Straub Construction, Inc., known as one of the safest construction companies in the United States, recently celebrated a million-hour safety milestone with their joint venture partner, Martin Harris Construction. The million hours, without a single case of serious injury, was performed by over 1,000 workers at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms on the Quality of Life Bachelor Enlisted Quarter Packages 9 and 4.
“This is an unprecedented accomplishment of safety”, said Navy Lieutenant Commander Matthew Bedard, Resident Officer in Charge of Construction, at a recent One Million Hour Safety Celebration at the Base in Twentynine Palms. More than 500 workers, on each of these projects, have been working since 2008 to build new bachelor enlisted quarters (BEQs) for the Combat Center Marines.
“Once completed, the BEQs will house over 1,000 Marines and significantly improve the quality of life for the Marines” said Richard Straub, joint venture partner of the Straub Martin Harris Joint Venture. “These are two of the largest projects in both firms’ histories and as a joint venture.” Package 9 was completed in 2011 and Package 4 will be completed this year. The barracks feature sports areas, such as basketball and volleyball courts, walking paths, barbecue grills and common areas along with renewable energy features that will help the Base’s goal for Net Zero energy.
Bedard and Straub attribute the success of the contract workers to a “culture of safety” that has been instilled since the beginning of the project – not only wi
th these project teams, but also with adjacent construction project teams. Bedard said. “We’re not looking for safety as a priority because priorities can change; we’re looking for it as a culture. So we’re looking to drive it down to that individual guy to say, ‘You’re coming here to work and that’s good but we want you to go home safe every day. We don’t want you to compromise yourself by taking unnecessary risk in the field and compromising your safety.’”
Straub Construction, Inc. has earned national awards for its safety program from the Associated General Contractors and was ranked 2nd in the nation in 2010 and 2011 (2012 has not been announced yet) for achieving Excellence in Safety amongst other contractors.“Bottom line, you want to make sure everybody goes home at the end of the day,” Bedard added. “You want to make sure everybody comes to work, everybody has a productive work day but also goes home safe every day. It’s really incumbent on each person to take that initiative and accept that culture of safety.”
Straub Construction, Inc. is a privately held firm, headquartered in Fallbrook, California and for more than 35 years, Straub has provided construction management services on award-winning projects across the Southwest United States.
