Safety In ConstructionMy Personal Experience

Preface

In May of 2012 I was fortunate enough to be able to shadow Brendan Flaherty for a few weeks. He works for OSU and manages various construction projects. At the time he was on a project at the Moritz College of Law. I was allowed to sit in on weekly project meetings, as well as walk through the project site to see the progress made.

The Project In the basement of the Moritz College of Law there is a locker room. The project included the removal of all the lockers, as well as the tile in the locker room and the hallway leading to the room. There was also a fair bit of electrical to be done as all of the lighting was being replaced and TVs were being put in.

Basic Safety Basic construction safety was practiced at all times. Even though we weren’t actually working on the project, when we would go through the site we would always wear our hard hats and safety glasses. This seems very simple, but it is the basis for all construction safety.

Asbestos The tiles being removed from the site were old asbestos tiles. Prolonged inhalation of asbestos can cause a variety of respiratory problems, so extreme care must be taken when coming into contact with it. A special group had to be called in to remove the tile on this particular project.

ElectricalThere is always danger present when working on anything electrical. On this project they used a lockout tagout system to prevent anyone from accidentally turning on an electrical circuit that was in use.

The ResultBy August of 2012 the renovation was complete and the result was a comfortable common area with beautiful wooden lockers, warm wooden floors, and several TVs to catch up on the news and just relax.