A Culture Built Around Safety: OSHA Strategic Partnership

A CULTURE BUILT AROUND SAFETY: OSHA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

It’s no secret that unique and complex projects require unique and complex approaches, especially when it comes to worker health and safety. So how do you ensure the safety and well-being of more than 400 men and women working for 2.5 years across a project site two-fifths the size of the Pentagon?

Our team recently partnered with the NCDOL OSH Division (OSHA*) as part of their Strategic Partnership Program – a prestigious, voluntary agreement that aims to help encourage, assist, and recognize partner efforts to eliminate serious workplace hazards and achieve a high level of worker safety and health.

This partnership affirms a shared commitment between all project partners toward providing a safe work environment during the project’s construction by building cooperative relationships with groups of employers and workers. Our team sought out OSHA’s support on our Charlotte Pipe & Foundry project with the goal of creating a safe work environment for all involved in the project, which at its peak, would see more than 400 workers onsite at one time.

A CULTURE BUILT AROUND SAFETY

Safety is at the center of our commitment to deliver transformational results for our customers, community, and team. Throughout this partnership’s 2.5-year duration, OSHA, Barringer, our client, and other stakeholders worked together to identify workplace safety and health issues and develop strategies, goals, and performance measures to address these issues. This not only resulted in increased engagement and accountability onsite but also improved the rigor of our safety practices both on the job and company-wide. 

Other major benefits of our partnership included:

• Opportunities to build relationships with local authorities through collaboration to ensure proper safety and evacuation measures 
• Increased accountability for subcontractors under our contract 
• Opportunity for Barringer and our subcontractors to develop a relationship with OSHA
• Opportunity for our client to have a positive relationship with OSHA
• Increased access to safety and health training programs and information 

Bringing Best Practices & Lessons Learned to your Project

We pride ourselves in taking a holistic approach to safety that encompasses not only the project jobsite but also the overall health and environmental well-being of the surrounding community. We have invested significant time and resources into building a culture where safety is of the utmost importance in everything that we do. Through this partnership, our team has developed a stronger, more in-depth understanding of best safety practices that we are ready to deploy on your jobsite. 

Some of these safety best practices include: 

• Increased knowledge surrounding and implementing workplace safety technology 
• Increased employee training and certifications
• Development of long-term and sustainable safety and health management systems
• Enhanced documentation practices, reporting methods, and tools
• Setting measurable goals

Project Fast Facts

The largest cast iron pipe and fittings foundry in the nation, Charlotte Pipe & Foundry in Oakboro, NC, spans more than 135 acres and features a 500,000 square-foot concrete foundry building, a two-story bath house, and two pre-engineered metal (PEMB) buildings housing sand storage and a process water treatment plant. To put this in perspective, the site is equivalent to 340 football fields, or two-fifths the size of the Pentagon, and contains 10 Olympic-size pools of concrete and six miles of underground site utilities.

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Thank you to our partners