As a result of its efforts, PCL says it sustained "an industry-leading safety record" of over 1.5 million hours of labor; also, it had only four recordable incidents that required modified work or first aid that did not result in lost time.

In another part of the world, Odebrecht, the prime contractor for a building project in the impoverished, crime-ridden Curundu section of Panama City, Panama, also handed construction craft workers some of the responsibility for inspecting for hazards. The contractor also tried to analyze all risk activities ahead of time, starting with field inspections.

Odebrecht also designed and implemented a separate program for spotting and analyzing risky activities. This tactic resulted in a total of 4.4 million man-hours worked, with incident rates of 5.07 for cases of restricted-work activity and 0.46 for cases of non-restricted-work activity.

Odebrecht conducted another unusual, although not unique, safety-related program for the Curundu project. The firm put to work as foremen 17 construction workers who were "former offenders," presumably gang members who had been in trouble with the law.

"These men changed their previously violent lifestyle and worked in close association with the project safety team," according to Odebrecht's Best Project's submission statement. "This arrangement was well respected by rival gang members and greatly helped to prevent and, in many cases, ease tensions."

Gilbane's Lyons says the up-front problems presented by such a complicated project can be overwhelming but, if managed properly, produce long-term gains.

"Consider the potential for theft nightly and the fact that most workers started untrained and unwitting to the dangers of a construction site," he says. "I liked the idea that workers were needed, but [they were] also provided skills. That will affect generations, who can say, 'Hey, son, I built that.' It is a great tool to instill pride in a workforce."

B.L. Harbert International, Birmingham, Ala., employed a related strategy of placing workers— including third-party nationals—with the ability to influence others in key safety roles at the U.S. Embassy Compound at Dakar, Senegal.

Harbert appointed a Zambian with embassy construction experience as a safety-and-health project manager, a French-speaking third-country national as safety foreman and a local Senegalese safety officer as a translator for the English-, French- and Wolof-speaking workforce.