Construction seems to have been safer in 2009, but federal officials are still concerned about getting the truth from employers about injuries. Related Links: The Prize Predicament: Incentives and Jobsite Safety Fatalities Down, But Rate Stays Flat An indicator of construction jobsite safety showed improvement last year, as the number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses—and the rate per 100 workers—declined in 2009, the Labor Dept. has reported. In its latest annual workplace safety report, released on Oct. 21, the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said that construction injuries and illnesses on the job were down 22% last year, to 251,000.
On Oct. 13, the National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on the Sept. 9 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., that killed eight people and damaged 55 homes. The report came a day after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced its new natural-gas pipeline safety measures, known as Pipeline 2020. The explosion of a natural-gas pipeline released 47.6 million standard cubic feet of natural gas, creating a crater 72 ft long by 26 ft wide and throwing a 30-in.-dia, 28-ft segment of the pipe 100 ft. Investigators are looking at the sequence of events that led up
Officials in Marion County, Ore., announced they are forming a task force to meet in January that will advise them on a course of action in the wake of myriad structural and construction flaws on the $34-million, 163,000-sq-ft Salem Courthouse Square and its adjacent bus mall. Officials have deemed the five-story, concrete-framed building unsafe, forcing the relocation earlier this year of 300 occupants. A preliminary report by David Evans and Associates says columns inside the structure are not large enough to handle the loads, and that slabs, which contain inadequate post-tensioning, are not thick enough. The report also claims faulty
Three U.S. companies showcased their engineering expertise as the world watched the dramatic rescue of 33 Chilean gold and copper miners trapped nearly a half-mile underground for more than two months. The miners miraculously survived an Aug. 5 shaft collapse at the San Jose mine in the Atacama desert about 500 miles north of Santiago. Photo: Courtesy Of Center Rock, Inc., Berlin, Pa. American operators used U.S.-made rig and drill bits to bore an escape shaft to miners trapped underground since Aug. 5. Layne Christensen Co., a Mission Woods, Kan.-based firm ranked 18th on ENR’s Top 200 Environmental Firms list,
In the wake of this year’s fatal oil platform explosion and resulting Gulf of Mexico spill—not to mention major refinery accident and pipeline leaks in recent years—under a new CEO, U.K.-based BP PLC is revamping its corporate safety culture. The firm announced late last month a new safety-and-risk division, the function of which will be “embedded” in corporate operating units with “sweeping powers” to oversee, audit and intervene in BP technical activities. “The changes are in areas where I believe we most clearly need to act, with safety and risk management our most urgent priority,” said CEO Bob Dudley, who
The natural-gas pipeline explosion that killed at least four people and destroyed 38 homes on Sept. 9 in San Bruno, Calif., has prompted the California Public Utilities Commission to come down hard on the pipeline owner, San Francisco-based PG&E. Photo: AP/Noah Berger Federal investigators are shipping a gas-pipe segment back to Washington, D.C., to study California’s fatal Sept. 9 pipeline blast. In a letter to PG&E President Christopher Johns, the agency directed the utility to take a number of remedial measures: conduct an integrity assessment of all gas facilities near the blast site; perform an “accelerated” leak survey of all
Dena Parsons wants to know why something suddenly hit her husband in the head, killing him and injuring a co-worker at a construction site in Oklahoma City on Aug. 31. Photo: Dena Parsons Mike Parsons liked fishing, shopping and watching movies with his family. He was 42. “Somebody was at fault,” says Parsons, 36, of El Reno, Okla. “Stuff doesn’t just fall off a crane.” While working on a crane’s jib at about 8:30 p.m., an unknown object struck Michael Glenn “Mike” Parsons, 42, a certified crane operator at Rent-A-Crane, Oklahoma City. The co-worker, also an employee of the rental
Three days after a contractors’ trade group requested more time to comply with new federal crane-safety regulations, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration nevertheless plans to begin enforcing the standard on Nov. 8, as scheduled. Photo: OSHA Regulators plan to enforce new crane rules as scheduled on Nov. 8. Related Links: Builders Want To Push Back Crane-Safety Rules “The standard was published on Aug. 9 and goes into effect within 90 days,” writes Diana Petterson, federal OSHA spokeswoman, in an Aug. 31 e-mail to ENR. On Aug. 27, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) sent a letter to OSHA
Associated Builders and Contractors has issued a letter to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration seeking to delay Nov. 8 implementation of landmark crane-safety rules. In the letter, ABC “formally requests that the effective date of the work practice provisions contained in the rule be changed to 90 days from the availability of a reasonable set of compliance resources, rather than 90 days from publication of the final rule.” The letter is signed by Craig Shaffer, president of SafetyWorks Inc., Dillsburg, Pa., and chairman of ABC’s health and safety committee. The trade group, based in Arlington, Va., contends that
Construction workplace deaths continued to decline in 2009, but the fatality rate held even with the previous year’s mark, and industry safety specialists see little sign that conditions are improving on project sites nationwide. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest annual census of fatal occupational injuries, released on Aug. 19, shows construction deaths last year totaled 816, down 16% from 975 in 2008. But with the volume of construction work in a slump, the industry’s fatality rate last year was the same as 2008’s level, at 9.7 per 100,000 full-time workers. BLS reported that construction hours worked fell 17% in
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