1. From the ENR Mountain States Community MOUNTAIN STATES
Owner Collaboration Creates
AStrongSafetyCulture
Alec Hart
Is theprincipal
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
constructionprojects.However,
as proven by the $829-million
SouthernDeliverySystem(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, theownerreviewed
annualexperience modification
rates, incident rates and lost
workday rates, in accordance
with standard industry practice.
ButColorado SpringsUtilities
also developed aminimum site­
specific safetyplan aspart of the
procurement documents. The
plan became the standard against
which all contractor safetyplans
were reviewed.
SDS leadership required
contractor teams to present their
comprehensive safetyplansbefore
startingwork. Early discussions
ensured clear communication
about safety expectations and
how contractors were planning
to communicate atto 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 aboutsafetymessaging.
SDS'sproactive safetymessaging
had three elements: quarterly
safetysummits for all active con­
tractors, best safetypractices and
safetyfieldinspections.
The quarterly safetysummits
allowed allactive contractors and
key subcontractors to take turns
leading and presenting their
safetyfocustopeers and SDS
leadership. At a minimum, these
gatherings reinforced the owner's
commitment tosafedelivery;
however,theyalsoallowedteams
tosharelocalsafetyexperiences
and planning. SDSleadership
evolved thequarterlysafetysum­
mitsintomonthlysafetycouncils,
whichprovided morefocused
dialoguewith the owner, MWH
and contractor safetymanagers.
BecauseColoradoSpringsUtilities
andMWH were alreadyreviewing
dailyconstruction progress, shar­
ing best safetypractices across the
program was asimple,proactive
stepembraced byactive contrac­
tors. In addition, Colorado Springs
Utilities andMWH worked
togethertoconduct collaborative,
dailysiteinspections.
On alarge, complex construc­
tion project such as the SDS
Program, no matter the level
of planning,safetyincidentsor
events will occur. The owner's
teamdecided earlyontobe
involved with the contractor
leadership in reviewing every
incident-primarily minor cuts,
sprains/strains and near misses­
andevaluatingstepstomakesure
theywerenot repeated.
After completing more than
2.2 million hours of construction
on the SDSProgram, Colorado
Springs Utilities and MWH have
collaborated with all contractors
to define and reinforce safe deliv­
eryexpectations. 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 enr.com/mountainstates