Safety and Health Built into Pennsylvania Community Project
Some construction projects are just that: projects. They are tasks that need to be done. Perhaps the community involved knows—or cares—about the reason for the project. Perhaps they don’t. It’s a project to be done.
That is not the case with the Bayfront Parkway Central Corridor Improvement Construction Project in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a project designed to bring people together and keep people safe.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, “the purpose of the project is to improve the pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and passenger vehicle connections between the Erie Central Business District and adjacent neighborhoods to the waterfront property….to reduce crashes on the parkway as much as practical…”
That purpose—to improve the lives of people—makes the partnership agreement between the contractor overseeing the work and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Erie Area Office even more significant.
Brayman Construction & Trumbull Corporation, also called BTJV, signed the agreement with OSHA on January 4. The partnership, projected to be five years long, will reduce injuries by helping everyone on the jobsite look for and identify hazards. An OSHA compliance assistance specialist in the Erie Area Office will visit the site every quarter and help the contractor meet their safety goals.
“This really is a partnership in every sense of the word,” said Mark Harmon, OSHA compliance assistance specialist. “OSHA does much more than inspect to cite companies and levy penalties. We want to help employers be compliant and even go beyond compliance.”
This partnership also involves all subcontractors that will be working on the jobsite. The agreement document signed by the partners states, “Our partnership aims to encourage joint collaboration between OSHA, BTJV, and subcontractors aligning with OSHA’s to foster a safe work environment for all project employees,” Harmon added.
“A workplace is not safe unless all workers in it are equally safe. Safety and health must be enterprise-wide,” said Brendan Claybaugh, OSHA Erie area director.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 1,056 fatalities among construction and extraction workers in 2022 – an 11 percent increase from 2021. These occupations had the second highest number of fatal injuries that year. To counter these numbers, this partnership is specifically designed to protect workers from the hazards that lead to most fatalities in construction: falls, electrocution, caught-in or-between, and struck-by incidents. The agreement also states that Brayman-Trumbull will hold annual events and train workers on preventing suicides and deaths from opioid use. This is particularly important because the number of workplace suicides increased by more than 13 percent in 2022 over 2021.
“The construction industry leads the nation’s highest occupational suicide rates. In fact, the suicide rate is nearly four times higher for construction workers than the general population,” said Doug Parker, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.
“Those numbers are a sobering reminder why we all need to work together to protect workers’ mental health,” Parker added.
The primary objective of this agreement—and all partnerships with OSHA—is to prevent injuries and fatalities in workplaces. The number of fatalities in the construction industry shows the importance of strategic partnerships. Based on the BLS report, almost three construction workers died on the job every day in 2022, on average. Strategic partnerships are one of the resources available to help change those numbers for the better.
“These partnerships are special. OSHA only chooses to partner with companies that have advanced safety and health programs and cultures,” said Claybaugh. “These attributes also reach to the subcontractors on the job.”
“On April 28, we recognized Workers Memorial Day, as we do every year to remember and honor all workers who have died on the job and recognize the impact on the families they left behind. The real work, though, is doing more to protect workers today and in the future,” said Harmon. “Our vision at OSHA is to see safety and health established as a core value in every workplace in America. This partnership is a major step in seeing that vision become reality and perfectly aligns with what this project is about for our community.”
Visit www.osha.gov/partnerships to learn more about the OSHA Strategic Partnership program and visit www.osha.gov/workers-memorial to learn more about the impact of workplace fatalities and Workers Memorial Day.
