Capitol restoration crew breaks to talk about fall safety

Construction workers restoring the cracks in the dome of the Capitol took a break Wednesday morning to discuss how to safely use a harness and erect scaffolding.

Turner Construction, the project’s general contractor, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hosted the fall safety stand-down event in Senate park as part of a nationwide effort to talk to construction workers about preventing falls.

Of the 4,585 fatal workplace injuries in 2013, Abdon Friend, Turner’s director of safety for the D.C. area, said 595 resulted from a fall and 291 of those falls were in construction.

“Three out of five of these fatal falls were from heights less than 20 feet,” he said “20 feet. That’s it. Falls to a lower level continue to be the leading cause of death for construction workers, all of which are preventable.”

Turner Construction and Smoot Construction began work on the Capitol dome in January 2014 and the work is expected to be completed by early 2016. 

“Believe it or not nearly 7 million people will show up for work today on construction projects in every state in every city across the United States and the work they do is integral to providing us with the infrastructure that keeps our country growing and prospering,” said Cindy DePrater, Turner’s vice president of environment, health and safety. “Together these workers will complete over $1 trillion worth of work this year.”

DePrater said Turner is pausing work on every single project it’s working on from now to May 15 to discuss important safety procedures and safe building practices.

“It’s not just about getting the job done,” she said. “It’s about getting the job done safely.”