Dive teams mobilize every day to complete a broad assortment of tasks utilizing 3‑person dive teams. Historically, this has been the standard not only within Brennan's practices but for most other inland diving organizations. The Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI) gives guidance that requires, at a minimum, a 3‑person dive team. While this practice is sufficient in some circumstances; such as non-penetration inspections and wheel jobs (propeller repairs); with our growing scope of work it became apparent that a 4‑person dive crew—adding a standby diver—should be our internal minimum standard moving forward.

By Michael Cannell—Quality and Safety Manager

As construction projects pick up speed across the country, so do construction- and safety-related news stories. It’s important to ask: What is J.F. Brennan Company, Inc. (Brennan) doing to ensure the safety of our team? And, can we increase safety measures without sacrificing productivity?

There is nothing more important on a job site than safety. To prevent an injury, one must recognize the potential risk and take mitigative action beforehand. The challenge that companies like us face is not so much trying to figure out how an incident happened, but training employees to recognize the potential of injury before it happens. Once that mindset has been ingrained, team members must be empowered to address and escalate it without repercussion.

Lock and dam and hydropower infrastructure face numerous unique challenges when it comes to improving the safety and reliability of existing dams. An important structural enhancement for dam stabilization projects is the installation of high-capacity post-tensioned anchors, which may supplement or replace existing anchors.

According to the Post-Tensioning Institute, post-tensioned rock and soil anchors provide a cost-efficient, high-performance solution for projects needing both temporary and permanent stabilization solutions.

Getting Your Money’s Worth

At Brennan, training is the backbone of our safety program, and we have come to discover a high return on investment by bringing much of our training in-house. Doing this helps us prepare our workforce for our unique work features, which in the long run, lowers our Experience Modification Rate (EMR). A company’s EMR is a number used by insurance companies to determine the past cost of injuries and any future chance of risks. The lower your EMR number, the better your standing compared to similar companies. The average industry EMR rating is 1.00, so companies that can get a lower rate than this save money when it comes to insurance premiums (not to mention savings associated with eliminating workplace injuries). When taking into account the number of manhours we work each year, our current EMR of .52 translates to a savings of up to $400,000! We believe one of the reasons we achieve such a low EMR is because we focus on quality when it comes to training.

We live in a world where focus on construction safety is advancing as rapidly as the development of new microchips.  When it comes to safety, a construction company cannot afford to learn by mistake.  Reacting and correcting is not a sustainable method to our survival in this day and age.  We have to look forward and predict problems before they happen.