National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through highway work zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones. I Build America – Ohio is celebrating the people in construction who work hard to make these work zones as safe as possible. Read more about them below!
Name: Justin Barna
Company: Beaver Excavating
Title/Position: Project Superintendent
How do you contribute to the overarching safety of your company’s workforce? Leading by example and instilling safety in everything that we do on the job from pre planning to building the job safely. We have a safety meeting every morning with everyone on the job to discuss the days work activities as well as any potential safety hazards that may be present that particular day. I am very adamant that every crew performs a daily JSA and is aware of their stop work commitment on the project to ensure everyone goes home safe every day.
What does your company do to ensure safety on the job? Safety is our number 1 core value at Beaver. Some of the examples that we do would be the daily JSA with the crew, daily inspections of equipment to ensure everything is working properly, safety observation reporting, near miss reporting, and stop work commitment.
How can the public help keep construction workers and work zones safe? I would challenge every motorist to put down the electronics, slow their speed, leave plenty of room between them and the vehicle in front of them, and just take their time and watch for any hazards in the work zone. Speed and assured clear distance seems to be the biggest reasons for accidents in the work zone I have seen in the last couple years.
