Gaines and Company’s 2019 Trench Safety Stand Down Marks First OSHA National Emphasis Program Event
Left: Gaines and Company underground utilities crews (seen here during this week’s Trench Safety Stand Down event) are OSHA trained and certified in fall protection and trench excavation. Right: BGE duct bank installation project requiring guard rails and 100 feet of trench boxes for fall hazards and crew safety.
Gaines and Company, a turnkey site developer, is holding the first Trench Safety Stand Down as an OSHA National Emphasis Program (NEP). OSHA elevated the Trenching and Excavation directive to temporary NEP status on October 1, 2018 due to a rising number of death related incidents involving trenches.
The weeklong event will take place June 17-21 2019, focusing on worker protection from trenching and excavation hazards.
“Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) representatives will be onsite at Gaines and Company, talking to crews about the importance of working in a trench safely,” says Dominic Pope, Gaines and Company’s Safety Director. The company-wide stand down will include employees from both the Maryland and North Carolina divisions.
GAINES AND COMPANY
SAFETY MISSION STATEMENT
At Gaines and Company, safety on the job and the health and personal safety of each employee is of primary importance in all phases of operation and administration.
OSHA is making this years’ stand down an agency priority placing extra focus on an important protective systems message, “sloping, shoring or benching,” says Pope, “they want everybody to hit on those major parts.” The goal is to reach out to as many workers as possible and educate them about current requirements and procedures for trench safety, thereby reducing serious injuries and fatalities. Pope gives employees various quizzes after each stand down meeting and those scoring the highest receive safety bucks good toward gear from the Gaines and Company E-Safety Shop.
The 2019 Trench Safety Stand Down is a first time OSHA National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation, sponsored by NUCA, NAXSA & NAHB.
“We have to work safely every day installing underground pipelines, sewer lines and utility conduits,” says Pope who will take the opportunity at Tuesday’s stand down to remind employees that complacency is a hazard in itself. “We will reiterate the importance of trench excavation safety and that we have to work as a team to make sure that everybody gets home safe.”
For more information and materials for the Trench Safety Stand Down, visit the NUCA page to obtain flyers, videos, toolbox talks and materials in Spanish.
National Utility Contractors Association 2019 Certificate of Participation
Gaines and Company is a full service construction site developer with 65 years of experience offering grading, excavation, storm water management, paving, road work and underground utility contractor services in Maryland, North Carolina, Washington D.C. and Delaware.
