Worksite safety for environmental remediation and construction projects is essential for operational success. Those engineering consulting firms that skimp on safety face fines, citations, missed deadlines, and potential work stoppage—all of which increase costs and put the consulting engineering organization in a negative light.
The worksite safety risks are considerable. Engineering and remediation firms must routinely perform tasks like soil excavation, building construction, and structure demolition, all of which pose immense risk. For this reason, in this industry, the consequences of safety gaps can be major.
Workers are frequently at elevated worksite safety risks—especially if they are working with dangerous substances, such as buildings harboring asbestos or soils contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Then there is airborne and noise pollution—which can damage eyes, lungs, and ears.
What Is Construction and Environmental Remediation Worksite Safety?
It’s crucial to understand remediation and construction site safety. Protecting the worksite involves:
- Recognizing and recording potential dangers and risks—from the presence of toxic chemicals to the potential for falls from ladders—and beyond
- Creating safety plans
- Providing all necessary personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Appointing and empowering a safety officer
- Offering training and guidance to the workers (and the public, as needed)
Unfortunately, not every company has the resources and knowledge to always fully ensure worksite safety for team members and the public. Often, an organization is under a tight deadline (especially for sensitive environmental remediation tasks) and must move quickly to ensure project completion. This can mean the project is prone to risk and noncompliance. Also, it can result in an expensive disruption that prevents the team from meeting its deadline.
How Serious Are Construction Worksite Hazards?Â
Lack of precautions can result in severe injury at construction worksites—including death to workers or the public. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- In 2022, nearly one in five workplace deaths were in the construction industry; 38.4 percent of these deaths were from slips, trips and falls.
- Nearly half (47%) of fatal slips, trips, and falls were in the construction industry.
What Happens When There Is Inadequate Worksite Safety?
Inadequate worksite safety considerations can result in injury or illness to workers or the general public. Injuries from onsite accidents and illnesses from exposure to toxic worksite substances can:
- Harm or kill employees
- Shut down operations
- Endanger surrounding communities
- Lead to fines, citations, and bad publicity
- Trigger legal actions
- Result in lost time and missed deadlines
- Balloon project costs
At the federal level, safety compliance standard violations cost at least $16,131 per infraction, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Additionally, failure to abate costs are $16,131 per day, and willful/repeated infractions run to $161,323 per violation.
These are serious numbers. They can quickly cut into (and reduce) profit margins for environmental remediation and construction companies.
Boosting the Worksite Safety of Environmental Remediation and Construction Projects
So, how can remediation and construction site EHS ensure compliance with safety protocols? We’ll briefly review some of the steps for overall worksite safety for construction and environmental remediation projects. The two major categories of safety compliance are:
One: Worksite Protection: Your construction and environmental remediation team members demand the best protection—physical and mental alike. Obviously, without these crucial team members, work is impossible. Their morale is crucial, too: No one wants to be injured, nor do they want to be temporarily or permanently disabled.
So, this means that worksite managers must provide thorough workplace protections to even operate—let alone successfully meet deadlines. Project managers must:
- Know all the applicable OSHA, state, and local worker safety laws
- Appoint an onsite safety officer who ensures adherence to worksite safety rules and best practices
- Perform a full worksite hazard analysis—factoring in the risks of walking surfaces, trenching, and fall dangers, etc.
- Physically secure the construction worksite according to best practices, based on the hazard analysis
- Provide thorough remediation and construction site safety training in hazards workers are likely to face (site contaminants, decontamination procedures, and so on)
- Apply best practices in the development and execution of safety plans
-  Distribute the necessary safety gear—including appropriate PPE and offer training in how to properly use it
Two: Community Safety: Successful construction and environmental remediation projects require the goodwill and cooperation of the residents and businesses around the worksite. Community safety activists and authorities are empowered to halt site activity if they feel they (or their constituents) are exposed to airborne contaminants or the site is creating potential health effects. Â
To avoid disruption or bad publicity from risking community safety, managers must:
- Analyze the worksite after the requisite investigation (such as soil contamination testing), and create specific, appropriate operational plans that factor in all the qualities of the site location
- List every potential worksite contaminant—nuisance dust and odors; regulated contaminants like lead and asbestos; or cancer-causing heavy metal and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Secure the worksite appropriately with fencing, tape, and signage, preventing any locals (children especially) from accidentally straying into a dangerous work zone
- Create an air or noise monitoring plan with (where appropriate) preset exposure thresholds
- Deploy cloud-based monitoring solutions that can monitor the air and verify if contaminant levels are within acceptable thresholds
- Ensure the monitoring solutions can issue updates regularly—and that these be accessible to all stakeholders (the system should also issue alerts if thresholds are exceeded)
- Create a community-specific safety plan, including providing regular communications with appropriate local authorities, such as health inspectors, first responders, and so on
Ready for Construction Worksite Safety? Talk to Triumvirate Environmental
Commitment to environmental remediation safety and EHS construction safety is crucial. Having a safety-first attitude is essential to ensure that the entire work team complies with rules and best practices. For worksite safety risk elimination, it’s key that managers and partner teams alike demonstrate leadership.
Do you face gaps in your worksite operations? You can turn to a trusted partner. At Triumvirate Environmental, we understand construction risks and what environmental remediation contractors face—and much more. Our years of experience as a dedicated construction safety partner enables us to supply the knowhow, resources, and anything else a project manager needs. We bring discipline to a project, ensuring everyone adopts a safety-first attitude.
Our highly trained and experienced team members are available to go on-site, evaluate worksite safety, create construction site safety training programs, and more. We can even supply Health and Safety Officers (HSOs) to provide industrial hygiene-oriented and daily routine support. We’re all about safety compliance and community safety. Want to learn more? Contact us.
