From the ENR Mountain States Community MOUNTAIN STATES

Owner Collaboration Creates A Strong Safety Culture

Alec Hart

Is the principal supervising professional and environmental, health and safety practice lead with MWH Americas Inc. working on the SDS Program In Colorado Springs.

Contractual constraints can be viewed as limiting an owner's ability to influence safety on construction projects. However, as proven by the $829-million Southern Delivery System (SDS) water delivery program in south- ern Colorado, when owners and managers- like Colorado Springs Utilities and program manager MWH- are clear about safety expectations early on, the result can be an overall collabor- ative success and create a strong safety culture.

Starting with contractor pre- qualification, the owner reviewed annual experience modification rates, incident rates and lost workday rates, in accordance with standard industry practice. But Colorado Springs Utilities also developed a minimum site- specific safety plan as part of the procurement documents. The plan became the standard against which all contractor safety plans were reviewed.

SDS leadership required contractor teams to present their comprehensive safety plans before starting work. Early discussions ensured clear communication about safety expectations and how contractors were planning to communicate at to their sec-

ond- and third-tier subcontrac tors. The SDS leadership team also helped plan safety induction training for all staff and visitors. The SDS leadership team asked Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte to create a three- minute message about his safety expectations. That was recorded and shown at all safety induc- tions or visitor training to the more than 500 staff who worked on the program.

On the SDS Program, Colo- rado Springs Utilities and MWH established proactive and reactive practices about safety messaging. SDS's proactive safety messaging had three elements: quarterly safety summits for all active con- tractors, best safety practices and safety field inspections.

The quarterly safety summits allowed all active contractors and key subcontractors to take turns leading and presenting their safety focus to peers and SDS leadership. At a minimum, these gatherings reinforced the owner's commitment to safe delivery; however, they also allowed teams to share local safety experiences and planning. SDS leadership evolved the quarterly safety sum- mits into monthly safety councils, which provided more focused

dialogue with the owner, MWH and contractor safety managers. Because Colorado Springs Utilities and MWH were already reviewing daily construction progress, shar- ing best safety practices across the program was a simple, proactive step embraced by active contrac- tors. In addition, Colorado Springs Utilities and MWH worked together to conduct collaborative, daily site inspections.

On a large, complex construc- tion project such as the SDS Program, no matter the level of planning, safety incidents or events will occur. The owner's team decided early on to be involved with the contractor leadership in reviewing every incident-primarily minor cuts, sprains/strains and near misses- and evaluating steps to make sure they were not repeated.

After completing more than 2.2 million hours of construction on the SDS Program, Colorado Springs Utilities and MWH have collaborated with all contractors to define and reinforce safe deliv- ery expectations. This ensured that there would be no compro- mises on workforce safety.The result has been an incident rate that remains consistently below the national average.

MS64 ENRMountalnstates October 26, 2015

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