B / section
4 / Page
7-1 / DATE
April 1, 2014
The District Project Safety Officer (DPSO) is responsible for implementing and monitoring the District Safety Assurance Program for all construction contracts.
The DPSO will be familiar with all construction safety provisions, their application, and will advise the Inspector-in-Charge, as necessary, on matters relating to contractor compliance with safety regulations. The DPSO will ensure that the Assistant District Executive– Construction (ADE-C) is advised of a contractor's repeated failure to comply with the contract safety requirements.
- Pre-construction
The DPSO (or designee) should attend the preconstruction conference, receive and discuss the contractor's proposed safety program, identify and discuss any specific safety hazards (confined spaces, fall protection, working over water, etc.) pertinent to the project and recommend any additional safety requirements that are required.
A US Department of Labor Poster, OSHA3165 (Job Safety and Health:It’s the Law),the contractor's emergency phone number (after hours contact personnel), the contractor's safety officer’s name and phone number, and a listing of hazardous materials found in the workplacealong with the location of the Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for these hazardous materials must be posted on the project bulletin board.
- Project Inspection
- Project
The Contractor is responsible for project safety.
If you see a major safety issue (life threatening), have the problem resolved immediately or stop work on that operation. If a stop work order is issued, follow up with written notification.
If you see a non-life-threatening safety concern, notify the foreman. If the problem is not corrected the next day, notify the project superintendent. If the problem still exists the next day, call the company's home office and inform the Assistant Construction Engineer/Manager (ACE/ACM). If the situation is not corrected one day after notifying the home office, the Inspector-in-Charge is to notify the ACE/ACM and document these notifications in a PSA. The ACE/ACM will promptly contact OSHA (see ATTACHMENT for contact information) with the ADE-C's concurrence and provide written notification to the Contractor. DO NOT EXPOSE YOURSELF TO A SAFETY HAZARD.
Subsequent corrective action will be documented and reported to the DPSO. A copy of the report and subsequent corrective action will be part of the permanent project records.
Promote safe practices:
Be safe yourself - show a good example.
Encourage the contractor to hold tool box talks.
Promote safety programs - Department issued hard hat stickers, newsletters, etc.
- District
The DPSO will perform periodic safety field reviews of projects during construction. More frequent inspections may be required for those projects having high exposure to hazardous conditions, such as, multiple operations being performed concurrently within relatively confined areas, or construction operations being performed immediately adjacent to areas of public use, or to follow-up on previous findings or reports of fatalities or disabling injuries.
The DPSO will evaluate safety compliance on construction projects. In accordance with Pub 408, Section 107.08, it is the contractor’s responsibility to comply at all times with applicable Federal, State, and local laws, provisions, and policies governing safety and health including Occupational Safety and Health regulations for construction.
The DPSO will provide a verbal report to the Inspector-in-Charge, following up with a written report of the review, with findings and recommendations. The report should include any corrective action taken by the time the report is prepared.
The DPSO is to perform a follow-up safety review of projects on which fatalities or disabling injuries have occurred to ensure that safety related practices and procedures for the project are being performed in compliance with contract requirements and Department procedures.
The DPSO will maintain a log of all reported disabling injuries and fatalities on construction projects, by County, State Route and Segment, Contract Number and, when appropriate, Federal Project Number. The DPSO will log the date of the follow-up review which is made to ensure that safety related practices and procedures for the project are being performed in compliance with contract requirements and Department procedures. For vehicle accidents, the DPSO will also log the date of the notification to the contractor's insurance company.
The District will monitor the performance of the reporting procedures to ensure that the required information relating to fatalities and disabling injuries is being provided in a timely manner. The Inspector-in-Charge is to communicate with the District Traffic Unit to ensure that the Unit receives its copy of each Construction Zone Vehicular Accident Report Form. The Traffic Unit can then report to the Central Office Highway Safety and Traffic Operations Division all motor vehicle accidents and traffic related disabling injuries that occur in the construction zone as described in the Project Office Manual (POM) C.9.13.
If consultant inspection will be utilized on a project, the District will ensure that a copy of the consultant’s safety program containing their safety officer’s or responsible individual’s name and phone number is attached within their consultant agreement in ECMS.
- Reports and Notifications
- Serious Incidents
The Inspector-in-Charge will report to the DPSO and the ACE/ACM all disabling injuries and fatalities that occur within the limits of the project signing or within a traffic queue that extends beyond the limits of the project signing.
NOTE: Disabling injuries for this procedure are defined as those that require a doctor's care at the scene of the accident or transportation to a hospital or doctor's office for treatment. Accident victims refusing or deferring treatment or transportation for treatment shall not be reported as a disabling injury.
The DPSO will notify the Construction Quality Assurance Section, Bureau of Project Delivery, at (717) 787-5610 and also the County Manager, about the occurrence of the following special events on Department projects:
- Chain reaction collisions of 15 or more vehicles.
- Accidents in construction and maintenance work zones resulting in death or disabling injury.
- School bus accidents resulting in death or disabling injury.
- Accidents involving the release of hazardous materials.
- Incidents which cause a major highway to be closed for six or more hours, except closures for maintenance and construction activities where the public and county have been notified in advance.
- Catastrophic events such as a bridge failure.
NOTES: / 1)The Construction Quality Assurance Section will notify the FHWA Division Office of these special events by email at .
2)The foregoing is in addition and subsequent to following Emergency Response requirements and procedures for the notification of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) at (717) 651-2001 when an emergency situation is discovered.
- Routine Incidents and Project Accidents
The District will ensure that the Contractor's insurance company is notified of every vehicle accident which occurs at the construction site in accordance with the procedures found in the POMC.9.14.
All accidents and near misses which involve a Department employee or Commonwealth vehicle must be reported, investigated, and appropriate corrective actions must be implemented in a timely manner as described in PennDOT Personnel Information Memorandum (PPIM) 13-156.
Accidents in construction sites which involve a consultant employee are to be reported to the consultant’s safety officer or responsible individual by the District.
- Project Safety Meeting
The Inspector-in-Charge is responsible for ensuring that each inspector receives briefings regarding the potential hazards to the inspector's and the contractor workmen's safety and the required safety procedures that are to be followed by the inspector and the contractor for each construction operation to which the inspector is assigned.
The briefings are to consist of an initial briefing (I) and refresher briefings (R) and may include participation in contractor safety meetings as well as in meetings conducted by Department personnel. Participation in the contractor's tool box talks is encouraged.
The initial briefing should be received prior to or within two (2) working days of the inspector's first assignment to the inspection activity on the project.
Refresher briefings are to be received at intervals of approximately two (2) weeks for as long as the inspector is assigned to the activity. More frequent briefings may be required as determined by the Inspector-in-Charge, the DPSO or their supervisors.
A consolidated record of these briefings is to be kept in a book or file marked for identification and traceable by index (or folder X) in the General File System and is to consist of the following format:
Date of Briefing / Type (I or R) &Subject of Briefing / Signature of Inspector
This documentation will be reviewed by the DPSO as a part of his inspection of the project to determine that adequate precautions are being taken to safeguard the inspectors.
The Contractor is responsible to monitor its own operations to see that it performs in accordance with its written project safety program.The Inspector-in-Charge is to provide written notification to the contractor of unsatisfactory practices that areobserved or that are brought to theirattention and to document in a PSA or other approved source reference, notifications of such unsatisfactory practices and satisfactory resolutions thereof.
- Child Labor Law
The Fair Labor Standards Act specifies a minimum age of eighteen for any nonagricultural occupation which the Secretary of Labor has declared hazardous, or detrimental to the health and well-being of sixteen and seventeen-year-olds. This minimum age applies even when the minor is employed by his parent or guardian.
The Inspector-in-Charge is to request a birth certificate or certification of age when a violation is suspected. The prime contractor is to be advised, and he must direct removal of any person in violation.
- PROCUREMENT NOTE
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations pertaining to construction are contained in Federal Regulations for Labor, CFR 29 Parts 1910, General Industry, and 1926, Construction.
These regulations are available on OSHA’s website https:/
Specific questions can be addressed by a local OSHA office. See Attachment, pages B.4.7-6thru B.4.7-7 for area OSHA offices.
ATTACHMENT
U.S. Department of Labor
Area Offices for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Allentown Area Office Philadelphia Area Office
Saucon Valley Plaza U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA
3477 Corporate Parkway, Suite 120 U.S. Custom House, Room 242
Center Valley, PA 18034 Second and Chestnut Street
Telephone: (267) 429-7542 Philadelphia, PA 19106-2902
Telephone: (215) 597-4955
Erie Area Office Pittsburgh Area Office
U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA
1128 State Street, Suite 200 William Moorhead Federal Building, Room 905
Erie, PA 16501 1000 Liberty Avenue
Telephone: (814) 874-5150 Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Telephone: (412) 395-4903
Harrisburg Area Office Wilkes-Barre Area Office
U.S Department of Labor – OSHA U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA
43 Kline Plaza The Stegmaier Building, Suite 410
Harrisburg, PA 17104-1529 7 North Wilkes-Barre Boulevard
Telephone: (717) 782-3902 Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702-5241
Telephone: (570) 826-6538
U.S. Department of Labor Regional Office
for the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
REGION III (Washington DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV)
U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA
The Curtis Center – Suite 740 West
170S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3309
Telephone: (215) 861-4900
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April 2014 Edition