Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
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18 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com work with that contractor to bring them up to standard." Hazards One of the biggest hazards on a project like this is mobile equipment, says Hayes. The Stoney Trail has seen a number of contractors working with well over 100 pieces of earth-moving equipment. "The fact is the equipment has the right of way, so whether you're driving your vehicle or supervisor's vehicle on the project, that equipment is thousands and thousands of pounds of force and if you get in the way of that, there's not a lot of chance of sur- vival or coming out without a serious injury," says Hayes. One way Chinook works to elimi- nate this hazard is by having plenty of signage and speed limits on the site. The weather conditions can also pose many challenges since the proj- ect runs year-round. In the winter, workers are battling the cold and are sometimes working at -35 C, says Hayes. There are issues with ice, snow, traction, hypothermia and frostbite. "You're bundled up more, you're just not as nimble, one would say, so there's the potential that accidents complete a field-level hazard assess- ment. This may include environmental factors, such as rain or snow, as well as what work is going on around them. Then they need to communicate these hazards to workers, which is done during a daily meeting at the beginning of each shift. It also covers what mea- sures have been put in place to guard against the hazards and what personal protective equipment (PPE) is needed. "It's significant when workers arrive in the morning that they're aware of what environment they're working in," says Hawkins. Every day, the contractors need to send a report of the hazard assessment and the daily meeting to Chinook. Once a week, Chinook or the contractors will do a "toolbox talk" which discusses a specific hazard that has been found on the project or that workers might run into. Some toolbox talks have been around speed limits, working at heights and using cell- phones on the site. Monitoring safety The contractors send a report to Hayes outlining the hours worked, number of people on site, the toolbox talks as well as accidents, incidents and medi- cal information every month. One of Hayes' staff members pulls together that information and creates a safety report for the management of the project and the client (Alberta Trans- portation) — which also receives an annual report. Chinook plays the role of safety enforcement. It conducts daily inspections and more formal weekly inspections on the site. "No one likes to be heavy handed and say, 'I'm going to reprimand you' but sometimes someone needs to be made an example of for word to get around the project: 'You know, Bob got written up today for not wearing his harnesss,'" says Hayes. incidents The project has been well-run and the number of incidents have not been abnormally high for a project of this size and scale, says Lamb. The most common incidents have been slips and falls, which are pretty common on construction sites, says Hayes. While there have not been any fatalities, there have been a couple serious incidents where people were in a position they shouldn't have been and something fell on them or they got pinched between a piece of equip- ment, says Hayes. When these more serious incidents occur, there is a full investigation by the contractor and Chinook to determine what happened and how it happened. It's important to determine not only the direct cause, but any number of indirect causes there may have been. "The direct cause was the person was standing where he shouldn't have been, but the indirect causes were a lack of training, lack of communica- tion, lack of procedures and if you think of Swiss cheese, the holes never line up, but when they do, accidents happen," says Hayes. It's important to implement cor- rective action to prevent the incident from happening again, says Hawkins. Everything surrounding the incident and its outcomes needs to be commu- nicated to employees. This is one area companies in the construction indus- try have really improved upon over the past 10 years, says MacLennan. "Communication post-incident is essential, otherwise you're guaranteed to have it re-occur and it's your oppor- tunity as an employer to demonstrate how seriously you take it," he says. role of leadersHip Leadership plays a central role in ensuring health and safety proce- dures are adhered to among workers on construction sites. Without lead- ership, there's nothing in terms of safety, so the leaders really need to be waving that safety flag, says Hawkins. If a leader is not waking the talk and adhering to site safety rules, staff won't either, says Lamb. "If I'm not wearing the proper protective gear or misbehaving, it doesn't help anybody on a construc- tion project," he says. "Management staff has to be seen as playing by the same rules." The construction industry has "made some really good strides" around creating a culture of safety, says Hawkins. Companies are increas- ingly investing more time, money and resources to ensure workers are safe. "We see the requirement for safety growing on construction sites," says MacLennan. "More companies are accepting the importance of safety and the most successful companies have the strongest culture toward safety." could happen," says Lamb. "You have to be more conscious of your foot- ing; driving is even more of a hazard because the site is frozen and it's slip- pery, and the terrain is more uneven." During these months, Chinook ensures workers are educated on taking downtime and keeping warm. In the summer, there are some extremely hot days and it's important for the workers to stay hydrated and be educated on heat exhaustion. With a project of this nature, hazards to workers change over time. The proj- ect has gone from being a green field in some areas to a full-on heavy construc- tion site over the past three years. "Where there's a grading operation at the start of the project, you're wor- ried about heavy equipment going back and forth. But as we start to build bridges, then you have over- head hazards, and as the project gets into the completion stage and there are electrical contractors on site, suddenly you might have power lines or underground cables that weren't there before," says Lamb. Traffic accommodation can also be a concern, especially when the proj- ect is nearing the end, says Hayes. The ACSA has been doing a lot more train- ing around traffic control than they used to, as it is a pretty high-risk area for workers, says Hawkins. Every day, contractors need to The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is pleased to announce that Brooks Patterson, CRSP/PSAC, Dip Tech, is the recipient of the Board's 2013 Volunteer of the Year Award. Mr. Patterson is a health & safety professional specializing in construction and industrial operations for the Pacific Group of Companies in Burnaby, BC. His duties involve implementing programs for blasting, demolition, industrial moving, high angle rock scaling, excavation, shoring & foundations, and civil construction work. He holds a diploma in Occupational Health and Safety from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Brooks participates provincially in regulatory reviews, is involved with several committees and also develops and conducts training sessions. He is the current chair of the BCIT Peer Advisory Committee for the OHS Program. Brooks also tutors a distance education course in Administrative Law for BCIT's certificate program. He is the Vice Chair of the British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA) and is a former Vice Chair of the CSSE Lower Mainland Chapter. A CRSP/PSAC since 2001, he has served as Co-Chair of the Regional Screening Committee since 2003. The Board's Volunteer of the Year program was initiated in 2001 in conjunction with its 25th anniversary and the United Nation's "Year of the Volunteer". The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is a public interest, ISO 17024:2003 (Personnel Certification Body) and ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) accredited, self-regulating, self-governing organization established in 1976 under The Canada Corporations Act for the purpose of certifying Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP)®/ Professionnel en sécurité agréé du Canada (PSAC)®. Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6519-B Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 1A6, info@bcrsp.ca, www.bcrsp.ca Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals 2013 Volunteer of the Year Announcement The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is pleased to announce that Brooks Patterson, CRSP/PSAC, Dip Tech, is the recipient of the Board's 2013 Volunteer of the Year Award. Mr. Patterson is a health & safety professional specializing in construction and industrial operations for the Pacific Group of Companies in Burnaby duties involve implementing programs for blasting, demolition, industrial moving, high angle rock scaling, excavation, shoring & foundations, and civil construction work. He holds a diploma in Occupational Health and Safety from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Alberta Portrait