You see us every day, wearing brightly colored vests, hard hats and other protective gear. We might be wrestling with heavy machinery, tightening a bolt 10 stories in the sky or kicking up dust with steel-toed boots as we move the earth beneath our feet.
There are thousands of workers in the booming Puget Sound area, currently working on billions of dollars of construction projects. These men and women are literally reshaping our community - building office towers, hospitals, homes, stores, roads, bridges, and parks.
But these workers face risks every day as they work with heavy equipment in dangerous places. It’s truly heartbreaking that across the U.S., nearly 80,000 workers suffer an on-the-job injury each year, and we’ve seen more than 800 deaths occur in any given year.
That’s why we have joined hands with our industry colleagues across the U.S. and Canada to hold this campaign to encourage workers to adopt safe work practices.
Safety Week is not only a celebration of our success, but a chance to remind everyone of the shared commitment to safety. Construction safety is truly a community-wide concern, especially when you consider not only the thousands of workers on project sites, but the millions of residents who drive or walk near those sites each day. We know that each worker on a project site leaves people he or she cares about each day to come to work, and we want to make sure all our workers get home safely. We also know that any incident on a project site can have a financial impact on our community.
Safety is an essential part of every job we do, and during Safety Week (May 1 - 5, 2017) we are holding events to remind our workers about the steps we take each day to remain safe. So, if you pass a construction site May 1 - 5, take a minute to consider the risks these workers are taking, and give them a thumbs up. To learn more about Safety Week, visit www.constructionsafetyweek.com
Mortenson's Seattle office recognizes the importance of Safety Week. Our Washington projects and local office will hold activities, lunches, presentations and will join forces with our trade partners, customers, and other local agencies to engage in our shared culture of Zero Injuries, because: