Walbridge Places First for National Construction Safety and Excellence Award

DETROIT — Walbridge, a Detroit-based full-service construction service provider, was awarded first place in the Associated General Contractors of America 2009 Construction Safety and Excellence Awards.       Walbridge's safety performance was ranked best in the nation in the Building Division, 1 million- 4 million hours worked category.   Winners were announced March 19 during the AGC Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida.

The AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards program is the industry's elite safety excellence awards program for companies of all sizes and occupational divisions.   CSEA recognizes companies who have developed, implemented and maintained premier safety and loss prevention programs.     This is Walbridge's second nomination in four years.

“There’s no better measure of a company’s commitment to quality than the strength of their safety program,” said Doug Pruitt, the association’s past president who announced this year’s winners. “While completing magnificent projects is important, protecting hard working employees is essential in this industry.”

Safety is Walbridge's number one core value.   The Walbridge safety program's success relies on the company's Safety FIRST mentality.     The Safety FIRST system provides a pathway to safety success with steps ensuring employees follow processes, inform, review effectiveness, share lessons learned and train to be safer.   Program highlights include daily safety huddles,   visual management, behavioral-based training, use of 100% personal protection equipment and fall protection, and custom safety programs including Walbridge's Crane Action Plan, Stop Look and Listen Safety Observations and a high angle rescue plan.

“We have always put a premium on safety for our customers, partners and employees,” said Walbridge Chairman of the Board John Rakolta.   “We have found that our repeat customers give us the work because of our safety record and the value we place in protecting lives.”

Walbridge recently surpassed 7,000,000 safe works hours and has worked since October 2003 without a lost-time injury.   The company's innovative safety program has won over one hundred national, local and project safety awards in the past ten years, and the company was named one of America's Safest Companies by Occupational Hazards magazine.