“Partnerships such as this one in Shelton are designed to make safety and health the priority for every contractor and employee working on the project,” said Marthe Kent, OSHA’s New England regional administrator. “Our common and continuous goal is to reduce and eliminate injuries and illnesses, and their associated human and financial costs.”
Under the partnership, Konover Construction will develop and implement a comprehensive safety and health program that equals or exceeds OSHA guidelines. It will include OSHA’s 10-hour construction safety course for supervisors and employees to help them recognize and correct construction-related work hazards as well as regular, documented in-house safety inspections; weekly safety training sessions; and the collection and analysis of injury and illness data.
“An additional benefit of this partnership is the training and knowledge it will provide to contractors, especially smaller employers,” said Robert Kowalski, OSHA’s area director in Bridgeport. “They will be able to take the vital and useful safety and health information they obtain on this project and carry it with them to future job sites.”
The project involves the construction of a four-story, 84,000 square foot hotel and two-story, 24,000 square foot parking garage on Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton. The $10 million project is scheduled for completion in September 2009. About 25 to 30 smaller contractors are expected to benefit from the training and education provided through the partnership.
More than 1.4 million employees and more than 26,000 employers across the United States have participated with OSHA in more than 530 strategic partnerships since the program began in 1998.