The Collaboration Commons construction team has achieved a remarkable milestone: 100,000 safe work hours. With 60 to 70 people working on site daily, this achievement underscores the Lab’s contractor, Overaa Construction’s, dedication to worker safety.

Overaa’s key initiatives include cultivating a “see something, say something” culture, recognizing vigilance through weekly “Good Catch Awards” with tool prizes, and reminding the team each work day that everyone has stop work authority and a responsibility to use it. The Lab’s tiered process for Stop Work, Tiers 1, 2, and 3, addresses different levels of safety concerns. This construction project further added a Tier 0 for situations where workers just need clarification for a task they are completing. The process empowers each team member to pause and assess rather than proceed with uncertainty.

“Achieving this 100,000 safe work hours milestone proves that exceptional safety standards can be achieved without compromising progress as we build a facility that will serve our Lab community for years to come,” said Lisa Ehlers, Project Director with the Projects and Infrastructure Modernization Division.