Construction Workers Achieve Milestone at the Savannah River Sit - WFXG FOX54 Augusta - Your News One Hour Earlier

A portion of the construction workforce at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has worked more than 25 million hours without an injury or illness resulting in a missed day of work.

The last missed day of work due to an injury or illness for construction employees of former SRS contractor, Washington Savannah River Company, and current liquid waste contractor, Savannah River Remediation (SRR), was recorded in June 1998. Both contractors have shared the same recording process for liquid waste operations at the Site and, consequently, SRR has continued to build on these hours to hit the 25 million hours mark.

That string of hours represents more than 14 years of work without a days-away case. The average construction organization would have 187 days-away cases in a span of 25 million hours. 

SRR President and Project Manager Dave Olson congratulated SRR construction for their accomplishment and noted all work at SRS begins and ends with safety.

"This accomplishment represents one of many legacy SRS safety milestones that have been jointly celebrated by the current SRR construction workforce and the Augusta Construction Building Trades," Olson said. "SRR's construction employees are continuing an impressive record of work without a days-away injury.  I am pleased to see them continue to keep the focus on what's most important in their daily job performance." 

Kim Cassara, SRR Manager of Project Design and Construction, praised Construction workers and their supervisors for their dedication to a safe workplace.

"Our construction project employees continue to demonstrate they are the best in the business," Cassara said. "By any comparison, this is World Class safety performance and a rare construction industry achievement that exemplifies our unrelenting commitment to the highest standards of workplace safety."

She added that the Augusta Construction Building Trades are a key player in the safety performance at SRR.

"The Trades provide us with skilled craftsman who understand safety is a part of each task every day," Cassara said.

Olson said the Construction employees' achievement is one of several positive signs about the continuing strength of the SRR safety culture.

"While construction continues to set an incredible pace, the entire workforce is accepting the challenge of stepping up our safety performance," Olson said.

SRR construction employees are the specific workgroup involved in construction activities in the liquid waste operations.

SRS is owned by DOE. The SRS Liquid Waste contract is managed by SRR, a team of companies led by URS Corp. with partners Bechtel National, CH2M Hill and Babcock & Wilcox. Critical subcontractors for the contract are AREVA, Energy Solutions and URS Professional Solutions.