October 26, 2020

Brian Salzgiver Safety Professional of the Year

Brandon Hubert
Turner Construction

The area EHS manager for Turner’s Special Projects Division in Seattle, Brandon Hubert manages over $120 million of sold work in place and is the leader in the implementation of Turner’s Building LIFE safety program. His success comes from his ability to understand field-related difficulties. His background is as a union laborer, with 21 years in the field prior to joining the Turner EHS team in 2011.

Hubert speaks the language of both field and office.

Turner’s safety program, Building LIFE, focuses on engagement of the front-line worker to drive safety. Hubert understands the issues that front-line workers face. His ability to engage when issues manifest and provide real-time fixes are invaluable to the growth of the program. Several specialty contractors have invited Hubert to deliver Turner’s Building LIFE training to management teams. This enables a deeper partnership, showing that he understands how valuable their time is and that he is willing to work on their terms to ensure that all are on the same page about safety culture and expectations.

Hubert also manages the Turner Special Projects Division staff and superintendents. Through teaching opportunities at monthly staff meetings, he provides safety trainings on topics relevant to work taking place. This enables Turner staff to have a baseline knowledge of safety requirements on current projects.

Hubert’s biggest impact recently has been leading the business unit in critical safe-behavior (CSB) events. CSBs are a partnering exercise between Turner and specialty contractors that focus on leading injury trends. Work practices are observed and opportunities of improvement are sought. Hubert has trained Turner staff on how to engage field workers as partners in a way that overcomes industry barriers between field and staff.

Another area where Hubert has led the charge is safety integrations into Turner’s lean practices. Standard planning actions are daily foreman meetings, weekly pull-planning meetings and last-planning meetings, all of which are intended to engage specialty contractors’ leads for planning ahead. With Hubert attending these events and coaching Turner superintendents and specialty contractors, potential safety issues can be predicted and plans made to control the potential issues. The risk can often be eliminated altogether by ensuring that all parties are on the same page about the sequence of events.

Many of the projects within Hubert’s division are tenant improvements to existing and occupied structures in the downtown Seattle corridor. He works during the preconstruction phase with the site superintendent to develop a detailed logistics plan that accounts for building occupant exposure and pedestrian exposure. Mobile crane operations are necessary for a variety of reasons on these projects and have high risk potential. Hubert trains Turner superintendents to ensure that thorough plans, detailing all activity related to the crane and logics plan, are bulletproof. He has also developed a mobile-crane policy that provides a step-by-step instruction of what’s needed for mobile-crane usage.

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• AGC/Moss Adams Community Service Award
  
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• General Contractor Under 200,000 worker hours
  
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• Specialty Contractor Over 1 million worker hours
  
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• Grand Award: Safety
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• General Contractor Over 500,000 worker hours
  
• Champion of Diversity Award
  
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• Excellence in Innovation
  
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• Private Building over $100 million