Top winners in construction safety announced
Richmond, B.C., October 15, 2009 —Stuart Olson Constructors Inc. and Ledcor Construction Ltd. received WorkSafeBC-sponsored Construction Workplace Health and Safety Innovation Awards at the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) Annual Awards of Excellence dinner.
“WorkSafeBC is proud to play a supporting role in helping to create and sponsor the workplace safety innovation category of these awards that are judged by the construction industry to have had a positive effect on the health and safety of workers directly at the site level,” said Vincent Russell, WorkSafeBC’s director of Industry and Labour Services, who presented the winning companies with their awards.
The gold safety innovation award was presented to Stuart Olson Constructors Inc. for its Heavy Duty Roller System that helps to prevent back injuries to workers moving materials from a water filtration system. A filtration system is put on site when impurities and sediment must be removed from discharge water so that a nearby creek won’t be contaminated. When sediment is removed, it drops down from the system into a hopper underneath that can weigh about 500 lbs when full. In order to empty the hopper, it must be moved from underneath the sediment separation unit where it can then be hoisted by a tower crane before disposed.
Recognizing the risk for worker back injury, the company developed a system that allowed the hopper to roll rather than being pulled. A roller system was assembled out of site materials and put in place underneath, helping to break the friction when moving for hoisting and cleaning.
The company won top honours for recognizing a potential source of injury prior to any occurring, taking proactive steps to address the situation, and for using the existing site and materials to solve the issue, one of the driving principles behind the award.
Ledcor Construction Ltd. of Vancouver won the silver safety innovation award for their program Safe Neighbours: A Ledcor Guide to Protecting the Public, a guideline of construction practices that focuses specifically on eliminating danger and reducing risk of injury to the public. The guide identifies who might be at risk from construction site work and provides a guideline for how to manage hazards and reduce risk. It recognizes that those at risk may be challenged with cognitive, vision, hearing, and/or physical impairments and was developed with input from department heads of the Program for Visually Impaired and Program for Hard of Hearing at Vancouver Community College. As well, input from field staff, review of regulatory requirements and key industry guidelines were incorporated in preparing the guide.
Safe Neighbours was prepared initially to address issues around the use of modular fencing and as it began to be used it was recognized that there was significantly more that could be done to manage and target specific hazards and risks in construction.
The VRCA Awards of Excellence recognize individuals and companies for their accomplishments and contributions to construction with awards given in categories such as general, electrical, and trade construction as well as in workplace safety innovation.
WorkSafeBC is an independent provincial statutory agency governed by a Board of Directors that serves about two million workers and more than 200,000 employers. WorkSafeBC was born from the historic compromise between B.C.'s workers and employers in 1917 where workers gave up the right to sue their employers and fellow workers for injuries on the job in return for a no-fault insurance program fully paid for by employers. The organization is committed to safe and healthy workplaces and to providing return-to-work rehabilitation and legislated compensation benefits.
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| Don Schouten |
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