Photo courtesy Ceco Concrete Construction Ceco Concrete Construction crews designed a device for lifting tall pole shores.

Ceco Concrete Construction is the only AGC subcontractor who has won a Safety Excellence Award in nine of the last 10 years.

“Safety will always be our number one priority. No job or amount of money can justify injuring an employee,” said Ceco President Ron Schuster.

Last year saw the continuation and expansion of Ceco’s comprehensive safety program to include job-specific safety plans developed by project staff, pre-job safety planning with customers, new employee orientation, company-prepared videos, and enforcement and disciplinary action.

Ceco goes beyond WISHA’s current 10-foot rule for fall protection by continuing to use the 6-foot rule. The company also invests in material handling equipment to reduce physical demand on employees. It recently came up with a creative lifting solution by designing a device that helps field crews vertically stand pole shores that top 20 feet in height and weigh about 100 pounds.

In 2003, Ceco rolled out its Safety Recognition Program, which recognizes superior safety performance at both the individual and team level. Management stresses this is not an incentive program, as working safely is a condition of employment.

The company launched another proactive safety measure recently with its Safety Performance Inspection Program. This is a quantitative tool which scores compliance of safety standards before an injury or accident takes place.

Ceco says its proactive safety culture helped it achieve a zero accident goal on over 75 percent of its projects in 2003.