Safety and Health a Priority for Clark Construction in the Building of the Washington Nationals' New Ballpark
Partnership Signing D.C. Ballpark
Clark Construction and OSHA Office of Partnerships and Recognition
Partnership Signing D.C. Ballpark
Clark Construction and OSHA Assistant Secretary, Ed Foulke, Jr.
Background:
To facilitate OSHA's goal of reducing the total Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate by four percent each year, the Region III Baltimore/Washington Area Office and the Clark Construction Group, LLC, agreed to the joint implementation of an OSHA Strategic Partnership (OSP) during the construction of the 611 million dollar D.C. Major League Ballpark project. The open air park is located on a 26-acre plot one mile south of the United States Capitol and will seat about 41,000 people.
The key goals of the OSP are to promote a safety and health culture that encourages construction contractors to improve their overall safety and health performance, to eliminate serious accidents in the construction industry, and to recognize those contractors with exemplary safety and health management systems (SHMS).
Success Impact:
Injury and Illness Rates Decline - Days Away, Restricted and Transfer (DART), Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR)
Since the OSP began in May 2007, injury and illness rates have decreased. The below chart presents the injury and illness data collected during the construction of the Washington Nationals Ballpark project.
|
DART |
TCIR |
|
|---|---|---|
| Year 1: 2007 |
0.71 |
2.31 |
| Year 2: 2008 |
0.38 |
1.50 |
| 2-Year Average |
0.55 |
1.91 |
| BLS Industry National Average for Most Recent Year |
2.6 |
5.1 |
As shown above, the OSP's two-year average is significantly less than the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) national average for the construction industry when compared to the most recent year available.
Enhanced Safety and Health Culture through Increased Training Efforts
Over the course of the OSP, over 3,200 supervisors and 1,200 employees were trained for a total of over 10,000 hours. The training focused on specific topics such as aerial lift platforms, fall protection, confined space, hoisting, flag traffic control, hand protection, safety orientation, respiratory protection, power actuated tools, suspension scaffolds, superintendents briefings, OSHA 10-hour courses, and weekly Tool Box meetings. It is also important to note that 693 self-evaluations were performed and 3,958 hazards and/or violations were identified and corrected/abated.
Partnership Objectives:
The Partnership was formed to develop, implement and maintain effective and comprehensive safety and health management systems and to keep the DART rate at the Ballpark project below BLS' national average. To accomplish these goals, OSHA and Clark Construction Group, LLC worked together to continuously monitor, identify, and correct the primary causal factors in injuries, illnesses, and near misses.