Grading and Excavation Contractor | The Importance of Safety Training

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	Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/lisafx

How contractors create training programs

By Daniel C. Brown

Last February 24 was a special day at J. Fletcher Creamer & Son Inc., a large construction contractor based in Hackensack, NJ. It was a Saturday, and Creamer’s owners hosted 435 managers and employees, including more than 100 employees from affiliated firms, at the company’s annual safety meeting. Creamer grosses more than $200 million annually and works in 12 states.

“If you’re working for us, you’ll get the annual safety training,” says Lucky Abernathy, Creamer’s safety director. “If a need is identified, we’ll train to it.”

At the meeting, Creamer offered training sessions in trenching and shoring, marking utilities, traffic-control awareness, small-tools safety, first aid/CPR, and accident reporting. Some classes were offered in both English and Portuguese to serve an East Coast–worker population. “Our training was attended by the owners from the Creamer family, top managers, project managers, area managers, and everyone in the chain of command,” says Abernathy.

The company’s safety record speaks for itself. Over the past four years, Creamer has undergone more than 39 OSHA inspections—without one citation. Company job sites were inspected last year in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and California.

Across the country, the safest (and usually the best) excavating contractors understand the value of training for minimizing accidents, if not eliminating them. For one thing, OSHA requires competent persons to know the hazards of an excavating project, inspect them daily, and have the authority to correct them. And competent persons must be trained.

Photo: Sukut Construction

At the Irvine Spectrum Channel Improvements, orange caps on the rebar protect the workers.

Safety—and Production
The top contractors will tell you that safety and productivity can go hand in hand. “If your work is planned correctly and with safety in mind, you’ll be more efficient,” says Chuck Girten, regional construction operations manager for Ames Construction Inc., a Burnsville, MN, contractor.
Safety training is offered from a variety of sources, including:

OSHA—OSHA offers train-the-trainer courses in Occupational Safety and Health Standards for the Construction Industry (see www.osha.gov). Over the past three years, more than 1.1 million students have received training through OSHA’s Outreach Training Program.
Labor unions—In Minnesota, for example, carpenters, laborers, and operators all must complete the OSHA 10-hour training course, which includes trench safety.
Equipment vendors—Trench-protection-equipment vendors in Colorado and elsewhere offer competent-person training.

The vast majority of contractors offer some safety training, even if it consists only of tool box talks from the back of a pickup. Many also have extensive safety incentive programs and take pride in their safety awards.

Scenario-Based Training
More and more, contractors are recognizing the value of scenario-based training. We’re talking hands-on training, using actual tools, equipment, and work sites. Experienced workers get to show off their knowledge in demonstrations to the trainees, who in turn participate in their own training.

Photo: Conti Group

A slide-rail system with plates shored up this excavation for a new water main in Secaucus, NJ.

“Hands-on training is by far the most effective form of training,” says Rick McCourt, safety and compliance director at Sukut Construction Inc. in Santa Ana, CA. Since McCourt took his post three years ago at Sukut, a large grading contractor, his training and incentive programs have helped reduce injuries by 50%. “We’ve had a consistent downward trend in accident frequency and severity,” says McCourt.

“We’ve been doing scenario-based training for eight years,” says Creamer’s Abernathy. “We involve the trainees in the training. We’ll have four guys rig the trench box, and then we show guys how to signal the excavator operator. Or we’ll have a crew put wooden shoring together and shore an excavation.

“We try to break it down into smaller groups,” he adds. “That way the employees who don’t get a chance to participate get to watch their peers work.” Creamer uses scenario-based training for trenching and shoring, traffic controls, defensive driving, confined-space training, fall protection, and small-tool safety.

At Sukut, McCourt says it’s important for contractors to know that mass grading is really an excavation activity. Mass grading should receive the same respect—with regard to hazards and safety—that is accorded to trenching. “That’s a point a lot of people miss,” says McCourt.

Sukut recently held a three-station safety-training course. In a trailer, a trainer used actual slings and wire rope to teach proper rigging methods—how to rig a pipe, what worn-out rigging looks like, and so forth. Outside, McCourt offered training in abrasive sandblasting. His session included the necessary precautions and communications for sandblasting near another construction crew.

The third teacher provided forklift training. Federal OSHA and California OSHA both have a certification requirement for forklift operators. Employees must demonstrate proficiency in such tasks as reading a load chart, lifting the load, and carrying it safely. “If you’re lifting a load and something goes south, people can get hurt,” says McCourt.

Function-Focused
Thanks to McCourt’s efforts, Sukut pushed up the frequency of its safety meetings from twice yearly to quarterly. Attendance is required; everyone from foremen on up must attend. The company separates the safety meetings by functional topics. The equipment mechanics and employees have their meeting, the environmental division has a meeting for landfill and remediation topics, the public works division has a meeting, and so forth. That way, meetings can focus on safety topics relevant to each professional specialty.

McCourt asked each of the groups to list their 10 most hazardous activities. Each group presented a top-10 list—and arrived at safe ways to mitigate the hazards. Naturally, productivity is also important. “We see that balance between safety and productivity as very important,” says McCourt. “If we can do something safely, we’re probably going to do it productively.”

Photo: Sukut Construction

Crews correctly rigged this section of 12-foot-diameter pipe for the 140-ton excavator to lift and place.

Sukut’s groups also review their accidents. “We take the lessons learned and communicate within the company what we’ve learned so that everybody benefits from that knowledge,” explains McCourt.
Smaller groups facilitate better communication and foster a learning atmosphere. “In smaller groups we get more participation,” says McCourt. “People are more willing to speak up and ask questions in smaller groups.”

At Ames Construction, each new hire receives a four-hour orientation and safety training session—and trenching workers get an additional four hours of specialized training. Supervisors get still two more hours.

“We spend a good deal of time training employees to recognize soil types because that dictates the kind of sloping or trench protection needed,” says Roger McBride, Ames’s vice president of safety and risk management. Most of Ames’s work is open cut and requires only sloping or benching. The company uses trench boxes for about 20% of its projects.

Soils are classified as Type A, B, or C, with A being the most stable and C being the least cohesive. Soil type is determined by various methods, including a pocket penetrometer, a thumb test, or rolling it into a pencil-shaped piece. Type A soil has an unconfined compressive strength of 1.5 tons per square foot, and OSHA permits you to slope it at 0.75 foot horizontal to 1.0 foot vertical. Type B soil ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 tons per square foot and can be sloped at 1.0 to 1.0. Type C soil is the weakest, and must be sloped at 1.5 to 1.0.

Type A soil—neither undisturbed nor subject to traffic vibrations—is difficult to find, unless it’s caliche or rock. “In New Jersey, we have a common joke that there is no Type A. Everything has been disturbed or affected by traffic vibrations,” says Kelly Herlihy, health and safety officer for The Conti Group, a large contractor based in South Plainfield, NJ.

Time spent in safety training is time gained in the long run.

At Conti, foremen are required to review a Task Safety Awareness (TSA) sheet. Every day, every foreman goes over the TSA with his crew. This one-page form contains safety checklists in 14 areas, including excavations, fall protection, electrical hazards, confined-space entry, heavy equipment, rigging/lifting, and more. Each crew member signs off that he or she understands the hazards and has the chance to ask questions.

What’s more, foremen do a daily trench inspection and entry authorization form—commonly known as an excavation permit. “It’s more specific to excavations,” says Herlihy. That form—which must be signed daily by the competent person—covers soil type, protection method used, hazardous conditions present such as standing or seeping water, placement of spoils and equipment, ladder location, and more. Both the TSA and the permit must be turned in to Conti’s safety department each day.

At Conti, superintendents and general foremen receive an OSHA 30-hour course covering excavations, competent-person training, and utility mark-out procedures. Regular foremen receive an OSHA 10-hour course covering excavations, competent-person training, and utility mark-out procedures. Site employees receive a site-specific safety-training orientation based on the hazards noted in the site specific safety plan (SSSP), which is written by company officials for each project. The SSSP details such items as contaminants present, excavation procedures, and soil type present.

Safety training doesn’t cost; it pays dividends. Studies have shown that the safest contractors are also the most prosperous. Through training, employees can move up in the company. Morale is improved because employees and managers alike realize that top management cares about safety. Insurance costs are lower. Most importantly, training reduces employees’ risks to life and limb—significantly.

Safety shoring doesn’t have to be ugly.

“These are the good old days,” says Tom Decker, a vice president at CH2M Hill, one of the nation’s preeminent environmental engineering firms. Decker estimates that the nation’s water- and wastewater-infrastructure business now reaches about $100 billion—and it’s climbing. That figure includes design, construction, equipment, and local public works revenues.

Last year, construction put in place grew at about 15%, Decker estimates. That’s a weighted average of a 17.5% increase in wastewater construction and a 9% jump in water-related construction. Sharply higher material costs are included in those increases, so the value of real construction added would be somewhat less.

What about this year? “I think we’re going to be in the 10% to 15% growth range—probably toward the lower double digits,” says Decker. “We’re seeing some of the air come out of the material price increases. Our firm is every bit as busy right now as we were a year ago.”

Photo: Sukut Construction

Vertical walls line this box channel; note the scaffold walkway and guardrails.

Photo: Sukut Construction

Reinforced with soldier piles, a storm-drain pipe is bridged and suspended.

Pent-up demand explains much of the growth. Decker says the American Water Works Association, the water system managers’ group, is now using the term “failing” to describe the US water infrastructure. “Our infrastructure needs to continue to get ahead of the speed with which we can keep pace,” says Decker.

The government has stepped up its pace of enforcement of combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows, which builds demand in those areas. “Over the past two years, we’ve seen a marked increase in the consent judgments being handed down against communities,” says Decker.
Funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund had been steadily declining, to about $688 million in fiscal 2007. But the House recently proposed to fund it at $1.1 billion, a substantial increase.

On the water-supply side, long-term capital-facilities growth will be created by two new federal acts: the Long Term Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule and the Disinfection/Disinfection By-Products Rule. “Water systems are required to do studies now, and toward the end of the decade, facilities will need to be built,” says Decker. For the near-term, Congress will probably fund the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund at about the same level in fiscal 2008 as it did in 2007. One possible storm cloud on the infrastructure horizon is that major pension obligations are beginning to kick in for states and cities. By 2010, state and local governments will be paying $170 billion for pensions—44% more than they’re paying now. They’ll need to increase taxes and fees, reduce services, or let infrastructure continue to deteriorate, says Decker.

On the plus side, the US population is growing, especially in California and the Sunbelt. And in the Northeast, suburban sprawl is creating the need for new infrastructure. What’s more, water and wastewater utilities are increasing their rates more sharply than they were in the past. “They see the need,” says Decker. “They have recently done a better job of communicating to their rate payers that new infrastructure is necessary.”

Daniel C. Brown is the owner of TechniComm in Illinois.

GEC - September/October 2007

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