Safety in Spotlight: Carolina Construction Firms Raise the Bar
During the first two weeks of May, construction firms in the Carolinas joined their counterparts nationwide in hosting special events to raise awareness about safety in construction. From May 1-May 5, much of the Carolinas construction community observed national Safety Week. The following week, even more companies participated in OSHA’S 4th Annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction.
The North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) partnered with multiple commercial construction firms during the National Fall Prevention Stand-Down. The NCDOL mobile training unit — Labor One — was on site at three events in the Triangle area.
On May 9, Barnhill Contracting Company welcomed Labor One, to the The Dillon Raleigh mixed-use development site in downtown Raleigh. Clancy & Theys Construction Company and Gilbane Building Company, each with projects under construction across the street, were invited to participate. Robert O’Neal, NCDOL safety education specialist, provided training with informational handouts and games. In addition, representatives from Honeywell and Vallen were on site for a simulated drop, which involved a 220-pound mannequin wearing the proper fall protection gear. The next day, DPR Construction and Balfour Beatty hosted NCDOL and Labor One at a jobsite in Research Triangle Park. Later in the week, NCDOL partnered with Choate Construction at a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill jobsite. O’Neal provided focused fall protection training on several industrial project sites.
To raise awareness about fall prevention in residential construction, NCDOL joined Royal Oaks Homes and Builders Mutual for an event in Fuquay-Varina on May 9. A similar event was held the next day in Concord with Niblock Homes and Builders Mutual.
Various other activities took place in the Carolinas throughout the two-week period. Brasfield & Gorrie, for example, chose to engage its professional staff in a challenging physical activity. In a May 10 Facebook post, the company reported: “Brasfield & Gorrie takes rope courses by storm! Our Marketing team and our Raleigh and Charlotte Estimating teams put their safety training to use in two extreme team building events.”
In South Carolina, the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR) and S.C. OSHA encouraged companies throughout the state to submit photos from their respective stand-down activities. These will be showcased on S.C. OSHA’S web page in the near future. In the meantime, you can view social posts by BE&K Building Group, Eldeco, Harper Construction, and many others by searching #StandDown4Safety.
Read more about GroundBreak Carolinas’ recent safety coverage.
