The Maine Department of Labor - SafetyWorks! Consultation Program collaborated with the OSHA Augusta Area Office and Bangor District Office to form an Alliance to address construction safety in Maine. The Construction Safety Alliance of Maine (CSAM) was signed in August 2022 and renewed in July 2024. Participants in the Alliance include the SafetyWorks! Consultation Program, OSHA, insurance companies, construction companies from every trade, and private safety consultants.

The first Alliance meeting was held in October of 2022 and had 20 attendees. Today, the Alliance has over 100 members. This group grew quickly, proving that there was a demand for training and networking within the construction safety community. At every monthly meeting at least one to two training sessions are offered with topics including life skills, construction safety, electrical safety, sun skin protection, silica, managing workers’ compensation, incident investigations, and an OSHA update. SafetyWorks! has provided training for CSAM on Consultation services, heat, using virtual reality in training to engage a younger workforce, and fall protection.

Through the CSAM, members have asked for the SafetyWorks! Fall Truck at their worksites during the OSHA Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction. The SafetyWorks! Fall Truck is a one-ton four-wheel drive truck that was outfitted with hydraulics from Maine Department of Transportation that allows consultants to drop a 160-pound weight to show the amount of force that occurs to the body in a workplace fall. Consultants demonstrate diverse types of harnesses, the proper donning of harnesses, and the difference between straight and shock absorbing lanyards with the weight drop. The fall protection truck is fairly compact, which makes set-up on construction sites easier and is also now available year-round for training purposes.

In addition, SafetyWorks! arranged a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101 Life Safety Code training with the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office exclusively for CSAM members. During heat training, SafetyWorks! handed out cooling towels that had written indicators about heat stress and stroke and when to seek medical treatment.

On July 15, 2024, the Construction Safety Alliance of Maine was extended for five years. The Alliance participants look forward to more growth and continued success.

The OSHA On-Site Consultation Program offers no-cost and confidential occupational safety and health services to small and medium-sized businesses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories, with priority given to high hazard worksites. Consultants from state agencies or universities work with employers to identify workplace hazards and how to fix them, provide advice for compliance with OSHA standards, train and educate workers, and assist in establishing and improving safety and health programs. On-Site Consultation services are separate from OSHA enforcement efforts. To locate the OSHA On-Site Consultation program nearest you, call 800-321-OSHA (6742) or visit https://www.osha.gov/consultation.