Recently, ENR Southeast announced its annual Best Projects award winners, which included 35 projects from across the region. And one of those previously announced winners has now garnered one of ENR Southeast’s highest honors— the Excellence in Safety Award. Winning this prized award this year was the Naheola Mill Biomass Project in Pennington, Ala., which also took home top honors in the Energy/Industrial category, as previously announced.

Submitted by contractor TIC — The Industrial Co., the project was the unanimous choice of this year’s safety judges, who included: Al Villarreal, director of field excellence with Kaufman Lynn Construction, Delray Beach, Fla., and Bill Walker, vice president of risk management for SPC Mechanical, Wilson, N.C.

TIC’s safety program, as well as the project’s resulting safety statistics, impressed both of this year’s judges. The contractor utilized a Nobody Gets Hurt philosophy, “meaning no incidents and no injuries, no matter how seemingly minor,” according to TIC’s Best Projects contest entry. This included a site-specific safety plan, which identified the project team’s safety expectations. The contractor also implemented a Craft Voice in Safety program, and utilized what it called a Craft Safety Advisor, who acted as a full-time safety representative. According to TIC, the project totaled nearly 1.6 safe work hours without a recordable incident.

ENR Southeast will have more about Naheola Mill Biomass project, along with all of this year’s Best Projects award winners, in its next print edition. Additionally, readers are invited to attend ENR Southeast’s Best Projects “cyber celebration,” scheduled for Nov. 4, 2020.