From hard hats to helmets, construction on Florida Atlantic University’s new football stadium in Boca Raton is nearly complete. The FAU Owls take the field for the first home game on October 15. As the Balfour Beatty Construction team focuses on the final touches, the entire project is celebrating their commitment to safety with a Sunshine State Recognition Award.
“The award is tied to the project. So not only does Balfour Beatty Construction get recognized, but so do our joint venture partners, the subcontractors, the owners, and everyone involved with the project,” said Roslyn Henderson, Project Manager for Balfour Beatty Construction.
The award is given by USF SafetyFlorida, a service of the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health. USF SafetyFlorida is funded by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the State of Florida. Created in 2006, the Sunshine State Safety Recognition Award commends employers and employees in all industries who proactively and routinely engage in job safety.
“They offer a service to educate both the contractor and the subcontractors, and part of that service is to perform an inspection similar to an OSHA audit. They make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. It keeps us on our toes.” said Henderson.
To qualify for the award, a business requests the inspection from USF SafetyFlorida, and then undergoes an on-site consultation, evaluation and inspection of all accident prevention programs and materials. The USF consultant will speak with workers, walk the job site and report any infractions.
Balfour Beatty Construction has set an ambitious safety goal – achieving Zero Harm in 2012. That means zero deaths, zero injuries to the public, zero ruined lives among all our people and an accident frequency rate below .10.
“While Balfour Beatty Construction’s OSHA recordable injury and lost time rates are significantly better than industry average, we’re striving to raise the bar even further for safety practices in our offices and project sites,” said Christopher Diaz, Loss Prevention Director at Balfour Beatty Construction. “Awards like this show we’re walking the talk.”
Construction on the FAU football stadium project will completely wrap up on October 7; nearly a year after the project broke ground. The FAU Owls will play Western Kentucky on October 15 in the first home game in their new stadium. Since the team formed ten years ago, the Owls have played home games 15 miles away at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale and occasionally at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.
