Many eco-friendly building materials have surfaced to diminish the environmental impact of building construction and operations. The materials include:

Reclaimed Steel – Reclaiming steel drastically reduces the amount of newly manufactured steel and thus greatly reduces the carbon footprint. Steel is more enduring than timber and strengthens structures against climatic concerns such as winds or earthquakes, as well as being repellent to pests/water/fire. Steel is well suited for roofing and structural support as there is no danger of warping. Steel has been used to create multiple carbon-neutral buildings and is 100% recyclable.

Reclaimed Wood – Reclaimed Wood can be harvested from abandoned structures including retired barns, ships, decommissioned buildings, salvage yards, railroads, and pallets. It can be employed as structural framing, flooring, external enhancement, and cabinetry.

Recycled Plastic – The practice of grinding up recycled plastic is beginning to replace the expensive and pollution-heavy process of mining materials to manufacture concrete. It not only significantly reduces the carbon footprint of concrete production, but it also makes the entire process more affordable. The potential future of recycled plastic construction includes recycled plastic roads, bricks, concrete, pipes, roofs, and floors.

Rammed Earth – Made from compacted natural materials such as earth, gravel, and lime. rammed earth can be an affordable route for creating a durable structure with strong foundations. Rammed earth also delivers protection against pests, is completely non-toxic, and is highly resistant to fire.

Precast Concrete Slabs – Precast concrete slabs require less energy in the manufacturing stage and are more sustainable than conventional concrete. They can be utilized for walls, exteriors, roofing, and floors since they remain durable throughout all weather conditions. A structure built from precast concrete slabs can be easily deconstructed for further reuse.

Ferrock – Ferrock is a new material created primarily from iron-rich ferrous rock mixed with recycled materials such as waste steel dust or components of ground-up glass. Ferrock is up to five times stronger than conventional concrete and is even more flexible, making it more likely to resist earthquake damage. The manufacturing process of Ferrock is also carbon negative, as the material absorbs and binds carbon dioxide.

Straw Bales – Straw is a waste product and is frequently burned at the end of a farming season as it does not provide enough nutrients to become animal feed. Straw can be used in load-bearing walls, door and window frames, and doors, as well as finishes with a mix of lime, cement, and/or sand. It is one of the most cost-effective thermal insulation materials available and is very resistant to fire because when compacted, straw bales become almost airtight.

Sheep Wool – Sheep wool insulation performs as well as fiberglass but with many added benefits. Amino acids in wool bond with the molecules of harmful chemicals and can effectively filter the indoor air. In addition, wool absorbs moisture, suppresses mold, resists fire, and has excellent thermal qualities.

Bamboo – Technically a grass, Bamboo can be harvested at a much faster rate than trees (just 1-5 years) and does not need to be replanted as regrowth is regenerated by its root system, making it one of the cheapest and fastest recyclable building materials. It is the superior option for flooring and cabinetry as it toughens over time and has even greater strength than concrete or brick.

Cork – Cork can be harvested from a living tree, rendering it to be one of the most eco-friendly reclaimed building materials on the planet. It is flexible, lightweight, and almost completely impervious to moisture. It has various applications in flooring, countertops, acoustic wall coverings, roofs, and rigid insulation.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a sustainable, environmentally friendly impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

For April, CREED LA is highlighting and addressing Sustainable/Environmentally Friendly

Buildings.

Definition

An environmentally friendly building is one that:

• Utilizes building materials that are non-toxic, ethical, and sustainable. Sustainable building materials include items such as wood, bamboo, adobe, coconut, bioplastics, stainless steel, and straw.
• Employs renewable energy, such as solar energy. A zero net energy building (ZNEB) is optimally efficient, and over a year, generates energy onsite, using clean renewable resources, in an amount equal to or greater than the total energy consumed onsite.
• Chooses windows that are energy efficient and keep the heat inside. An energy-efficient window has argon, krypton, or other gasses between the panes. These odorless and colorless non-toxic gasses insulate better than regular air.
• Operates with efficient use of water– such as harvesting rainwater for irrigation. Water efficiency is the use of a minimum amount of water to accomplish more functions. It relies on water-saving technologies to use water in a smarter way (i.e., water-efficient products, fixtures, and appliances).
• Deploys pollution and waste reduction measures that enable reuse and recycling. Construction projects often use more materials than are needed due to design choices and over-specification. For example, it is possible to attain the same structural strength of a building using only 50 to 60 percent of the specified cement. New technologies, such as 3D printing for foundations and supporting structures, can reduce the number of materials needed through innovation in structural forms. Another example is that today only 20 to 30 percent of construction and demolition waste is reused or recycled. A more deliberate disassembly effort could facilitate more material reuse and recycling, which together could prevent 0.6 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions every year.

California Examples

A few models to mimic include:

• Paradise High School – In 2018 The worst wildfire in California’s history, burned down 19,000 structures ruining 50% of the district’s schools, and killed 85 people. The population of Paradise plunged from 26,800 to 2,034. The design for the new high school will feature fire-resistant construction, CMU (concrete masonry unit) construction, metal framing, exposed metal versus exposed wood, cementitious siding instead of true wood siding, metal roofing, and fire sprinklers.
• Fairview Heights in Inglewood – Features 150,000 square feet of affordable housing. The

final design has more than 100 units including ground floor retail space, a community

police center, youth and adult educational space. One of the most impressive features is the extensive solar panel array on its roof. In addition, the architects of KFA have opted for wall-mounted heat pumps instead of standard mechanical condensers that could be installed on the parapet walls around the perimeter of the roof. The PV system was designed to produce enough onsite electricity to support the nearly 14,000 square feet of common space, which contains a large community room with a teaching kitchen, a computer lab, case management and resident service offices, and conference rooms.

• Parkside North in Long Beach – The dormitory at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a four-story, 127,000-square-foot complex that includes 474 beds in various configurations, kitchen and dining areas, study pods, and outdoor gathering spaces. The building will feature net-positive energy, and net-zero water, 90% of student rooms will face north-south, have operable windows, a high-performance rainscreen, and 235 solar panels.

For more information on how Creed LA is having a sustainable, environmentally friendly impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

Industry Trends

The United States is home to one of the world’s largest construction industries with over 1.29 billion in spending. Commercial Construction is expected to continue to grow and innovate new methods in 2023. Below is a look at five industry trends:

1. Increase in Modular Design – A building is constructed offsite and then put together on-site. Modular construction typically involves creating at least 60-90% of a structure before bringing it to the construction site. The modular design process offers three advantages:
   • By taking construction into controlled factory environments construction time is cut in half. This approach allows work to proceed simultaneously and requires no waiting for other trades to complete their work.
   • A greener building process that reduces waste by allowing crews to recycle used materials and control inventory.
   • Smarter design prioritizes cost-effective methods to create buildings quicker, safer, and cheaper.
2. Upsurge in Green Building – Building operations and construction create nearly 40 percent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Industry business leaders are pursuing ways to minimize material waste resulting from demolitions, moving to eco-friendly building materials, and selecting locally sourced building products.
3. Improved Design Technology – Building Information Modeling (BIM) is rapidly reimagining the construction design and production process. This design technology allows the user to create a virtual building model. In addition to improving building design and drafting efficiency, it saves every trade involved in the project time and money by virtually eliminating unforeseen issues or accidents.Virtual design and construction (VDC) describe the growing use of virtual environments to engineer and visualize the construction of structures before they’re built in the physical world. These virtual environments can be accessed via desktop, and mobile devices, along with augmented and virtual reality hardware. It’s estimated that reworks of faulty or incorrect builds account for nearly 30% of construction industry costs. The virtual design greatly reduces the need for reworks of incorrect builds by allowing builders to initially build structures in a virtual environment.
4. Advanced Workforce Efficiency – Over the last eight years construction job openings have increased by 50 percent, but the number of new employees in the industry comprises just 14 percent of the workforce. As a result, construction companies must innovate to make up for the decreased number of workers. This is evident through high-tech equipment, automation, and smarter building innovations.
5. Utilizing Drones – Using drones to measure stockpiles of building materials in real time has resulted in a 61% increase in measurement accuracy. Also, construction companies using drones can survey and inspect various locations without putting any actual humans in harm’s way.
6. Mobile Construction Apps – New mobile technologies which began during the Pandemic are enabling crews to provide accurate photo documentation to clients, contractors, and inspectors, allowing some aspects of project completion to occur offsite.

New methodologies including modular design, minimizing waste, improved design technology, workforce efficiency, utilizing drones, and mobile apps will enable commercial construction companies to complete projects faster and cheaper than ever before in 2023.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

Every industry has created unique terminology to describe itself and its accomplishments. Commercial Construction is certainly no different. The language employed to describe the actions and projects is so extensive, we need two articles to cover it all. Part 1 appeared in January and Part 2 continues below.

Common Terms Continued

Preliminary Design (PD Phase) – Further developed plans showing physical spaces and attributes such as doors, windows, and walls.

Punch List – A document that itemizes incomplete or unsatisfactory work at the end of a construction project.

Purchase Orders (PO) – A PO is an offer to purchase issued by a buyer to a seller. The PO details types, quantities, and agreed prices for each product or service.

Rebrand – A rebrand project is a refresh of a storefront, corporate office, or commercial building.

Request for Information (RFI) – a process for procuring information in construction decision-making to respond with a quote.

Renovation – The total or partial upgrading of a facility to higher standards of quality or efficiency.

Roll Out: a project where multiple buildings, storefronts, or offices are built with the same construction elements for brand consistency. This is common in both franchising, and branch locations.

Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) – an estimate of costs and time when requirements aren’t specified in the early stages of the project.

Section Drawings – depicts different views of a building as if it were sliced on a vertical plane.

Specifications – A detailed statement prescribing materials and methods; and quality of work for a specific project. The most common practice for specifications substantially parallels the CSI (Construction Specification Institute) format.

Submittal – a variety of construction documentation, provided to architects and engineers to be assured the correct elements are being implemented in the construction project.

Subcontract – an agreement between the primary contractor and a subcontractor to execute specific construction deliverables.

Subcontractors – perform commercial construction duties managed by the general contractor and are typically chosen by their expertise in specific trades such as drywall, mechanical, concrete, or electrical.

Tenant Improvements – these are the commercial construction elements executed to make a building move-in ready for the tenant. The elements include wall finishes/painting, carpet, lights, and fixtures.

Time and Materials – this is a method to charge clients based exclusively on the costs of labor time and materials.

White Box – is a building that is stripped down to its core and provided the basics, including white walls, electrical, plumbing, concrete floors, restrooms, and emergency evacuation routes prior to the tenant improvement phase.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

CREED LA is a non-profit coalition of labor organizations concerned about sustainable

development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. Every industry has created unique terminology to describe itself and its accomplishments. Commercial Construction is certainly no different. In fact, the language employed to describe the actions and projects is so extensive, we need two articles to cover it all. Part 1 of the terms begins below.

Common Terms

As-builts – Throughout the process of construction errors in drawings are discovered and the building is not constructed exactly as originally designed. As-builts are drawings of the final building, specifications, and work completed.

Assignable Square Footage (ASF) – the usable square footage within a physical space (measured from finished wall to finished wall).

Bid – an estimate established by reviewing the design and specifications.

Blueprints – are digital drawings of the planned construction. Before modern-day printers, the method of printing blueprints caused the paper to turn blue.

Building Information Model (BIM) – Designers develop BIM, a digital representation of a planned building. The BIM is used to assist throughout the building’s lifecycle. It aids in planning, design, construction, and facility operations to improve collaboration, reduce waste, and improve project delivery.

Change Order – a document detailing construction plans, revisions to specs, or pricing changes to the contract.

Daily Report –used to document job site activity at the end of the day by the supervisor. The report captures information such as crew employed, equipment used, materials installed, safety incidents, work completed, and weather conditions.

Design-Bid-Build – the traditional approach to construction projects where the design firm is separate from the contractor. The client chooses a design firm and secures a finished design prior to getting bids from construction firms for the build.

Design-Build – the construction contractor provides the design and final building plans and cost

estimates.

Elevation –a drawing that shows the finished appearance and the vertical height dimensions of

each side of a building.

Field Work Order – Typically provided by the main contractor to each subcontractor, listing specific items to execute.

Floorplan –shows the layout of a building when viewed from above.

Foreman – the main supervisor who manages the construction crew’s daily tasks and documents completed work.

General Contractor – the lead contractor responsible for overseeing budgeting, scheduling, and the management of subcontractors.

Lien – a legal term where a contractor can file a claim on the property if they have not been paid for completed work on the project.

Look for Part 2 of commercial construction terminology in our February 2023 blog. For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

With 4 million residents, Los Angeles is the center of a metropolitan area that is home to 14 million

people in Southern California within a narrow stretch between the Pacific to the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains. For decades, auto-centric growth has sent the city down a path of unsustainable development. In the 1980s, due to the exploding population, the county and region decided to return to rail-based public transport and build a network of metro and light rail lines.

Benefits of Light Rail

• Light rail transportation (LRT) uses about a third less energy and emits about half the CO2 of buses and trucks; passenger cars use about the same amount of energy per passenger mile.
• LRT best provides the quickest and most cost-effective service for interurban transportation in a metropolitan area.
• LRT promotes transit use and increases person throughput across their service corridors.

Historical Highlights

As of October 2022, LA transit-served a total length of 180 km, with two subway lines (Red & Purple Line) and four largely grade-separated LRT lines (Blue, Green, Gold, and Expo Lines) including:

14 July 1990: Metro Blue Line opened

30 Jan 1993: Union Station, Westlake/MacArthur Park

12 Aug 1995: Metro Green Line opened

13 July 1996: Westlake/MacArthur Park, Wilshire/Western

12 June 1999: Wilshire/Vermont, Hollywood/Highland

24 June 2000: Hollywood/Highland, North Hollywood (10 km)

26 July 2003: Metro Gold Line Union Station, at Sierra Madre Villa (22 km) 15 Nov 2009: Metro Gold Line Union Station, Atlantic (9.6 km)

28 Apr 2012: Metro Expo Line 7th Street/Metro Center, La Cienega/Jefferson (12.3 km)

20 June 2012: Metro Expo Line La Cienega/Jefferson, Culver City, and Farmdale stations added (1.6 km) 05 March 2016: Metro Gold Line Sierra Madre Villa, at APU/Citrus College (18.4 km)

20 May 2016: Metro Expo Line Culver City, Downtown Santa Monica (10.6 km) 07 Oct 2022: Metro Pink Line (K) Expo/Crenshaw, Westchester/Veterans (9.7 km)

Current Projects

The Regional Connector is planned to connect the various light rail lines in the city center via a tunnel following Flower and 2nd Streets (3 km), with three new stations: 2nd/Hope, 2nd/Broadway, and Little Tokyo/Arts District at 1st/Central. Construction started in Oct 2014 for completion by the end of 2022.

The second phase of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension will add another 19.8 km from Azuza via Pomona (2025) to Montclair (2028).

A planned Purple Line extension to Westwood/VA Hospital following Wilshire boulevard, 14.4 km in distance, with seven new stations: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, Wilshire/La Cienega (2023), Wilshire/Rodeo, Century City (2025), Westwood/UCLA, Westwood/VA Hospital (2027).

An East San Fernando Valley Light Rail addition between the G Line (Orange – BRT) Van Nuys station and the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink station in the northwest of the city (2028).

Street Upgrades

Ongoing and planned projects are not all about rail improvements, but also address road improvements:

• The downtown L.A. Regional Connector, a $1.8 billion 1.9-mile light rail subway is expected to open in early 2023. While a lot of Metro’s “civil improvements” around stations (mostly street widening and repaving, but also some sidewalks) are termed “restorations,” Metro calls this one a “reconfiguration.” This sort of street widening at Metro Stations is common; it has already happened at many stations along Metro’s Blue, Red, Purple, and Expo Lines.
• The 3rd Street Bike Lane Gap Closure involves repaired pavement, reconfigured lanes, and the installation of other critical safety improvements on 3rd Street from Main St to Alameda St. Improvements include fresh paint, upgraded crosswalks, and the repurposing of one travel lane to calm traffic and create space for protected bike lanes in one direction.
• Improvements along Adams Blvd will include pavement repair, signal upgrades, bike lanes, lane reduction, pedestrian beacons, pedestrian refuge islands, and other safety treatments.
• Plans to increase pedestrian and bicycle safety, mobility, and connectivity on parts of Martin Luther King Jr Blvd (MLK), Avalon Blvd (Avalon), and Gage Ave (Gage).

CREED LA is a non-profit alliance of labor organizations concerned with sustainable development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. To learn more about how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

With inflation reaching a forty-year high in recent months, everyone is now acutely aware of rising costs.

The consumer price index, which measures changes in the cost of food, housing, gasoline, utilities, and other goods, increased by 8.2% in the 12 months from September 2021 through August 2022.

The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows energy prices increased by 19.8% and gasoline by 18.2% over the last year.

Non-Residential Construction Material Costs

Rising costs in an inflationary period are not just impacting consumers. Global property services giant, CBRE(formerly REI Limited and CB Richard Ellis) forecasts a 14.1 percent year-over-year increase in U.S. construction costs by the end of this year due to the combination of labor shortages, inflation, supply chain disruptions, ongoing pandemic reverberations, and the war in Ukraine.

Let’s take a brief snapshot look at the last twelve-month increases in material costs according to the Producer Price Index from the Associated Builders and Contractors:

*Fabricated Structural Metal Products up 17.7%

*Softwood Lumber up 14.8%

*Concrete Products up 14.3%

*Prepared Asphalt, Tar, Roofing & Siding Products up 15.2%

*Nonferrous wire and cable up 6.1%

*Crude Petroleum up 38.8%

*Natural Gas up 118%

*Iron and Steel down 5.7%

*Steel Mill Products down 4.6%

The Impact

Deliveries of construction materials and equipment were disrupted not only due to severe labor shortages in factories but also shipping facility limitations. While some products were being manufactured, often they were waiting to be shipped for months at a time.

With such low resources and high requirements, construction material cost dramatically increased. Construction companies are reporting 10% to 30% increases in material costs from the time the bid is accepted to the time material orders are placed.

While many contractors may be considering passing on the material cost increases to project owners, they will likely find them resistant to the elevated charges due to increased borrowing costs and mounting recession concerns.

But it isn’t just the price of materials that is impacted; the lack of construction products also creates long waits for them to arrive and become available. These delays significantly affect contractors’ ability to meet their deadlines and complete a project as planned.

The increased costs of construction materials can greatly impact the construction industry, whether material price volatility is caused by an increase in demand for specific construction materials or supply chain disruptions are the culprit.

Be Proactive

While companies should always be proactive it is even more important to do so in an ever-changing economy. To prepare for rising inflation, companies should:

• Analyze their market position and identify what prices should increase to align with competitors’ pricing.
• Scrutinize product and service offerings to ascertain the highest cost increases with the lowest revenue potential and margins.
• Minimize supply chain risk by diversifying orders based on the import source.
• Research and detect products that have long lead times and strategize best practices to prevent products from being unavailable.

CREED LA is a non-profit coalition of labor organizations concerned about sustainable development in Southern California that comply with state and local laws. For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on your community visit https://creedla.com.

While robots will never eliminate the need for human workers in the construction industry, many robot applications can be used to make work on the construction site quicker, safer, easier, more stress-free, and less labor demanding. By utilizing robots to handle more repetitive jobs, such as bricklaying, hanging drywall, and moving heavy materials, construction firms can reduce the quantity of labor they need for a project. Since robots can typically complete their jobs faster than their human counterparts, work gets done quickly and with fewer errors.

Five Ways Robots are Helping Construction Companies

Addressing the Labor Shortage

The National Center for Construction Education & Research, reports that “41% of construction workers on the job today are planning to retire by 2031.” What makes matters even worse is that fewer younger individuals are pursuing careers in the trades. “The construction industry will need to attract nearly 650,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2022 to meet the demand for labor,” according to a model developed by Associated Builders and Contractors. It is also important to note that autonomous robots don’t require breaks, don’t get a paycheck, don’t require worker’s compensation, and can work continuously overnight.

Cost Savings

Since most construction companies are already operating with razor-thin margins, every opportunity to lower costs makes a big difference to the bottom line. While autonomous robots do require ongoing maintenance, the amount of work they can produce compared to the recurring costs balances out on the plus side.

Improving Worker Safety

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 21% of all workplace deaths in 2018 occurred in the construction industry. Repetitive motions put stress on the human body. Conversely, robots can make the same motion 24 hours a day. Many of the applications of construction firms deploying autonomous machinery are focused on these types of tasks, conserving their human labor for jobs that require more finesse and thinking.

Flexibility

Any disruption in a construction company’s worker availability can create a chain reaction that throws off an entire project schedule. Using automated robots to complement their workforce allows companies greater flexibility.

Efficiency Improvements

Some tasks in construction work traditionally require multiple human workers tied to assigned tasks until a given stage of the project is complete. A good example of this is the use of drones with a single human operator performing survey work.

A Few Real World Examples

TheBricklayingSAMSystemeliminates strenuous work by lifting the brick, applying mortar, and placing each brick in place. The mason is accountable for ensuring accurate placement of the bricks, cleaning up the surplus mortar, and overseeing the overall project is completed properly.

Canvas, a company that builds robots using artificial intelligence, has developed a four-wheeled robot the size of a kitchen stove that scans the unfinished walls of a construction site using lidar, then gets to work smoothing the surface before applying a near-perfect layer of drywall compound. The device was employed in the new Harvey Milk Terminal at San Francisco International Airport and an office building connected to the Chase Center arena in San Francisco.

Komatsuuses San Francisco-based Skycatch drones to survey job sites from the air and then upload images to computers to create 3D models of the terrain.

TheArroyoBridgeis a perfect example of what is possible. The innovative 80-foot pedestrian bridge perched over a ravine in the mountains of Los Angeles was designed by architecture students at the University of Southern California with 3D software and was fabricated out of hundreds of recycled steel parts by an advanced six-axis robotic arm.

Again, robots will never eliminate the need for human workers in the construction industry, but there are many applications robots can be used for!

Wikipedia defines a Smart City “as a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. The information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources, and services efficiently; in return, that data is used to improve operations across the city.”

What Makes a Smart City?

Empowering Technology
The fast-tracked development of new technologies including 5G, AI, cloud, and edge computing is helping to drive the evolution of Smart Cities.

Decarbonizing Building and Construction
The Paris agreement, an international treaty on climate change, adopted in 2015, requires all buildings to be net-zero carbon by 2050. Today, commercial buildings account for 20% of energy use in the US, 30% of which is wasted. Smart solutions can convert them into energy-efficient and sustainable buildings while automating the way they are managed.

Energy Efficiency
Transitioning to lower carbon energy systems is a priority. Analysts at Barclays Investment Bank expect to see significant financing in smart grids, next-generation energy transmission, and distribution networks that can automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in supply and demand accordingly.

Other systems expected to drive the adoption of low-carbon energy will include smart meters, which allow utility companies to introduce price differentiation, microgrids for local sources of energy, and encourage lower consumer usage

Smart Water and Waste Management
Digital water technologies will innovate and drive new solutions in the water and wastewater industries. That’s according to an IDTechEx report titled “Digital Water Networks 2020-2030.”

Data provided by smart water meters will deliver real-time consumption patterns. Water demand response will be faster and thus help with pressure regulation throughout the network. In addition, sensors can measure a wide range of chemicals and pollution in real-time.

Smart Cities
Internationally Singapore, Zurich, Oslo, London, and Copenhagen topped the list of the world’s smartest cities on the 2021 Smart City Index. U.S. entries include New York, Boulder, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Fresno, Cedar Rapids, Austin, and Louisville.

One example is found In Fresno’s CitiStat model to share and track data and improve transportation through an adaptive intelligent transportation system. Another is San Francisco’s many “green” initiatives for its smart parking system. On Austin’s dedicated smart city page on the website, they describe their transportation plans, which involve automated and connected vehicles, intelligent sensors, open data, and real-time traveler information. Fighting a decreasing population, the city of Pittsburgh has proposals in place for reinventing its infrastructure. They have developed MOVEPGH, their transportation improvement plan, which will make the city more bike and pedestrian friendly. The steel city also plans to rejuvenate the Almono steel site with a microgrid of solar and geothermal energy and render the city greener with LED streetlights and electric vehicle charging stations.”

Construction is one of the most dangerous professions. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that one in ten construction site workers are injured yearly.

Mitigate Safety Hazards

Employers and construction workers need to work together to mitigate safety hazards. This requires:

• Awareness– Ensuring the safety of the construction workers and everyone on the site should be the number one priority of any construction manager. Understanding the perils of a construction site and sustaining a perpetual state of alertness is perhaps the number-one best way to prevent accidents.
• Training– The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other organizations publish resources to help businesses train new laborers on standard safety and security practices, including pamphlets, guides, training videos, and even on-site training.
• Communication– Construction firms should equip workers with devices, like smartphones, walkie-talkies, or headsets, which allow fast and efficient communication among team members.
• ProperEquipment– Not only should each piece of equipment on the job site be ideally suited to the task at hand, but construction firms need to ensure that all machinery and material are properly maintained.
• ProperSupervision– Every construction site must have a strong supervisor who is willing and capable of enforcing safety standards with no exceptions. This construction supervisor must keep track of all site employees throughout the day and immediately correct those who fail to commit to proper construction site safety procedures.

OSHA’s Most Frequently Cited Standards in Construction

• Electrical (wiring methods, design, and protection) – Check all electrical tools and equipment regularly for defects.
• Excavations– Use a protective system for trenches of one foot deep or greater. A worker should never enter a trench that is unprotected.
• Fall Protection – Consider using aerial lifts to provide safer working surfaces for elevated platforms.
• GeneralSafetyandHealthProvisions– Construction workers should wear work boots with slip-resistant and puncture-resistant soles.
• Hazard Communication – Make information accessible to employees at all times in multiple languages and formats.
• Hazardous Substances — Use an effective employee training program for handling hazardous substances.
• Head Protection – Use hard hats, safety nets, and body harnesses at all times.
• Ladders – Avoid ladders with metal components near electrical work and power lines.
• Scaffolding – Fall hazards can occur when scaffolds are not deployed properly.

The best way to reduce the number of construction accidents is to keep workers aware of safety issues, train them on safety, communicate safety plans, and continuously discuss innovative ways to improve safety. In addition to these steps, workers must be provided with the right equipment and proper supervision.

For more information on how LA Creed is having a positive impact on mitigating construction safety hazards in your community visit https://creedla.com.