Best Project, Excellence in Safety: City Center Plaza

The 380,000-sq-ft City Center Plaza development in Boise includes a steel-framed, 10-story commercial and retail building with an adjoining five-story convention center.

PHOTO BY MARC WALTERS, MARC WALTERS PHOTOGRAPHY

City Center Plaza
Boise
Best Project, Excellence in Safety

Owner: The Gardner Co.
Lead Design Firm: Babcock Design Group
General Contractor: Engineered Structures Inc. (ESI)
Civil Engineer: Horrocks Engineers
Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
MEP Engineer: PVE Inc.
Landscape Design: Baer Design Group LLC
Subcontractors: Central Paving Co.; Idaho Precast Inc.; Inland Crane Inc.; Ironsmith Inc.; Lea Electric; Bledsoe Construction Inc.; D&A Glass Co.; Buss Mechanical Services Inc.; RMI Mechanical; Rocky Mountain Electric

The 380,000-sq-ft City Center Plaza development in Boise includes a steel-framed, 10-story commercial and retail building with an adjoining five-story convention center. The massive jobsite, with its hundreds of workers, required extraordinary attention to safety during more than a million man-hours of work. The project took place in a challenging downtown environment that required constant vigilance and tightly coordinated logistics.

ESI, the contractor, initiated a stretch-and-flex program, pretask planning and job-hazard analysis as part of the everyday safety assignments for the entire team.

ESI says, “We and our partners, both in construction and regulation, believe at the heart of our business and construction is the health and safety of our workers.”

Superintendents frequently pointed out safe working habits of the contractor’s employees to subcontractors, sending the message that safety underpinned everything on the job.

Although the safety record on the City Center Plaza was exemplary, there was still a near-miss when an elevator was being lifted and installed. The contractor’s safety team investigated the incident to gain knowledge and make appropriate corrections.

In addition to its safety program, ESI created an emergency response plan that was updated as the site evolved through various construction phases. The contractor also established coordinated access points for emergency responders.