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In May, we hosted our annual celebration of our teams’ commitment to safety and an official kick-off for paving season. The centerpiece: Smith Burger Co.’s Food Truck, whose cooks prepared 107 burgers in less than an hour for our nearby field crews. Our team delivered these delicious meals to the crews working in the area before gathering to enjoy the day with the best burgers in town.
This year, we had an additional milestone to celebrate. As of June 13, Evergreen Roadworks™ has had one thousand, four hundred and thirty-six days (nearly four years) without a time-lost safety incident. 1,436 is a number that could not have been reached without a serious commitment to safety and well-being from every employee at Evergreen.
Talking with the people of Evergreen, the culture and attitude of the company becomes clear. Garrett Pierce, our Trucking and Equipment Dispatcher, articulated a sentiment shared widely. When asked what he loves most about his job, he said, “Believe it or not, the people I work with and the safety of the company. This is the safest company I have ever worked for, 100%, and I have been in the construction business since 1998, first in bridges and now asphalt.”
90% of our employees have been here for years and years, with a remarkably high return of seasonal employees. The culture keeps them coming back. Our crews work together every day and often see co-workers more than they see their families. They become family and look out for each other.
The two men who spearhead our safety team, Butch Cross and Dan Nelson, equip our crews with the foundation and tools for success. They provide training in multiple safety prevention categories such as emergency response, illness/injury incident reporting, machine safety, hand safety, personal protection equipment, hazard identification/ chemical safety, ergonomics and more. During orientation, employees are trained on how to prevent or respond to more than 25 emergency response scenarios.
Near-miss incident reports are another useful tool for preventing hazardous situations. Anyone can fill out a near-miss form if they encounter something they think could lead to an accident. Butch and Dan personally ensure these near-miss situations are addressed with the help of the site’s foreman. The near-miss process has the additional benefit of keeping the team alert to their surroundings, proactively growing their awareness of all safety areas. While these are only a few examples of the systems in place, Butch says that as far as safety is concerned, “I do not think there are too many people who go above what we do.”
However, with 47 years of experience in the field of safety, Dan admits,
“Let’s face it, nobody likes a safety guy. Seriously, when you go out there, people think, ‘Here comes trouble. What are they going to pick on today?’ But we don’t want to pick on anybody, we are not there to catch you. And if somebody gets hurt, we look for facts. We don’t look for faults. We know nobody out there wants to see somebody get hurt. We just want to figure out what happened and stop it from ever happening again.”
With a holistic understanding of the challenges before them, Dan and Butch are intentional in fostering close relationships with the crews. “Everybody has got our number, everybody knows us,” says Butch. They work hard to build a culture of mutual trust and respect, getting out in the field regularly.
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