In response to a February blast that killed six workers at a Connecticut powerplant under construction, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board voted late last month to recommend a ban on use of natural gas to clean pipes. It also called for an end to venting or purging gas indoors, which triggered a fatal factory explosion in 2009 in North Carolina. Board experts probed both accidents on-site. The board also urged the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop rules to ban both practices and for the National Fire Protection Association to take similar action through code revisions. The recommendations
The Louisiana State Police say a driver hauling a 134-ft-long 78-in.-deep, pre-stressed bulb-T girder was going too fast and his load was not properly secured when it fell off a truck in New Orleans, La., on June 22. There were no injuries. The driver was fined $100. Still Frames From Louisiana State Police Video Related Links: VIDEO: Girder Transport Accident “The load came undone, so it was not secured properly,” says State Police spokesman Lt. Doug Cain. “Whether that is attributed totally to speed or tie downs, I don’t think we’ll ever know.” That might have been the end of
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued an immediate recall of more than 2,500 stadium light poles, after confirming reports that 11 of the steel poles fell over. Most of of those incidents occurred in Texas, CPSC says. Related Links: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Release The commission says that the poles range from about 70 to 135 feet tall, weigh one to four tons and are located near school stadiums and gyms. CPSC says the manufacturer was Whitco Co. LLP, Fort Worth, which the commission says is out of business. It says that the recall does not affect
The manslaughter trial began on June 22 for a New York City crane rigger accused of causing a 2008 crane collapse in midtown Manhattan that killed seven, including the entire rigging crew and a civilian. The Manhattan district attorney has maintained that William Rapetti and his company, Rapetti Rigging Ser-vices, Massapequa Park, N.Y., are responsible for the March 15, 2008, collapse. But the defense team continually has pushed to prove other causes, claiming Rapetti did not do “anything wrong” in preparing the 200-ft tower crane to be “jumped,” or extended, from the 18th floor of a rising condo on East
A Seattle K-8 public school built under state sustainability protocols had to be shut down after staff and students complained of annoying odors. When toxicology testing showed that high pH and moisture content in the concrete flooring had reacted with carpet adhesive and backing to produce methyl hexanol, a volatile organic compound, the school district had no choice but to carry out expensive repairs. Photo: Seattle Public Schools Carpet adhesive and moisture reacted. Opened in September 2009, the $37-million school struggled with complaints about the smell until closing in April 2010. The toxicology investigation confirmed the extent of the problem.
The attorney for the crane rigger accused of causing the deadly 2008 crane collapse in Manhattan said that “incompetence at the highest levels of city government” caused the accident, which killed seven people, rather than the “recklessness” prosecutors alleged against his client, William Rapetti. Photo: AP/Louis Lanzano Rapetti on the day of his indictment in January, 2009. Photo: Michael Goodman for ENR The defense has emphasized that Rapetti operated equipment at Ground Zero. Related Links: Rigger Declines Jury Trial Crane-Failure Case Heading to Court Rapetti was the master rigger of a 200-ft-high tower crane at the high-rise apartment construction site
The new administrator of the Occupation Safety and Health Administration spoke out earlier this month against measures that lead workers to hide workplace injuries. “Saying you have zero tolerance for injury is crazy,” said David Michaels, who is an assistant secretary of labor. If workers who report injuries are fired, they are not likely to come forward, he said, noting that because of this, “we don’t know what injury rates really are.” MICHAELS Michaels spoke at a June 16 construction business forum, co-sponsored by ENR and the Construction Users Roundtable, an owners group. More than 200 construction professionals and owners
A new study by the Hartford, Conn.-based non-profit organization Environment and Human Health Inc. took aim at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process, saying the program does not adequately address human health needs, particularly those relating to indoor air quality. Related Links: View the Full Report Lead author John Wargo, a Yale University professor, said that although the LEED certification program effectively encourages energy efficiency in buildings, “tighter buildings often concentrate chemicals released from building materials, cleaning supplies, fuel combustion, pesticides and other hazardous substances.” The report makes several recommendations to help
Two groups have aligned to develop a nationally accredited exam for a construction professional called by many names: crane inspector, crane certifier, crane surveyor and so on. Not required by the federal government, such a credential is only mandatory in California, and recently, Washington state, which started enforcement this year. The states launched inspector tests after tower cranes collapsed in San Francisco in 1989 and Bellevue, Wash., in 2006. The Fairfax, Va.-based National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, which helped Washington develop its test, and the Vancouver-based Crane Certification Association of America�which administers a private exam to its
Nevada lawmakers on June 7 agreed on proposals for increased workplace safety penalties and enforcement after a string of construction deaths in 2007 and 2008 along the Las Vegas Strip grabbed national headlines. A state legislative subcommittee proposes higher fines, added state Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement authority, local or state attorney general investigation of workplace fatalities and mandatory family member notification on fatal accident findings. Six jobsite deaths within 18 months at the $8.5-billion CityCenter project led to a high-profile Southern Nevada Building Trades strike in 2008 that ended with mandatory 10-hour OSHA training, which Nevada since has
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