Out of more than 60 projects for consideration for the ENR Excellence in Safety award, only 15 were named finalists. And from there, the judges chose this year’s Southeast Excellence in Safety Award winner went to Choate’s project, University of North Carolina Marsico Hall, a contemporary 374,000-SF, nine-story, state-of-the-art lab and research facility. For the entire project’s impressive four-year construction duration, there was zero time lost to accidents, injuries or safety violations. With a site located in the very middle of an active, busy campus, ensuring student safety was absolutely critical.

To achieve paramount safety conditions, all trades and their employees were required to be indoctrinated on Choate’s safety program. Choate’s policy ensures both personnel and subcontractors know and adhere to rigid safety criteria, often above and beyond the requirements of OSHA. As a part of the specialized safety program, subcontractors were subjected to a safety pre-approval check. In addition, they were required to develop and submit a site-specific safety program for their work for acceptance.

Choate requested and received a partnership with the NCDOL for their Extended Consultative Review Program.  In this program Choate and every subcontractor individually participates in a consultative job site safety inspection. The contractor safety program is reviewed, training programs and a site inspection of work in progress is monitored. Unexpected visits by Choate’s dedicated Safety Manager also keep safety in the forefront of the team’s minds at all times. Additionally, Choate kept the entire construction site encompassed by a fence as well as requiring all jobsite personnel to have very visible and specific badging; absolutely no student interaction was tolerated.

Marsico Hall also received an Award of Merit in the Higher Education/Research category in the ENR Southeast Best Projects.

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