Garney Construction, a Kansas City, Missouri-based construction company specializing in water and wastewater construction, is preparing for another hot summer of work around the U.S., including in the humid southeast, dry desert, and sunny Midwestern cities. This year, the company’s safety programs for preventing heat stress, which can lead to injuries and fatalities on the job, will be different and better than the year before. That’s because, during the summer of 2020, Garney trialed a new continuous monitoring smart PPE system, comprised of sensors worn on the arm of its workers and technology that collects data to signal when the worker may be headed for trouble while working in the heat.
The smart system, manufactured by Kenzen, was tested in 10 locations across the country in 2020 and its data was analyzed and used to make enhancements to on-site safety programs for keeping people safe and productive.