It’s January and the shadows of four towering exhaust stacks slant across the job site that—a year and a half ago—was nothing but a barren lot covered by a layer of light brown dust. Nestled on the banks of the San Joaquin River in Antioch, Calif., the Marsh Landing Generating Station bustles with hundreds of workers who tend to the plant that can reach peak electricity production in less than 20 minutes.
Before the plant was operational, engineers agonized over site sequencing to ensure that electrical duct banks and pipework flowed together with the existing infrastructure—the Contra Costa Power Plant and a sprawling wind farm—and the construction manager agonized over job site safety.
“You’ve never seen a job site in America this clean,” says Chris Derrico, an Ironworkers Local 378 foreman. “There’s nothing on the ground. No tripping, no twisted ankles.”
That’s due, in large part, to the skill and training of the ironworkers and other building trades workers and the culture of safety promoted by Kiewit, the construction firm that can lay claim to more than 1 million injury-free worker-hours on its generating station project.
“Cleanliness, planning and the JHA [job hazard analysis].” These, Derrico says, are the keys to keeping his workers safe on the job. “The important thing is to illustrate a plan that can be safely carried out. Stop, assess, think about what could get you hurt, and then you go and do your task in a way that would be the safest way to do it.”
At least once a week, foremen gather their crews to develop a JHA, by asking workers to list what tools they’ll need and to write out, step by step, the tasks they will perform. It guides workers to identify their most important activities well in advance of actually performing them.
“You need to take personal responsibility,” says Eric Johanson, a Kiewit construction manager. “We have really good general foremen who understand this and who remind their guys that if they need something different than what we’re providing to stay safe, dude, stop what you’re doing.”
Pocket-sized spiral pads for the project called Mitigate and Remove Safety Hazards (MARSH) that ask no-nonsense questions like “What can hurt me today?” and “What am I going to do about it?” under such headings as Crush Points, Access and Housekeeping were passed out to each worker. Running the width of the page are three thick, black lines—space where workers can place their thoughtful answers.
“They’re short and precise,” Johanson says. “They make you take a second to think about how you may get hurt so you can avoid potential hazards.”
Kiewit managers also publish task packages, which “guide any major operations by breaking down the steps of the construction in writing, along with drawings and safety plans,” says Derrico. “Instead of workers having to go into an operation and figure everything out by themselves, most of the critical thinking has been done.”
This translates into impeccable safety records. But worker buy-in is a huge part of the program’s success. “I work with ironworkers on every project, and I’ll be honest with you. They have so much pride in what they do, they have a hard time buying in to new ways of working,” says Robert Stormo, Kiewit’s project safety director at the Marsh Landing project. “But after they realized that we were here to work as a team, and not just giving them lip service, the ironworkers were instrumental in leading this project and making sure we maintained a safe and productive job site.”
“We want to be safe on the job,” Derrico says. “And it really is nice to work for a company that cares about the guys the way Kiewit does. Everything else is second to that.”
Kiewit’s strict attention to safety may cost more up front, but the precautions save money in the long run. “It should be common practice for contractors to give owners two bid numbers,” says Derrico. “The number it would cost without the highest in safety precautions….And a second number factoring in a death or a severe injury.”
Kiewit didn’t have to provide two numbers. Its attention to detail and the professionalism and dedication of its union workforce allowed it to crank out a project with more than 1 million worker-hours.
“Working at a high level…without any recordable injury is hard work,” says Johanson.
