A Colorado company and the framing subcontractor it used to locate a damaged water pipe have both been cited for safety violations, after OSHA inspectors found their workers in a trench that exceeded 11 feet in depth with no cave-in protection.
Myth: Jobs in the construction trades are only for men. Not true: Women work construction, too. While the overall representation of women in the trades is small at 2.5 percent, more than 40,220 women work as construction laborers, more than 19,500 women work as carpenters, and nearly 26,700 women work as painters.
Maryland lawmakers introduced a bill this week that would require companies to meet safety standards as a prequalification for working on public projects in the state. House Bill 951 (with 22 sponsors) and Senate Bill 774 (with 13 sponsors) were introduced by Maryland Delegate Brian McHale (D-46) and Senator Karen Montgomery (D-14).
If you’re in the construction industry and you’re making a New Year’s resolution to improve on-the-job safety in 2014, you might want to check out the Center for Construction Research and Training's (CPWR) new library of 52 toolbox talks on common construction hazards, which provides a short safety lesson for every week of the year.
The fatal June, 2013 collapse of a four-story building in Philadelphia has resulted in OSHA violations against the contractors hired to demolish the building. Griffin Campbell, doing business as Campbell Construction, and Sean Benschop, doing business as S&R Contracting, were cited for three willful per-instance violations, following the incident, which killed six people and injured 14.
A Michigan State University researcher has quantified something rarely measured in studies about productivity in the construction industry: the cost of arguments.
They can engineer out safety problems before project starts
September 3, 2013
A recent survey of construction and safety professionals highlights the need to include safety management in the earliest phases of construction contracts, according to the authors of an article in this month’s Professional Safety, the journal of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).
Women comprise 9 percent of the industry workforce
August 29, 2013
The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and OSHA signed an agreement last week to work together to provide NAWIC members and others with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help them protect the health and safety of workers.
122 workers killed in highway work zones last year
August 28, 2013
June 11, Howard County, Maryland: A highway worker was struck and killed while placing cones on westbound Route 216 at Route 29. He was wearing his reflective shirt at the time of the collision.
Names of fatalities a reminder of the human cost of dangerous driving
August 20, 2013
As it has since 2002, the Illinois State Fair this year hosted a somber reminder of a transportation hazard: a wall memorializing the names of those killed in highway work zones.