The Day the Work Stood Still

The Day the Work Stood Still

Turner holds annual safety exercises on 1,000 sites worldwide 

From press releases

On May 4, Turner Construction Co. turned OSHA's 11th annual National Safety Stand-Down into a global event, stopping work on jobsites around the world to deliver an important safety message -- Situational Awareness: Know Your Next Move -- to more than 45,000 workers. Each year, New York City-based Turner chooses to make this investment to demonstrate how deeply it cares about the safety of the people who work on its projects, and those who live around them.

“Turner’s Building L.I.F.E. (Living Injury-Free Everyday) approach strives to eliminate worksite incidents through better pre-planning of construction activities, and through initiating safety engagement at project pursuit,” said Cindy DePrater, Turner VP of Environmental Health and Safety. “As we stop work on more than 1,000 projects, we will deliver this important message and continue to drive a culture of safety,” she added.

Vietnam, 40 years later:  Crews in Hanoi this week heard cautionary tales and sage advice at the VietinBank Towers project, a 300,000 sq m, mixed-use development that joins two, 68- and 48-story towers via a seven-level atrium.

This year's theme of Situational Awareness stressed that it is as essential for workers to understand the hazards of the work going on around them as it is for them to understand the hazards associated with their own work. Safety Stand-Down presentations all over the world on this important topic highlighted strategies for increasing awareness, as well as for controlling and continuously improving safety processes using the lean management concept of Plan, Do, Check, Adjust.

With the Plan, Do, Check, Adjust cycle as a framework, workers plan their next move, execute it, and then review that move, and its outcome to determine whether the workflow should be adjusted and improved upon, or if it can be practiced as a standard. The process of continuously re-evaluating risks and hazards – and modifying workflows to mitigate those risks – helps workers understand the impact of their work on those around them and minimize the hazards associated with that work so each and every member of the project team can go home safely every day.

Grand audience: Workers at one of the most prominent projects in Los Angeles, the 73-story Wilshire Grand mixed-use redevelopment, gathered Monday to listen to safety messages about fall protection, PPE, and the PDCA cycle.

OSHA's National Safety Stand-Down campaign this year runs from May 4 - 15. On Wednesday, May 6, in Washington DC, the Turner project team managing the restoration of the Capitol Dome also participated in the safety exercise to prevent falls in construction. The entire team stopped work and engaged with government and industry leaders and business partners on the important safety topics of fall prevention, situational awareness, and knowing your next move.

These stand-downs serve to strengthen the technical skills of people working on our projects, drive a culture of safety and make all of us safer and better builders. But importantly, it also gives Turner an opportunity to thank and recognize its workers for what they accomplish each and every day. 

Coincidentally, May 6 also marked the 113th anniversary of Turner’s founding.

Founders’ Day is observed within Turner as a company-wide day of community service. Employees and their families this year donated 6,000 hours of community service, giving back via its Paint the Town Blue campaign.

For more details on those activities, click here.