Hazards in the air and everywhere A tree contractor with ECC removes limbs from a Katrina-damaged tree.  The debris/demolition mission is one of the most hazardous in the construction industry. Photo Courtesy ECC. Back to Features

P&J, ECC nail down remarkable safety records in Corps/FEMA Mission
By Dave Harris, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office

The most buttoned-down safety plan in the world on paper can be made moot by the human element – potential for shortcuts, inattentive lapses, distractions, heat stress, carelessness, susceptibility to illness.

Tackling some of the most dangerous work in the construction industry means facing staggering odds against maintaining a perfect safety record.

Even so, Phillips and Jordan (P&J) and ECC have chalked up a rare achievement in construction safety, not once but twice each, as debris and demolition contractors for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office in response to Federal Emergency Management Agency Hurricane Katrina recovery operations.           

The Corps prime contractors’ achievements came remarkably in the chaotic and hazard-riddled landscape immediately following and subsequent to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.  Those hazards are magnified again by the fact that demolition has one of the highest injury and illness rates in the construction industry.

P&J recorded 4,329,000 man-hours without a lost time injury in its 36,000-plus workforce from September 18, 2005, to January 9, 2006.  They then earned 3,997,500 safe man-hours from January 10, 2006, to November 21, 2006.

ECC nailed no-lost-time-accident marks of 1,419,459 man hours from September 27, 2005, to February 14, 2006, with a workforce of 12,000.  They then earned 1,000,000 safe man-hours from September 6, 2006, to April 19, 2007.

	"What 'Right' Looks Like" Col. Smithers recognizes Steve Thompson (center) and Jason Stouffer with Phillips and Jordan in the top photo and (r to l) Manjiv Vohra, Prashant Khanna, and Chris Rodes in the lower photo.  LA-RFO photos by Spec. Larry Gleeson.

Chris Rhodes, ECC’s safety manager, attributed the safety milestone to pre-Katrina “commitment from line management, from the president down to lowest level, as well as teaming with the Corps during the response to recognize potential problems early, enabling ECC to tackle them ‘small’ level before they become big.”

To illustrate, he used a pyramid showing typical frequencies of workday situations. In essence, for every 600 incidents that result in no work-hour losses, there is the potential for 30 damage incidents, 10 minor injuries and one serious or major injury. Each of those categories makes up a layer in the pyramid, with the 600 no-loss incidents at the base and the one serious injury at the pinnacle.

The key to safety excellence, Rhodes said, is to avoid moving upward on the pyramid by aggressively reporting at the bottom and developing a safety culture that instills constant diligence.

As an example of shaping a safety culture, he said ECC had historically fired sub-contractors who were guilty of infractions. Today the company nurtures the safety culture and grows a trained resource by mentoring the lesser-experienced subs.

The ECC safety culture paid big dividends in an unprecedented mission.

“Unique challenges made this project such a ‘beast,’ including the lack of site control. We normally have small, controlled sites within fence lines.  Here, our site was determined by parish lines and highways.”

Dangerous physical hazards, Rhodes said, included the saltwater-killed trees. “Many were so brittle that, in some cases, you didn’t even have to touch them. The wind would bring them down.”

And like a football team’s game plan, he said that ECC applies administrative controls to minimize potential heat stress crews face by “rotating workers and making sure they have plenty of rest and shade.”

He said that another factor is “employee involvement, not just preaching to the workers about safety, but asking employees what we can do to make this task safe.”

ECC’s corporate standard, Rhodes said, is summed up by the word ZIP - zero incident performance.

P&J leadership acknowledge that their safety culture began in 1956 on a Corps of Engineers project when the company attitude shifted from “accidents happen” to a lessons learned culture that constantly reinforces that accidents have a cause, and that “excuses don’t prevent them.”

Phillips & Jordan’s Steve Thompson, vice president of safety and risk management, said that his corporate leaders are “committed to providing a safe and healthful work environment for its employees, subcontractors, and the general public.”

Project and teamwork goals for Katrina were established ‘from Day 1’ and it was made clear that no accident or incident is acceptable.”

“Employees, contractors, and all project workers are held accountable for their actions. Safety and health is a continuous improvement process to ensure lessons learned are implemented, project changes are considered, and re-evaluation of all work practices is performed regularly,”  Thompson said.

The success of the environmental, safety, and health program for the Katrina response is due to a coordinated effort between P& J and the Corps of Engineers, and their collective quality performance standards established to create a project that is both safe and productive, Thompson said.

“The project environmental, safety, and health plan was implemented and from that plan, all training, orientations, indoctrinations or identifications, and work flow processes were put in place,”

The top-down involvement is echoed by P&J.

“A positive safety culture has been created from upper management down through all project workers. Every worker on the Katrina project has made environmental, safety, and health a priority to them personally to the point where the project success has become a huge source of pride in the work they perform.”

He said the focus is on action up front. Immediate and consistent disciplinary action is critical to ensuring that safety and health is kept at the highest level. One aspect of the program that is very effective is the initial orientation and indoctrination the worker is provided upon beginning work.
           

“This is a great opportunity to clearly explain to the worker what is expected. This includes not only information from the safety and health plan and task training, but it is also an opportunity to explain to the worker the project goals and expectations. The new worker understands clearly upon the first day of work what is expected,”  Thompson said.

A list of what Thompson called key components that have been used to facilitate the program: 

• Clear, timely communications such as morning muster meetings.
• Continuous review of plans and procedures
• Reviews of team response to each incident or near miss
• Safety stand downs - aggressive reactions to incidents and near misses
• Learning from incidents from other prime contractors
• Regular review of subcontractors by management on a “safety first” basis.
• Problem solving and intervention on a daily basis with crews.
• Continuous training both in the field and formal.
• Emphasis programs focusing on areas that need improvement.
• Multi-factor response teams – safety and health personnel providing instant attention in the field directly with crews.

“The important thing to remember is we cannot let our guard down now and must continuously improve upon what we have accomplished,” he emphasized.

Both contractors were recently recognized by the Louisiana Recovery Field Office for their superior efforts and results in recovery operations safety.

“Recognition is about showing others what ‘right’ looks like,” said Recovery Field Office commander Col. Charlie Smithers during an awards program at the Recovery Field Office honoring both companies.  “P&J and ECC are doing it right and others can learn from them.”

“Accidents are not just numbers,” Smithers said.  “Accidents are where our friends and coworkers get hurt.”

Dan Wyatt, Louisiana Recovery Field Office safety manager, emphasized that prime response contractors are doubly challenged by the Katrina environment and by the need to bring on workers who don’t know OSHA.  “They must get the untrained prepared and psyched to complete the mission safely in an environment and culture that is new to them.”

Mike Park, director of the Recovery Field Office and New Orleans native, thanked both contractors professionally and personally. “As a local, I appreciate the accomplishment, the efficiency, and your sensitivity to those of us who have been victims of Katrina.”

ECC’s Rhodes concluded, “It’s all for nothing if anyone gets hurt. Property damage comes out of other parts of our budget. Our ultimate goal is to send every worker home the same way they came to work.”

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