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Bechtel commits $7 million to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention partnership to stop construction worker suicides

2024-03-08T15:13:00-05:00

Earlier this week, engineering and construction giant Bechtel and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) announced a multiyear partnership dedicated to preventing construction worker suicides.

The partnership aims to reach 500,000 U.S. construction workers over five years through industry-specific programs and resources. Bechtel has reportedly committed $7 million to the AFSP, which is the largest pledge ever received by the Foundation and the largest single donation ever made by Bechtel. The endeavor aims to combine Bechtel’s industry knowledge and AFSP’s national network, education, and prevention strategies.

As noted by Bechtel in a press release, the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession in the U.S., with the number of suicides being almost five times higher than the number of lives lost in job site safety incidents. This is according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Bureau of Labor St...

Sydney Opera House builders reflect on historic job as the icon turns 50

2023-10-20T16:55:00-04:00

The construction of the Sydney Opera House was a famously fraught saga, but as the city’s landmark turns 50, former workers remember a quite different atmosphere on the site itself.

Trade unionists and other workers were not the only sources of labor disputes on the site, as Jørn Utzon memorably quit midway over a payment dispute on the 14-year construction project that became essentially the Brooklyn Bridge of the Southern Hemisphere when it finally opened on October 20, 1973.

A design known for its engineering breakthroughs, it also was historic in terms of the concessions made to workers, says Solidarity Online. Their execution of Utzon’s complex vision went over schedule and budget by ten years and $95 million dollars. The result, as Frank Gehry said, was “a building that changed the image of an entire country.”

“The work was precise. You can see it in the building today. Everything is perfect,” one worker told The Guardian. The BBC also has a retrospective look back in pictures here.

Demand for construction workers remains high as overall U.S. labor demand dips

2023-09-01T17:47:00-04:00

The nationwide demand for labor is dulling, but construction still faces a shortage of workers. Construction counted 363,000 job openings at the end of July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a decrease of 23,000 jobs from June.

As noted by the chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), Anirban Basu, job openings, across all industries, are at the lowest level since March 2021, and the rate at which workers are quitting their jobs has returned to the pre-pandemic norm. The demand for construction workers, however, still remains high. Last month's 363,000 job openings are still 10,000 more than the amount during the same period last year.

The recent dip in labor demand has been attributed to continued inflation and higher interest rates. According to Construction Dive, ABC members have indicated that they will still increase hiring efforts and are unlikely to lay off workers. Money entering the construction industry through legislation aiming to spur major projects is straining the pool of labor as contractors are competing for the same skilled workers.

To browse the latest architecture career opportunities, head to Archinect Jobs.

President Biden lays out workplace heat safety plan to protect workers

2023-07-31T17:06:00-04:00

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to increase protections for workers facing extreme heat, as temperatures across the U.S. soar and large swaths of the country face heat advisories.

The President’s announcement comes as close to 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. The country currently has no federal standards on workplace heat safety, and there has been no timeline for the finalization of one. As reported by HR Dive, heat has become the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.

Previously on Archinect: Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

Biden directed the U.S. Department of Labor to issue hazard alerts notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat. The Department will also increase its inspections of at-risk workplaces such as farms and construction sites and heighten its enforcement of heat safety violations. The Biden administration aims to invest $7 million to develop more accurate weather predictions and $152 million to improve drinking water infrastructure in California, C...

Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

2023-07-20T15:01:00-04:00

With record-high temperatures impacting millions around the world, a spotlight has been cast on the workplace conditions of construction workers, who currently aren’t protected by any strict standard regarding extreme heat. According to a heat tracker by The New York Times, approximately 27% of the U.S. population live in areas where heat levels could reach dangerous levels this week. This comes following the world’s hottest week on record during the first week of July. According to Gary Orr, a health scientist with OSHA, there is no timeline for the finalization of a heat standard.

As reported by Zachary Phillips of Construction Dive, OSHA conducted 1,827 federal heat inspections between April 2022 and June 20, 2023, with 47% of them being in construction. Many of the inspections were not programmed, with 567 occurring due to complaints and 58 due to fatality or catastrophe. "For construction workers, the sweltering conditions mean an additional jobsite hazard. But there is no enfo...

'Lunch atop a skyscraper' reflects how far construction safety standards have come

2023-07-05T14:49:00-04:00

Eleven men perch precariously on a metal beam, eating lunch, lighting cigarettes or drinking from glass bottles. Wearing only cloth caps as head protection, the men dwarf the hazy background of 1930s New York City and Central Park. Much has changed since workers building the 66-story, 850-foot-tall Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan posed for “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” in 1932, but it remains construction’s most iconic photograph.

The photograph, which was originally displayed in the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932, was and continues to be a positive and widely admired American symbol. However, when examining what’s being depicted, it is undeniable that there is an array of problematic safety violations present, including a lack of proper footwear, personal protective equipment, and fall protection. It reflects how far safety standards have come from a time when they were nonexistent, and workplace fatalities were expected.

Previously on Archinect: Construction fatalities in New York City have reached a three-year high

As noted by Construction Dive, with today’s OSHA standards, the scene depicted in the photo could result in initial fines of approximately $155,000 per person. The photo also symbolizes the ongoing fight for continued worker protection. Construction still remains one of the deadliest industries in the U.S, with slips, trips, and falls among the most deadly hazards. Latino workers als...

Immigrant women detail a 'completely different world' on construction sites in NYC

2023-06-28T11:15:00-04:00

[C]onstruction is a risky job, and even more so for undocumented immigrants, who often work under informal verbal agreements. And for women, being vastly outnumbered on every construction site means more pressure to accept lower pay and mistreatment. That’s why, as more immigrant women don hard hats in New York City, advocates are training them to stand up against exploitation – and transform the construction industry itself.

More than half of New York City’s 200,000-plus-strong construction workforce are immigrants. Myriad abuses abound in informal labor markets, adding to a dangerous climate that last year saw fatalities reach a three-year high.

The women featured in the Guardian article also detailed a culture of sexual discrimination where gender norms are often a reluctant means to financial stability. As one worker stated, “Because we’re women, we are constantly being devalued in these jobs.”

Construction fatalities in New York City have reached a three-year high

2023-04-14T10:00:00-04:00

A new report from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) has shown an alarming increase in construction worker fatalities in the city for 2022.

A total of 11 deaths were recorded for the year, up from 9 the previous year and the 8 that were recorded in 2020. A total of 9 fatal accidents were the result of falls, which injured another 200 workers. Brooklyn led all five boroughs with 6 fatalities, while Manhattan led the tally of injuries at 255.

The DOB says an increase in building activity citywide is at least partially to blame.

This comes a year after the agency enacted a program of “zero tolerance” safety sweeps resulting in stop-work orders at nearly 1,500 construction sites throughout New York City. The year 2022 had a recorded decline in those orders. The report also cited the impacts of better safety equipment for workers and the increased emphasis on safety education practices.

2021 was an increasingly deadly year for construction workers in New York

2023-02-24T14:24:00-05:00

In 2021, 12.1 per 100,000 construction workers in New York state died on the job, a 9% increase from 11.1 the year before, according to a new report from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. The total number of workers who died in the state increased to 61 in 2021, up from 41 in 2020, reported NYCOSH, a membership organization that represents workers, unions and health and safety professionals.

The Committee also found that one-quarter of all workplace fatalities across New York state took place on construction sites, a repeat of the figure contained in the Deadly Skyline Report for 2020. Latino workers accounted for 25.5% of the deaths recorded, keeping pace with a larger grisly national trend. Overall, an average of 53.6 workers have died on job sites each year in New York over the past decade.

The NYC Department of Buildings had the same year enacted “zero tolerance” safety sweeps resulting in nearly 1,500 stop-work orders. The reform efforts were added to recently in the form of the new Carlos’ Law, which will increase the financial penalties on employers in negligent death cases from $10,000 to $500,000 (to a maximum of $1 million). In New York City alone, where 20 workers died, some 89% of construction sites had some form of safety issue, according to a ...

Construction still ranks as one of the deadliest industries in the U.S., according to new survey

2022-12-21T16:24:00-05:00

Construction workers died at a rate of 9.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2021, the BLS reported, down from 10.1 in 2020. That rate has hovered in that threshold for at least a decade. The new per capita figures are the lowest since 2011, but still don’t break the trend. Worker death rate across all industries was 3.6 per 100,000, the highest since 2016.

Among the demographics, immigrant Hispanic & Latino workers were almost twice as likely to die than their U.S.-born counterparts, highlighting an underreported problem nationwide. Slips, trips, and falls were among the most commonly-recorded causes of death, followed by transportation accidents, exposure to toxic substances, and fatal contact with equipment. This comes after news that construction site staffing has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“There is a temptation to see a decline in the fatality numbers as something to celebrate. It isn’t,” Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America told Construction Dive bluntly. “There is nothing acceptable about nearly 1,000 people losing their lives in our industry.”

Construction staffing returned to pre-pandemic numbers in February, report finds

2022-11-09T12:24:00-05:00

Construction staffing has nearly climbed out of the pandemic-induced hole. [...] construction reached 99% of pre COVID-19 numbers, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. Contractors added 60,000 new employees last month, Associated Builders and Contractors reported, boosting total employment in the industry to 7.6 million. That’s the highest staffing level since COVID-19 drove one million workers off site in April 2020.

“Evidence indicates that contractors have had a somewhat easier time filling available positions recently,” Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban said in a March statement. “There are also indications that supply chain issues have improved slightly, though the Ukraine/Russia war may create new issues on that front. With demand strong and the supply side of the economy in repair, 2022 is setting up to be a strong year for contractors.”

LA halts Metro Purple Line construction over worker safety concerns

2022-10-28T17:09:00-04:00

Work on the vast expansion of the Metro Purple Line in Los Angeles has come to an abrupt stop following dozens of worker injuries and safety concerns that officials say have not been addressed. “Metro has ordered its contractor to temporarily suspend all field work on the Purple Line Extension Section 2 Project due to the unacceptable rate of serious worker injuries,” Metro said in a statement. "The safety of those building our county’s transportation projects must always be protected.”

A total of nine serious incidents were recorded this calendar year alone, with several near-misses that could have been “more serious,” according to Metro’s letter to general contractor Tutor Perini. Parts of the project had previously accelerated thanks to Covid-related street closures. According to KTLA, the Metro has issued an order to Tutor Perini to produce a revised safety plan before work on the six-station project can resume.

San Francisco's new Presidio Tunnel Tops project could serve as a case study for women in project management and construction roles

2022-09-07T18:53:00-04:00

By any count, Presidio Tunnel Tops had an unusual number of women in construction and project leadership. They say there are good reasons for that.

Led by Kerry Huang of James Corner Field Operations, the recently-opened new addition to San Francisco’s public parks portfolio was in the works for the better part of 30 years before being completed in July.

As Landscape Architecture Magazine highlights, the number of women employed in leadership positions was uncommon and created an atmosphere that could serve as a case study for an industry that is (to its considerable detriment) sadly still beset by systemic occupational challenges and a prevailing misogynistic work culture.

“We’ve all worked so harmoniously together,” Rania Rayes, a senior project manager for the Presidio Tunnel Trust, said of the benefits of working on such a diverse site. “Having many women on the team may make that possible. We’re very patient, we have some great communication skills…. I just think that these are attributes that a lot of women have, and they want to be team players.”

A dearth of BIPOC Boston-area construction workers reveals the industry's ugly 'caste system'

2022-08-03T15:26:00-04:00

The Boston population has grown increasingly diverse over the past few decades, with people of color accounting for more than half of the city's current residents and Black people making up 24% of all residents. But the city's construction workforce has not kept pace, according to Boston city data. The data also shows a kind of caste system in construction. The higher up you go in a building under construction, the less likely you are to find workers of color.

The Hub’s long history with racism is felt in practically every other area of the built environment in the city, including its underserved mass transit system and arcane zoning policy’s harsh afterburn. Workers on various large construction projects such as the new Winthrop Center are seeing the effects even as the industry faces labor shortages.

According to WBGH, Boston’s citywide construction workforce is 63% white, with instances of high-demand skilled roles registering at 88% and 89% white. Perhaps predictably, the data set showed some more dangerous job functions (such as asbestos removal) being staffed by upwards of 75% BIPOC laborers.

This is particularly worrisome as the city has been pushing equity mandates that require 40% BIPOC employment on all sites totaling more than 50,000 square feet. Women aren't fairing much better in the local workforce either: A fall survey of Boston's 150 biggest projects found none that met the same requirement, which calls for only 12% empl...

An adaptive-reuse project in the Bronx has become New York's most notorious construction site

2022-06-07T09:00:00-04:00

This site, where an old building is being transformed into a charter school, has just distinguished itself from the 40,000 other major construction projects in New York City by having its third worker fatality in less than three years. No other construction site in New York City has had this many separate fatal incidents since at least 2003, when the Department of Buildings began keeping electronic records. But despite the pattern of deaths, the consequences have been negligible.

In full view of the Major Deegan Expressway, 20 Bruckner Boulevard, known throughout the New York area as the site of the iconic former History Channel (and later iHeartRadio) billboard, was once the ice storehouse of a former Yankees owner and is now being transformed into a charter school by developer Maddd Equities, who has had a scant $28,000 in fines levied against them in the past years despite the record-high fatalities.

Being a construction worker is one of the most lethal occupations in New York City, with rates of injury and death rising ahead of the pandemic before falling slightly owing to the economic downturn. Most of the men profiled in the Times are nonunion immigrant laborers working for $120-per-day to start, with some being recruited from homeless shelters to meet demands. An OSHA investigation revealed that some deaths were not properly reported for weeks.

Previously on Archinect: Nearly 1 in 4 workplace deaths in New York occur in construction

Multiple stop-work...

NYC construction workers injured at the site of architect Erica Tishman's 2019 death as concerns mount

2022-03-15T13:54:00-04:00

A collapsing floor injured two workers Monday at a midtown office building where falling exterior work killed a prominent architect in 2019. The accident at 729 Seventh Avenue happened just before 10 a.m. During active demolition work on the 18th floor, part of the floor collapsed, sending two workers dropping to the 17th floor. They were taken to area hospitals; their conditions were not immediately clear.

The address is well known as the site where, in December 2019, architect Erica Tishman was struck by a piece of falling debris that her family claims directly resulted from negligence on the part of the property developer and the Department of Buildings. Administrative code charges brought against the former before the New Year are still pending.

Previously on Archinect: Criminal charges have been filed in the accidental death of architect Erica Tishman

Monday’s incident highlights a hidden problem in construction sites across New York City. One recent study by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) revealed a rising number of fatalities amongst construction workers in spite of a continued Covid-induced downturn in new projects. Non-union workers are particularly prone to such accidents. It is not clear at this time whether or not workers on the site were unionized or not.

Construction workers most affected by Covid-19, study finds

2020-12-15T14:13:00-05:00

A new study tracking the results of more than 730,000 COVID-19 tests found that construction workers had the highest positivity rates for asymptomatic cases of any occupation, including healthcare staff, first responders, correctional personnel, elderly care workers, grocery store workers and food service employees.

Access the complete study High Frequency and Prevalence of Community-Based Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection here.

L.A.'s 6th Street Bridge: Built by (some) women

2019-12-11T13:36:00-05:00

The 6th Street Bridge team of 170 includes 15 women — the most on any commercial project in Los Angeles and nearly double the Department of Labor’s participation goal of 6.9% female crew members.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the relatively high proportion of women construction workers helping to build the Michael Maltzan Architecture-designed 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The bridge is being constructed via a joint venture between Skanska and Stacy and Witbeck. Skanska recently redesigned some of its construction site protective equipment to make the items safer for women to use

According to Bureau of Labor statistics cited in the article, the construction industry represents a rare bright spot for women with regards to pay equity, where women make 100.8% as much as men do.

Describing the number of women who are working on the project, Rosa Garcia, a carpenter on the project, told The Los Angeles Times, “There’s been jobs where there’s been 800 guys and one female — and I’ve been the only female. This is the first project that I walked on to where I couldn’t believe how many women I saw.”

Hundreds of construction workers protest Hudson Yards developer Steve Ross, calling on NFL to remove him from commitee

2018-08-24T13:31:00-04:00

Thousands of union construction workers gathered Wednesday at the NFL HQ in New York City to protest the founder of Related Companies, the developer behind the large-scale redevelopment of Hudson Yards. Wearing t-shirts that read "Step down Steve Ross," the workers were calling on the organization to remove Ross, who is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins, from the NFL's Social & Racial Justice Committee.

Organized by the Building and Construction Trades Council and its "Count Me In" campaign, the city's 100,000-member unionized workforce has been protesting the development company's use of nonunion labor at Hudson Yards. Wednesday's action at the NFL Headquarters—where over 50 construction workers were arrested after temporarily blocking traffic on Park Avenue—was followed the next day with further protests held outside of Hudson Yards. The union has been holding demonstrations at the site every week since last year.

Thousands of union construction workers rallied calling on Steve...