Earlier, ENR Southeast announced this year's Best Projects award winners, which you can find here. This year's judges recognized nearly 40 projects from across the Southeast for outstanding construction and design. And while all of these Best Projects winners achieved this recognition for varying reasons, they all have one thing in common: an emphasis, to one degree or another, on safety.
We can say that because all of ENR's Regional Best Projects contests have a bottom-line requirement that a project that experienced fatalities is ineligible for consideration. Additionally, each entry much explain its safety record and related safety program, thus giving our judges another important critieria by which they can narrow the field and make their final determination regarding our contest's winners.
Because of its importance, safety is the only criteria that we single out for its own special award, which we started presenting in 2012.
For this year's Excellence in Safety judging, ENR Southeast enlisted the help of a trio of South Florida safety experts: George Guffey, safety director with John Moriarty & Associates Florida, Hollywood; David Lockhart, director of loss control with Poole & Kent Co. of Florida, Miami; David Wessin, vice president for safety and loss control with Coastal Construction, Miami.
This year, the judges decided to recognize two projects. Receiving the top Excellence in Safety Award this year is the Pinellas County Public Safety Facilities and Centralized Communications Center, in Clearwater, Fla., submitted by Lend Lease (US) Construction. That project, which also won an Award of Merit in the Government and Public Building category, impressed the judges with its safety culture, and its results.
Also earning recognition with an Award of Merit was the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Site Preparation and NAVAIDS Infrastructure project, which was submitted by the Odebrecht-Central joint venture.
Of course, more details about these two projects, and all of the other winners, in ENR Southeast's upcoming Nov. 9 print edition. Then, on Nov. 10, ENR Southeast will celebrate with its 15th annual Best Projects awards event, to be held at the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World.
