We are Stronger and Safer Together – National Safety Week

This week is National Safety Week. Which means construction contractors across the country emphasize one of the most important factors of the job -- SAFETY. Right here in Sunol Valley, we have over 150 workers working on projects such as building the replacement Calaveras Dam.

At the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, crews have worked over 140,000 safe working hours since the beginning of the year, without any recordable safety incidents.  A recordable safety incident is when a worker requires medical treatment beyond first aid and there is a loss time on the job. Our last recordable incident was in October 2014. This is well below the industry average.

Why is this record special? Because our construction crews at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project work multiple shifts – both day and night – working with huge machinery, excavating earth and rock, on a very complicated job site in challenging conditions. As we continue work to complete the project, we applaud the joint venture of Dragados USA, Flatiron Construction, and Sukut Construction for making safety a priority here at Calaveras Dam during National Safety Week.

Check out our time lapse capturing excavation work since the beginning of the project:

Before sunrise, the Calaveras Dam crews get together for their daily morning safety tailgate 

It’s National Safety Week!

Every year, more than 80,000 workers suffer an injury on construction job sites across the U.S.  Any one incident is one too many. Life is too precious to not make safety the number one focus in the U.S. construction industry. This week from May 3^rd through May 9^th, construction firms nationwide have joined forces to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

Here at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, the project team had a lot to celebrate. Over 150,000 work hours have been reached with zero safety recordable incidents since October 2014. Given the size of the machinery we are using on the site, the complexity of the work, and the sheer number of activities on site each day, this is truly remarkable. Safety is important to our teams as we build the replacement Calaveras Dam. Every morning this week, the teams had a special safety topic to remind workers the importance of construction safety. The workers got together for a celebratory barbecue to pat ourselves on the back for being vigilant, reminding us to take care of ourselves and each other as we continue with construction.

We are proud of our team and they are on to their next goal to reach another safety milestone!

Calaveras Dam workers listen to the safety milestones reached at the project
at a celebratory lunch provided by the contractor

 

Dragados/Flatiron/Sukut Construction Manager Mike Mullich
congratulates heavy equipment Operator Gary Gatehouse on our safety milestone

 

We are halfway there!

The Calaveras Dam Replacement Project team reached an important milestone for the project this week. Crews have excavated more than 5.4 million cubic yards of earth and rock material at the project site. This material would fill approximately 1,656 Olympic-sized swimming pools. A total of 10 million cubic yards of material is required to be moved for the entire project--- 6.5 million cubic yards to be excavated and 3.5 million cubic yards which will go into the construction of the new dam.  In addition, 10,000 cubic yards of concrete to date has been poured and placed in the new intake tower and the new spillway structure. Much work still lies ahead, but definitely something to celebrate for our hard working crews from Dragados USA /Flatiron/Sukut Construction Joint Venture.

Crews gather to celebrate reaching over 5 million cubic yards of earthen materials excavated

Concete work at the new spillway underway