Safety

Dive Brief:

• The Department of Labor is closer to publishing a rule to protect construction workers from hazards related to heat stress and illness while on the job.
• On April 24, the OSHA Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health unanimously recommended that OSHA “move forward expeditiously” on a notice of proposed rulemaking for a new heat standard. As part of the rulemaking progress, OSHA will continue to seek input from stakeholders and the public.
• “We are working diligently on getting out a proposed rule,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker told Construction Dive Wednesday at a construction safety event. 

Dive Insight:

Every year, dozens of workers die and many more suffer serious injuries from heat illness while on the job, especially in industries like construction and agriculture, according to OSHA. 

"No worker should have to get sick or die because their employer refused to provide water, or breaks to recover from high heat, or failed to act after a worker showed signs of heat illness," Parker said in a release about the rulemaking advancement.

In states such as Texas and Florida, water breaks have been a hot topic, as governments restrict municipalities from creating requirements. The reason for nixing water break mandates is to prevent varied or complex ordinances across localities for companies to navigate, advocates say.

The agency does have a National Emphasis Program for heat-related hazards that it launched in 2022. The program inspects workplaces with high heat-hazard exposure in order to protect workers from falling sick. OSHA has conducted nearly 5,000 such inspections since the launch, it said.

Employers are required to protect workers from the dangers from heat exposure and should have a proper safety plan in place, at a minimum providing cool water, rest and shade, OSHA said. 

With no actual heat standard in place, however, enforcement is murky for OSHA and citations fall under the broad general duties clause, saying companies have the duty to provide employees with a workplace free from hazard. Still, no specific hazard means that companies won’t face increased fines for repeat violations like they may for repeatedly exposing workers to falls without protection or failing to provide personal protective equipment.

Mason Ford, the director of sustainability and equipment services at Skanska USA Civil, knows how hard it can be to eliminate safety incidents on construction sites.

Groups of people moving around the jobsite, heavy machinery with obstructed views in the cab and limitations on technology make it hard to pursue that goal. But, the 20-plus-year veteran of the construction industry still has some big ideas about how to make it happen.

Here, Ford talks with Construction Dive during Construction Safety Week about the technologies that Skanska uses on the jobsite, the roadblocks that make it hard to create an injury-free workplace and how the firm is overcoming them in its journey to zero injuries.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: What safety tech are you seeing on the jobsite today?

MASON FORD: Our current journey is to install blind spot detection on every machine that we own.

We're putting aftermarket or factory OEM technology on them. If we order a new machine, we order it with the new technology, the best they've got available, which for most of them is only identification. It's not avoidance. 

You can get a loader from Caterpillar or John Deere or other manufacturers that have some great technology built into it. It may have artificial intelligence where it can identify a human being in its path, but it still doesn't automatically brake for that human being. It’ll still actually hit him.

I'd say that, without taking anything away from what we're doing and the effort we're putting into installing aftermarket technology right now, it's still just a Band-Aid.

I don't say this out loud a lot, but the reality is, even our push to put in our own equipment is more for moving the industry and doing our part, and saying, “Hey, we've put the best available technology on our equipment and it's still not enough.”

It sounds like you're really bullish on automation and automated heavy machinery. Does Skanska use it often?

We don't. Realistically, we see there's demand for it. 

The construction field that we work in right now, where we're doing tight, urban-type projects, is probably one of the least open, or least productive, for automation. 

If you're doing more greenfield work, where you're installing solar panels or wind turbines in a huge field with no human beings around, you have a lot better odds working with automation than when you're working on the side of a busy highway or in a densely populated area next to Newark, New Jersey’s Liberty Airport.

In those dense areas, then, how does Skanska keep workers safe?

In those spots, we’ve installed object detection, which is a big benefit. In select areas and select markets, we use video surveillance.

There's a bunch of automation in video surveillance, which includes watching a project and looking for any types of hazards, recognizing them and giving us opportunities to train workers. We show them what happened, where the near miss was and what could have been done differently. 

Our journey is always toward zero. We wish that there weren't any incidents, but there are. If you're running video on every project, you see what every human being did, every instance across the entire U.S., you could probably break it down to have really good data about near misses.

What our journey has been like, is that we report near misses, and we've looked for them whether it's captured on video, or captured by a bystander or somebody who was participating in it. 

But the journey toward getting good information on that has taken a long time because initially, people don't like to claim they had a near miss, or they don't completely understand what a near miss is. Our safety professionals have taken a great journey where we've gone to great lengths to define what those near misses are and provide good feedback rather than punishment for near misses.

That way, they continue to be reported properly and acknowledged, and used as training activities, rather than shoved under the rug or not reported.

What do you think will be the future of safety technology?

Some of what I talked about earlier about evolving the machinery is a real big step in safety. If you look at the makeup of a wheeled loader, as an example, so much of the obstructed view for people on the ground is the operator cab and the handrails. 

There's a whole bunch of things related to the operator being on the machine that cause safety issues.

When you pull the operator off, you change the center of gravity of the machine, and make it not only more efficient, but able to perform its function with better visibility to and from the people on the ground.

What I hope to see evolve is the machinery and the construction process.

Sponsored content

By Burns & McDonnell

Does safety training actually matter? Well, it helped me save a child’s life.

Over the course of the last 15 years, my career in engineering and construction has been a journey marked by growth and invaluable experiences. Working in these industries, I've come to appreciate and understand the paramount importance of safety.

At Burns & McDonnell, I’ve had the opportunity to work in the field on major projects supporting the power and the electrical transmission and distribution industries. Throughout my tenure, I’ve had the privilege to contribute to various projects, each leaving a mark on my professional journey. My career has been defined by working on project teams that successfully delivered electricity to individuals and families across Texas, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

However, it was the first-aid and CPR/AED training that I received as part of my safety training for construction sites and work zones that helped me during a life-altering experience.

The incident unfolded during a warm and sunny day at a casual pool party. We were gathered with friends and family. Amid the splashing and laughter, panic struck when a child, Cam, went underwater. Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted as Cam’s life hung in the balance when he was discovered unresponsive in the pool. I sprang from my chair to perform CPR for what felt like an eternity until Cam was revived.

Adhering to the established protocols learned in my professional capacity, I took immediate control of the scene. I shouted for someone to contact emergency services and directed bystanders to maintain a safe distance. With the assistance of my spouse, I commenced CPR and persisted until emergency services arrived.

The emotional aftermath of the incident left an indelible mark on me. It reinforced the importance of safety training. Safety is a serious business, and this incident brings home the need to always take our safety protocols seriously. The incident prompted personal introspection, leading to a renewed commitment to vigilance and preparedness.

Reflecting on the incident, I realized the effectiveness of specific actions, such as alerting someone to call 911 and creating a calm environment in the chaos. While I don’t want anyone to live in fear, having basic training and being prepared for emergencies can make a huge difference. In this instance, it saved Cam’s life. I would recommend having a rotating responsibility among adults to watch children while at the pool or at the lake, especially as summer approaches.

As I reflect on my role in this incident, I remain humbled by how quickly a joyous afternoon can turn into an emergency, or even a tragedy. I hope that my experience can highlight the importance of safety training, especially CPR training, because it can make a huge difference on a work site — or at a fun gathering with family and friends. Witnessing Cam's recovery, now a happy, healthy, active child, underscores the critical impact of swift and informed action during emergencies.

A repeated lack of fall protection leading to a $1 million fine. A worker getting buried and killed in a collapsed trench resulting in a $300,000 penalty. And another $300,000 fine for a roofing contractor exposing workers to potential fatal falls. These were among the largest OSHA fines of Q1 2024.

OSHA publishes instances where it levies high fines to employers for failing to comply with safety requirements, as a means of highlighting standards.

These cases often involve builders on residential projects, frequently involving failure to provide fall protection. When OSHA sees those same companies repeatedly failing to adhere to its standards, citation amounts also increase. 

Additionally, companies can contest their initial fine amounts, meaning the numbers listed here do not always reflect the total amount collected by OSHA — if the agency manages to recoup the funds at all.

Here are some of the largest initial fines announced by OSHA in the first quarter of 2024: 

Adrian Construction Group
Fines: $1,017,248
Status: Issued

In February, OSHA cited a Paterson, New Jersey, contractor for repeatedly exposing workers to fall hazards. On an inspection of a Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, jobsite in July 2023, the agency issued six willful violations for lack of fall and eye protection, as well as four serious violations for unsafe scaffolds and failure to provide hardhats.

As a result, the framing contractor faced initial fines totaling over $1 million for the violations.

The agency has inspected Adrian Construction Group five times since 2016, it reported, and each instance resulted in a citation for failure to provide workers with fall protection. As a result, OSHA has added the company to its Severe Violators Enforcement Program. 

Adrian Construction Group did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

Pyles Plumbing and Utility Contractors
Fines: $308,125
Status: Contested

On Aug. 10, 2023, two employees of Pyles Plumbing and Utility Contractors were working in a trench box when the surrounding dirt collapsed and buried them, killing one 20-year-old worker and hospitalizing another, according to an OSHA report.

The Macon, Georgia, plumbing contractor faces two willful violations issued in March for not providing trench shields and neglecting to provide a safe exit to the trench box, as well as three serious violations for allowing workers to enter the trench without proper training or protection. 

As a result, Pyles Plumbing and Utility Contractors faced $308,125 in proposed penalties at the end of February. The company is contesting the fines. 

Pyles Plumbing and Utility Contractors did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

Brothers Construction Services
Fines: $306,229
Status: Issued

A Framingham, Massachusetts, roofing contractor saw citations pile up last quarter as OSHA alleges it again exposed workers to potentially fatal falls. In August, OSHA says, it observed workers at heights of up to 20 feet on a residential jobsite in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

As a result, Brothers Construction Services — also operating as Brothers Construction and Roofing or Brothers Roofing — faces $306,229 in penalties, issued in February. The fines come across eight citations: three willful, three repeat, one serious and one other-than-serious.

Brothers Construction, OSHA says, failed to provide fall protection and protective gear for exposed workers, to train employees about falls, to ensure ladders were placed and used safely and to have a competent person observing and inspecting the jobsite regularly for hazards.

The company did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

United Custom Homes
Fines: $264,143
Status: Contested

United Custom Homes, based in Oswego, Illinois, faces hefty fines after facing citations for seven previous violations since 2015, according to OSHA.

In August, inspectors observed workers on a Naperville, Illinois, residential jobsite working at heights of up to 20 feet without protective equipment. As a result, United Custom Homes faces one repeat, one willful, one serious and one other-than-serious citation. The violations say the company didn’t train employees, provide fall protection or use ladders properly.

All together, OSHA assessed $264,143 in proposed penalties across four citations issued in February. The high amount likely stems from OSHA claiming United Custom Homes owing $238,572 in unpaid penalties from previous citations.

United Custom Homes could not be reached for comment on the citations.

Hurtado Construction Co.
Fines: $257,811
Status: Issued

A Houston-area contractor faces large fines stemming from alleged failures to ensure an excavation was safe, resulting in the death of an 18-year-old worker near Fulshear, Texas, in September 2023.

Hurtado Construction — a water, sewer and stormwater line installations contractor headquartered in Richmond, Virginia — allowed the worker to enter the excavation without proper protection to prevent the trench’s collapse, OSHA claims.

In March, OSHA cited Hurtado Construction with one willful and five serious citations for failing to ensure the safety of the trench box, with initial fines totalling $257,811. The agency also cited the company in 2021 for failing to have safeguards for employees in Katy, Texas. OSHA claims this is a trend for the company, as Hurtado faced eight OSHA citations resulting from a similar worker fatality in January 2007.

Hurtado Construction did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

K&D Plumbing
Fines: $184,387
Status: Issued

In July 2023, a journeyman plumber for Silver Creek, Georgia-based K&D Plumbing entered a manhole and lost his footing, falling 20 feet to the bottom. He suffered internal injuries and died.

As a result, OSHA cited the contractor for failing to develop and implement a permit-required confined space entry program, including testing and ventilating the space before allowing employees to enter. K&D Plumbing also faces six serious violations for lack of ladders and safe means of egress from a 6-foot-deep trench, which had other non-abated hazards, OSHA alleges.

All together, the initial fines issued in January add up to $184,387.

K&D Plumbing did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

RaShawn L. Austin is the executive health and safety director at Islandia, New York-based Forte Construction, a general contracting firm involved in transit and public works projects throughout downstate New York.

Opinions are the author’s own.

America’s most populated cities are known for their fast pace of life, and their construction projects are expected to follow suit.

With demands for affordable housing and improved infrastructure soaring, the discourse so often revolves around the speed of development, with critics ready to point out any delays, shortages and cost overruns getting in the way.

As we celebrate Construction Safety Week, it’s a critical reminder that speed is no substitute for safety. The hazards on a construction site are manifold, and it is crucial that today’s construction professionals focus on the best ways to mitigate them.

In a bustling urban area like New York City, a similar level of activity occurs underground as it does on the street and even dozens of stories in the air, making that vigilance even more critical.

For my company’s workers and projects managers, many of whom are involved in retrofitting elevators and escalators to make subway stations across the city more accessible, underground construction activity presents a unique challenge.

The city that never sleeps also doesn’t stop while you dig. How do you keep your workers safe while also keeping those stations open to a public blissfully unaware of the dangers surrounding them?

Be aware

First and foremost, we don’t dig into anything before verifying that the area is clear of all potential hazards. Reasons for this are all too abundant. 

Unlike in suburban environments, where public utility poles appear above ground, utilities in densely populated Manhattan run underground. Workers are operating heavy machinery in cramped spaces, often working around sensitive electrical and heating infrastructure.

Alongside New York’s critical underground infrastructure is another set of pipes, valves and wires that are abandoned and unmarked by past generations. And as the ground shifts over time, that equipment may not be in the same places where they left it.

Our teams are constantly running into long-forgotten electrical and gas systems that must be safely relocated before digging further. The consequences of not doing so could be disastrous.

Twenty-five years ago, New Yorkers experienced the infamous Gramercy Park steam pipe explosion. One of Manhattan’s 109 miles of main steam lines was damaged on a construction site, spewing asbestos over a six-block radius. The accident killed three people in a residential building, injured 24 and displaced 200 more for months.

The long-term effects of this kind of disaster remain top of mind for construction safety teams in the city and diligence is key to avoiding a similar scenario in the future.

Digging underground also comes with a flooding risk as the water table underneath New York City is uneven and can appear unexpectedly. Accidentally drilling into the water table, something that has happened many times, causes a host of problems including flooding and subway closures.

Slow down

All of this means that workers must refrain from just charging ahead with the job at hand. Too often the prevailing mentality overvalues speed and efficiency — time is money and delays are costly, after all — but every construction team must do its due diligence before starting any job.

Despite the instinct to rush as tight timelines loom, workers must take the time to drill pilot holes during the exploratory phase and be sure to call 811 before a shovel hits the ground. The national digging hotline provides information about any hidden utilities that might be in your targeted area.

Communication is another vital part of the safety equation. If a worker finds an abandoned line or any other unanticipated obstacle — something that happens all the time — they should inform their supervisor immediately so that it can be deemed abandoned or active.

New York City public transit is making real progress on the accessibility front. Moving forward, let’s make sure that progress doesn’t come at the expense of safety.

This story has been updated with the correct city where Forte Construction is based.

Dive Brief:

• Elon Musk’s tunneling company and a Vegas iron reinforcing contractor are among the 2024 “Dirty Dozen” employers called out last week by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health for allegedly being unsafe and reckless.
• National COSH selected SpaceX and The Boring Co., both owned by Musk, for one slot, citing workers who suffered crushed limbs, amputations, chemical burns and a preventable death. In addition, Black Iron Reinforcing, owned by XL Concrete, earned a spot for a worker death from electrocution, a partial finger amputation, 29 OSHA violations in a decade and allegedly denying election results after workers voted to join a union.
• The organization releases the Dirty Dozen as part of observance of Workers’ Memorial Week, April 21 through April 28. The list is selected by the National COSH team using nominations from local COSH groups, worker centers, unions and nationwide advocates. 

Dive Insight:

Somerville, Massachusetts-based National COSH is a worker safety advocacy group, made up of 26 labor organizations. The council sometimes cites several years of a company’s history, which it annotates in its report, to justify each selection in its Dirty Dozen list.

For example, XL Concrete, based in Las Vegas, settled an OSHA citation for a $3,500 payment in November 2019 for a worker who was electrocuted and killed in March 2019. In September 2022, a majority of workers voted to join a labor union, but its subsidiary Black Iron Reinforcing, also based in Las Vegas, allegedly delayed the recognition process.

Finally, in testimony secured by National COSH, Victor Lopez, the International Iron Workers union representative, claimed a worker lost his finger on the job in September 2023 and Black Iron Reinforcing hid it, alleging that was a cycle of behavior for the company.

Black Iron Reinforcing declined to comment on the report and XL Concrete did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report uncovered that Musk’s rocket company SpaceX had hundreds of unreported injuries, and National COSH alleged the billionaire values speed over worker safety and health. At the same time, The Boring Co., Musk’s tunneling firm, faces $112,504 in citations across eight fines from OSHA, which it is contesting. 

The Boring Co. and SpaceX did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.

In addition to highlighting alleged bad actors, National COSH’s report highlighted other nationwide ills for the workforce, such as how increasing temperatures take their toll on employees.

Other companies selected in the Dirty Dozen for 2024 were:

• The Alabama Department of Corrections.
• Ascension, a St. Louis, Missouri-based healthcare firm.
• Costa Farms, a Miami-based plant farming company.
• Florence Hardwoods, a Florence, Wisconsin, sawmill.
• Mar-Jac Poultry, a Jasper, Alabama, poultry processor, and Onin Staffing, a Birmingham, Alabama, temp agency.
• Tyson Foods, the Springdale, Arkansas-based food company.
• Uber and Lyft, the San Francisco-based ride share companies.
• Valor Security and Investigations, based in New York City.
• Waffle House, the Norcross, Georgia-headquartered restaurant chain.
• Walmart, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — OSHA’s chief called on builders to recommit to a culture of safety at a national stand-down to prevent falls in construction Wednesday on the National Mall as part of 2024 Construction Safety Week. 

“This is a responsibility of everyone to take a values-driven approach to health and safety and embed it in the culture of their work, from the top of the organization to the bottom,” Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker told Construction Dive during the event. 

In 2022, about 38% of construction deaths were due to falls, slips and trips, and construction accounted for close to half of all fatal falls, slips and trips among all industries that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Parker put the context of the event with Mother’s Day this weekend, saying he had just been in a meeting in a room full of families of workers who had been killed on the job. He implored those present — workers and leaders from companies such as Gilbane, Turner and Balfour Beatty — to think about their families and loved ones as additional motivation to maintain a safe workplace.

“OSHA can’t change the culture around fall protection and fall hazards just by writing citations," he told the group.

Parker told Construction Dive that the agency only has a limited pool of inspectors, but employers still have a moral and legal obligation to protect workers, he said. To help companies with that obligation, Parker said, OSHA tries to help through outreach programs, small business consultation and hazard-specific events such as the stand-down.

Following the speech and a raffle where workers won new gear, the attendees viewed a fall prevention demonstration.

Part of the goal of Construction Safety Week is to remind workers to speak up about hazards. Parker said employers should not just ask workers to speak up, but communicate it as an expectation.

“Because if you don't set the culture, people aren't going to speak up because you know what? If you're an employer, your intentions are irrelevant. Your motivations are irrelevant. It's what that employee thinks about what's going to happen if they speak up. That's important,” he said.