be?’ People will always say, ‘My native language,’” she said.

Speaking my language

All-In Safety Professionals focuses on meeting with subcontractors that don’t already have a dedicated safety professional, Garcia said. Those roles can be expensive, especially when potentially hiring someone who is bilingual. 

As a result, the firm provides training with physical examples, before it monitors workers in the field to answer questions and ensure the effectiveness of the education.

“Most of these people already work with their hands. They're going to learn with their hands as well,” he said.

Before All-In, Garcia said he pushed for an additional orientation for Spanish speakers. For major projects, a single orientation day can get workers on the same page. Conducting an additional orientation — one workers would need anyway — in Spanish provides education without adding too much more time.

In Mulberry’s experience, safety professionals often take whatever they can get. Most often, that means company training manuals or jobsite signage translated into multiple languages.

“The number one request we get is for [translated] employee handbooks,” she said. 

Monique Lewis, CEO and founder of Raleigh-based Next 2 Native Language Learning, takes a different approach to climbing over the language barrier. Lewis’ firm provides English to Spanish construction vocabulary training in each direction, providing superintendents and field workers alike the tools necessary to communicate.

“When you have a Hispanic worker on site and they have a near miss, they need to be able to unpack that. They need to be able to say to their supervisor, ‘This almost happened,’” Lewis said. Otherwise, hazards may go unabated.

Though signs and handbooks may be useful tools for communicating with workers, it’s a one-way street. Giving teams the tools to converse provides a feedback loop and extra methods of sharing vital information around safety.

Training with baby steps

Mulberry said she knows requests for additional training come down to budgeting and time. It’s tough for safety leaders to fight for funds. Instead, including another department, like human resources, can be an effective way to start. That’s why translated handbooks can create a place to begin.

“That’s always a good starting point because the safety folks can agree on it with the HR folks,” Mulberry said. “Everybody can agree that the employee handbook is the best place to start.”

Lewis says she tells clients to begin with the workshops that use both languages together. Just the effort of trying, paired with the oft-use phrase “I’m going to butcher this word,” on a first try can showcase the effort required to improve culture. That can start progress toward overcoming the stigma or fears workers have of not advancing due to their second language, too. 

Garcia encouraged people to take it slow. He even suggested shopping for cheap translators — such as physical gadgets that translate oral phrases into written form — that may be imperfect or slow. But the method may help contractors understand the problem or their shortfalls more.

“I would really focus on taking just baby steps, using what we have available,” he said.

In an effort to better protect road builders and drivers, Kentucky will place automated speed enforcement cameras in highway work zones, the state’s Transportation Cabinet announced in August 2025.

The Transportation Cabinet said it would begin installing speed cameras in summer and fall 2025 in select work zones, then continue to build the program in coming years to include more work zones throughout the state. Areas with the cameras will have warning signs and flashing lights to alert drivers.

In 2024, Kentucky recorded over 1,223 work zone crashes, per the announcement. Those resulted in seven fatalities and 298 injuries. The majority of those killed were motorists or passengers.

Kentucky had over $1 billion in new contracts for paving, new road and bridge construction and repairs awarded in 2024, and the state is on pace to meet that mark again in 2025, a spokesperson for the Transportation Cabinet told Construction Dive. The cabinet plans to place cameras on four jobsites in the coming months.

Speeding drivers in work zones won’t be ticketed automatically. Instead, a police officer stationed at the end of the affected area will make traffic stops, issuing tickets in person based on camera or detector data. Speeding or traffic violations can carry a $500 fine when workers are present.

“Speeding through work zones isn’t just reckless, it can be deadly,” said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in the announcement. “In Kentucky, we believe that protecting our people is always the right thing to do, and now we have a new tool to help make that happen.”

About three in five contractors have experienced at least one vehicle crash in a roadway workzone in 2024, according to a survey of Associated General Contractors of America members, conducted in partnership with construction software firm HCSS. Nearly a third of those surveyed counted five or more crashes.

Contractors believe more can be done to protect workers and motorists, too. Nearly 40% of those surveyed said penalties for speeding in work zones are sufficient, but enforcement is not. The top methods respondents believed could improve safety include greater police presence and stricter enforcement on existing work zone laws.

But Kentucky isn’t the only state doing something.

Beginning early in 2025, Washington said it would mount work zone speed cameras on trailers on active work zones throughout the state. Like Kentucky, the affected work zones would have signs telling drivers about the cameras and the posted speed limit. Speeding could result in a fine for drivers.

In New York, an automated work zone speed enforcement pilot program was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in September 2021. In 2025, the program was extended to 2031 and expanded to double the number of eligible work zones.

At the far end of the expo hall, a crowd gathered for a demonstration at the American Society of Safety Professionals 2025 Conference + Expo. Seats around a catwalk promptly filled, leaving many attendees standing to view the show.

Booths a few feet away displayed personal protective equipment and other safety solutions, but the catwalk promptly became the center of attention.

The models strutting by didn’t wear the latest fashion from name brands, however. They donned high visibility vests, flame-resistant outwear, work gloves, eye protection and work boots. The women showcasing the gear hammed it up, posing and getting the crowd to respond by eliciting laughter and cheers.

The day before, the catwalk stage had served as the space for a panel of safety experts highlighting the need for more properly fitting PPE for women in the trades. The timing of the insight was invaluable, as at the end of 2024, OSHA enacted a standard requiring construction employers to provide properly fitting PPE to workers.

“The real question is: is the PPE that you’re procuring and buying and using creating hazards rather than preventing them?” asked panelist Amy Roosa, founder of The Safety Rack, an advocacy group focused on women’s PPE.

Loose-fitting gear can create problems — such as a baggy vest or a glove snagging on equipment or machinery — and many times tradesworkers don’t know the danger it poses.

“Women still don’t know what all is available to them,” said Kelly Franko, co-founder of the Alliance of Women's Safety Apparel Manufacturers, another advocacy group. If women do know what they need from PPE, there is still a question of access.

Women won’t always speak up for fear of the stigma of complaining, said Nicole Randall, vice president of the ISEA Foundation, another group raising awareness around fall safety.

And each panelist emphasized that the issue does not just impact women, but also workers of any size who do not fit into the standard gear.

At the event, the speakers’ final call to action urged equipment manufacturers to ask more questions of their clients, and in turn, for safety managers to speak up. Bulk orders can save money, but often, one-size-fits-all doesn’t cut it. 

“If you’re going to say your fall protection is unisex, you better come at me with some data,” Roosa said.

Dr. Hilary Gallin was working as an anesthesiologist and wearing protective goggles for a medical procedure that required the use of a laser, which created a hazard. The protective goggles slipped off her face, and the laser briefly blinded her in one eye, she said.

“And so I went to the emergency room and luckily I'm okay,” Gallin said. “But what then happened was it took me another several months to get goggles that fit me. They just weren't available for women. They were too heavy. Nothing was really made for women.”

She took the problem to her friend, Kaitlin McCarthy, founder and CEO of Boston-based real estate developer Ionic Development Company. The pair knew each other through Harvard Business School.

McCarthy related to Gallin’s complaints.

“Ever since my first day on a jobsite, I have felt like the PPE was very obviously not meant for me,” McCarthy said. “The vest was 10 sizes too big, the boots are awkward, the hats are clunky.”

The two of them realized that PPE designed for men wasn’t just an issue of safety, but one of confidence and pride at work.

As a result, in May 2025, the pair launched ARX, a personal protective equipment brand designed for women. At launch, the site sold one product: a vest retailing for $55. But the founders have plans to expand.

“We want to be your one-stop shop and your trusted resource for head-to-toe PPE for women,” Gallin said. “That can mean everything from goggles and gloves and a vest to our next product — actually a long sleeved kind of athleisure, like an athletic-style shirt for the construction site.”

The need to fit in

The founders tapped into their own experiences with PPE and also interviewed other women to find their gripes and figure out what they wanted from their gear.

For one, their research reinforced that women’s PPE shouldn’t merely be smaller sizes, as the proportions of frames and shoulders are different for most women. But perhaps most importantly, they knew visually they did not want their gear to stand out. At least, not in the wrong way.

“The women in our focus groups just wanted to look like everybody else,” McCarthy said, referring to a common strategy for PPE to appeal to women dubbed “shrink it and pink it.” 

“They don't want it to be pink. We had played around with different design ideas for the stripes and the reflective tape. And they just wanted to look like everybody else,” she said.

But beyond appearance, there’s also the need for utility. That meant putting pockets in the “right” places, the founders said, and even providing a discrete spot near the shoulder closed by a zipper that they call “the tampon pocket.”

“One of the problems that we heard was people would take stuff out of their pockets and a tampon would fall out,” McCarthy said. The location of the pockets on the vest is designed for the wearer to get the most use out of storage while also maintaining privacy.

Prioritizing PPE

In January 2025, a new OSHA rule went into effect that requires contractors to provide properly fitting PPE to their workers — aligning construction with a rule already in place for general industry. 

As a result, the ARX founders think they timed the release of their firm’s line of gear well. McCarthy said they have seen a response from companies and individuals alike, as women in the trades often take responsibility for finding their own gear.

Gallin said the best response has been from safety managers or superintendents excited to provide their workers with better PPE.

“They said, ‘You know, I felt really disingenuous doing my job, handing something to a new employee that didn't fit as well as it should. And saying, okay, well this should protect you,’” Gallin said. “And so it's been interesting to kind of have the conversation both with the female user, but also a safety manager who says, ‘I now feel better because there is something that I can stand by and give to my employee.’”