August 2023 Vol. 78 No. 8
Editor's Log
Editor’s Log: Priceless - Safety and damage prevention
(UI) — After attending and helping produce countless trade shows, workshops and related educational functions over the decades, I’ve learned that many of the best sessions were not the most popular sessions – not by a long shot. It’s not always what you want to hear, but what you need to know that has the most impact on your business or job.
Increasingly in the underground infrastructure business, the recognition by various parties about the extreme importance of safety and damage prevention continues to climb. For contractors, the impacts are obvious – prevent accidents, and the cost of doing business drops like a rock. Not only the direct monetary costs, but more significantly, the cost in human lives and suffering from not only major injuries, but how the fallout negatively impacts families.
Making operations safer and less damage prone also creates a positive, significant ripple effect that has tremendous economic consequences ranging from improved relationships with OSHA (and avoiding fines and penalties), to seeing your insurance factor decrease (more money saved), to avoiding lawsuits. All this also makes a contractor a much more desirable partner for owning companies; weighing a company based on safety factors can sway bids.
Many industry groups actively stress safety through various programs but these groups historically and actively practice what they preach. The Distribution Contractors Association, American Pipeline Contractors Association, Pipe Line Contractors Association, Power & Communication Contractors Association, and the Pipe Line Contractors Association of Canada have all stood out with their innovative safety programs throughout their storied history.
The Common Ground Alliance is the leader in damage prevention, and it too has brought much needed attention and programs to that subject, such as the Call Before You Dig/Call 811 – Know What’s Below programs.
Recently, two other associations have increased their safety focus, as well. The National Association of Sewer Service Contractors (representing the trenchless rehabilitation industry) has upped its already respectable safety programs by hiring Dennis Piven as its health, safety and environmental consultant. A 19-year veteran at Aegion, Piven has been a highly active health and safety industry participant and a published author on the subject. This hire by NASSCO clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to the human side of the sewer and water rehab industry.
As part of the NASSCO safety focus, Piven will present a four-hour workshop at the Underground Infrastructure Conference on Confined Space Awareness, including hands-on training. Also, Piven will team up with industry veterans Harry Miller of SAK and Lynn Osborn (former senior engineer for Insituform) on a contractors panel to discuss challenges, misconceptions and effective implementation of key safety measures for sewer and water contractors.
The information is limitless, the stories to be shared are riveting and lessons learned will be powerful.
Also, in the safety suite of topics, Dr. John Matthews, director of the Trenchless Technology Center at Louisiana Tech will present information from recent studies of styrene on the worksite. The presentation, titled “Attacks on CIPP Emissions: What Research Has Learned” will discuss the findings and recommendations from those studies.
In a separate underground market, a new industry association has included safety and damage prevention as one of its founding tenants. The Horizonal Directional Drilling Association was formally introduced to industry last February at UCT in Orlando and, as the association’s officers and board members stressed, improving the HDD industry through safety and education is a paramount mission for the group. HDDA held its first educational workshop last May in the Dallas area and true to its word, had a veteran safety and damage prevention expert provide a critical presentation.
HDDA will conduct a second event in Houston Sept. 19–20. This complementary training will focus on navigation and utility locating for rigs, small to large.
The event will push the overarching importance of always knowing what obstacles or potential problems may exist before, during and even after the bore. No matter the size of your rig, from mini to maxi, the financial impact of executing tracking and utility locating properly cannot be overlooked and the potential for injury or severe damages cannot be understated.
The training event will also involve a presentation from locating firm USIC about its dedicated technician program. Recently, I witnessed this program firsthand in my neighborhood. Xfinity (Comcast) was installing a new fiber optic system throughout the area. At one point, I counted five directional rigs at work installing fiber. Joining the crews were USIC techs staying in front of the work, confirming marks and verifying locates so the contractors could work at full speed.
HDDA has plans to continue holding educational workshops and organizers have pledged that safety and damage prevention will always be an essential focus – it’s just too important not to be emphasized.
For the good contractors – quality contractors – they understand there is never a short-cut to safety and damage prevention on the worksite. Clearly, there are ample opportunities continuing to emerge for contractors in all fields of underground infrastructure to stay updated on best practices. Your employees’ families are counting on you.
Comments