In 2018, two British Columbia roadside workers died as a result of being hit by a motor vehicle, and 29 others were injured. Between 2009 and 2018, 13 roadside workers were killed and 213 were injured under similar circumstances.
"With overall unemployment now at the lowest level in nearly 50 years, contractors are having an ever harder time finding workers with or without construction experience," said Ken Simonson, AGC's chief economist. "Average pay in construction is more than 10 percent higher than in the private sector as a whole, but job openings in the industry keep climbing."
"Melanie La Rocca's experiences managing complex projects have given her a bird's-eye view of the construction industry, which will be essential to helping her ensure the Department of Buildings continues to guard the safety of every worker on every job site across the city," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Laura Anglin.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a proclamation May 3 declaring May 2019 as Building Safety Month in Michigan, with this year’s observance themed “No Code. No Confidence.”
CPWR has posted many resources on its Stand-Down website, including a five-day plan for getting workers to focus on falls during the week. Among the suggestions the organization makes are to use CPWR-NIOSH infographics, CPRW fatality maps, and NIOSH and state Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation reports to focus workers' attention on identifying fall hazards.
ASSP is encouraging widespread involvement in upcoming workplace safety campaigns that began April 28 with the observance of Workers' Memorial Day. "We often take for granted that our families will be safe and healthy at the end of the work day," ASSP President Rixio Medina, CSP, said. "But that assumption is far from reality, given the many who are lost every day around the world as a result of work-related incidents."
The sixth annual National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down, which takes place May 6-10, will focus on preventing falls in construction, as falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the industry.
It recommends preparing a job hazard analysis with operators for each new job to identify and control hazards and using the manufacturer's safety instructions to establish the risk zone for the specific machine, attachment, and task.
Federal, state, and local agencies across the country are taking part in the week's activities. The kickoff press event is taking place at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge project site in Washington, D.C.
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway's 1.5-mile section between the Atlantic Avenue Interchange and Sands Street is one of the most complex highway structures in the country. Built in 1954, it includes a triple-cantilever structure, of which the Brooklyn Heights promenade is the top tier.
Cal/OSHA was notified in September 2018 that the employees were hospitalized after being diagnosed with Valley Fever, also known as Coccidioidomycosis. Symptoms of the disease are similar to the flu and include fatigue, shortness of breath, and fever. Severe cases can cause serious lung problems.
The OSHA citations against PCL Construction Services, Inc. and Universal Engineering Sciences, Inc. say their use of the bolts and brackets and not the approved shoring towers created a collapse hazard on the seventh floor of a hotel under construction in Orlando last year.
The Manufacturing High Risk Strategy was introduced in 2018. It addresses seven strategic focus areas: machine guarding and lockout, powered tools, hand tools (knives), material handling (falling objects), falls from elevation, falls on the same level, and mobile equipment.
Thomas Kramer, P.E., CSP, is the new chair of the Z359 Fall Protection Committee and John Johnson, CSP, is the new chair of the A10 Safety Requirements for Construction and Demolition Operations Committee. Both will serve three-year terms that can be reaffirmed for longer periods of service by the committees.
Lean principles ensure everyone is on the same page from day one of a project and that each team member maintains a shared understanding of tasks, risks, goals, and procedures throughout construction.
The latest BLS CFOI data showed 747 construction trades workers died in 2017, and that fatal falls were at their highest level in the 26-year history of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
This year's build safe│live safe Conference on Friday, May 10, will be a daylong series of seminars in which department experts discuss industry trends and highlight safe construction operations.
"From API's new headquarters in Washington, D.C. to energy infrastructure projects across the nation, the natural gas and oil industry relies on skilled workers and the building trades unions to keep construction projects - from new buildings to energy infrastructure - safe and on schedule," said API President and CEO Mike Sommers.
The partnership with Dimeo Construction Company seeks to educate workers, control or eliminate serious hazards, and establish effective safety and health programs for the project, which broke ground in June 2018. It is the largest current construction project in Rhode Island.
OSHA is enforcing the requirement that employers must evaluate their operators before allowing them to operate cranes independently, but it will offer compliance assistance rather than enforcement until April 15, for employers who have evaluated operators in accordance with the final rule and are making good-faith efforts to comply with the new documentation requirement.