Safety Initiative

Largest Construction Managers Pledge to Develop Joint Standards

Six of New York City's largest construction managers and contractors have thrown their weight behind an effort to establish true industry-wide safety standards.

by Tom Stabile

Six of the city's leading construction companies are developing safety guidelines for project sites that they hope will eventually become a voluntary industry-wide standard in New York City.

Executives from Bovis Lend Lease, Plaza Construction, Skanska USA Building, StructureTone, Tishman Construction, and Turner Construction - all based in New York except for Skanska, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J. - unveiled the initiative in November at a safety conference in Manhattan sponsored by the Building Trades Employers' Association, a contractor organization. The self-imposed "Build Safe NYC" guidelines would aim to reduce accidents and fatalities at construction sites in the city.

advertisement

The initiative comes at a time when the city witnessed a spike in construction accidents. According to data presented at the conference by Patricia Lancaster, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, there was a 22 percent increase in reported construction accidents through Oct. 31 of last year over the same time period a year earlier. She added that just a few days last April contributed much of the difference - a rainy and windy weekend during which 19 accidents took place.

A similar statistical trend appeared in data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallied 24 fatal accidents in the construction sector for all of 2003 in New York City but listed a rise to 28 fatalities in the sector for 2004. The sector includes most heavy and specialty construction trades, with the highest fatality level for 2004 in the foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors category with 12 deaths, up from 8 in 2003.

The six companies distributed a draft to the BTEA conference outlining 10 areas of focus for the safety initiative [see Building Safe box]. According to a BTEA press release, the companies intend to have their CEOs sign a memorandum of understanding that would pledge their cooperation in the effort. They will also solicit input from other companies this year.

During a panel at the BTEA event, some of the plan's authors discussed areas of focus for the guidelines, such as ensuring that all workers have hard hats, proper footwear and eye protection, hearing and respiratory protection, and 100 percent fall protection.

"There have been no citywide or industry-wide safety guidelines even for these basics, and the memorandum is designed to do that," said Michael Handler, director of safety and health for Turner, as a speaker on the panel. He was one of three safety directors who helped to launch the joint effort [see Industry Consensus feature].

One of the biggest changes under the plan as envisioned would be a group audit aspect through which safety officials from various companies would create a team to visit and monitor individual project sites, Handler said.

"We're fierce competitors," he added. "But when it comes to safety, we're sharing information."

Other new initiatives would include a standard safety orientation for all workers at projects overseen by Build Safe participating firms, as well as a standard process for those firms to also establish site-specific health and safety plans. The plan also calls for extensive partnering with local unions on safety training.

Ideally, the partnership outlined in the plan would create a leadership core on safety issues that has been missing in the industry, said James Conway, training director for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 14, who was another speaker on the panel. He said that down the line, the group in charge of developing the guidelines could become a sounding board that lets individuals at all levels of the industry - from executives to project crews - speak up on safety issues.

Hopefully, if the initiative helps to reduce accidents, it could serve as a guarantor of continued success, Conway added.

"We could get to the point where we're asking, 'What are the reasons we're not having any accidents?'" he said.