Lab Celebrates Two Years of Safe Construction Work

Berkeley Lab will celebrate two years of almost injury-free construction work tomorrow at a Facilities Division-hosted event from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Perseverance Hall.

The celebration marks a milestone achieved earlier this month, when the Lab completed 24 months of construction work, including more than 335,000 work hours (the equivalent of 80 full-time employees), with only one recordable injury. This significant accomplishment is far better than the national average. While the national construction industry's safety record has improved over the past decade, the average Total Recordable Case Rate (TRC) for all U.S. construction work for 2005 was 6.1, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Berkeley Lab’s TRC for the previous 24 months was one.

“This achievement is based on the collective effort of everyone involved,” says Richard Stanton, chief project manager of the Facilities Division’s Planning, Design, and Construction Department. “We have put a lot of effort and energy into making sure that construction projects are conducted safely.”

Stanton also underscores the fact that the two-year run of construction work with only one injury wouldn’t be possible without contributions from many different groups. The Lab’s construction projects are a partnership between the Facilities Division, customers in research and operations, the EH&S Division, the Procurement and Property Management Department, and the Lab’s construction subcontractors. Together, these groups undertake construction projects that meet their customers’ needs, and they deliver this work on-time, within budget and schedule, and most importantly, safely.

Jean Myers, a construction safety engineer in the EH&S Division who reviews all construction maintenance contracts to ensure that contractors adhere to applicable safety regulations before they commence work, adds, “Building strong relationships with the contractors is a big part of our safety success. We make sure they know before they start working at the Lab that safety is a paramount concern of ours.”