Honoring Construction Safety Week in the Sunol Valley

With so much heavy construction work underway in the Sunol Valley, it is easy to forget that the men and women in the construction industry perform dangerous work often in difficult conditions to upgrade the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.

It is a good thing that the construction teams working on the two projects in full swing in the Sunol Valley keep safety in mind every single day.  However, this week was a little different. The teams at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project and the Fish Passage Facilities within the Alameda Creek Watershed underwent additional trainings and reminders this week.

Why?

The first week of May is National Construction Safety Week.  Global construction industry leaders, including our contractors, joined together to form industry safety forums and an initiative called ‘Safety Week.’ The mission of Safety week is to raise awareness within the construction industry ensuring “We are Stronger and Safer Together.”

How strong?

Here in the Sunol Valley, the number of recordable workplace incidents is well below the industry average. At our Fish Passage Project, workers have clocked in over 70,000 work hours since April 2016 with zero recordable incidents.  At the Calaveras Dam Project, the largest project in the Water System Improvement Program has worked over 220,000 work hours since July 2016 with zero recordable incidents. 

Working in heat and rain, on large earth-moving equipment or in tight spaces next to a creek, our crews are showing that every week is safety week.

We are proud of our teams out in Sunol Valley! Stay safe out there.

Crews overseeing operations at the future Fish Passage Facilities

Center of photo shows construction crews at Calaveras Dam placing
Clay Core materials in the replacement dam at elevation 567 ft 

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