Clayco Creates New Safety Partnership with OSHA

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Taking safety to the next level, Clayco Inc. has announced a new partnership with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create unparalleled safety standards during construction of the Missouri Baptist Medical Center West Pavilion project in Town & Country, Mo.

In a signing ceremony held August 3, 2010, the project teams — including Clayco Inc., Legacy Building Group, Murphy Company, Sachs Electric, and the OSHA-St Louis Area Office — pledged support of a continued commitment to safety on the jobsite. The subcontractors involved in the project will also be incorporated into the partnership upon selection.

“We are committed to creating environments that open the lines of communication and collaboration across all teams and generate a mutual investment in jobsite safety,” said Todd Friis, Clayco Chief Safety Officer. “The primary goal is to eliminate work-related injuries and incidents for the state-of-the-art medical facility through identification and promotion of construction safety strategies. This project will serve as a successful model of safety best practices for future projects”

Clayco recognizes that all injuries on construction sites are preventable. As a result, this project partnership combines team strategies for an effective safety management system focusing on education and training, job hazard recognition, hazard controls, self inspection practices, abatement efforts, leadership participation, and accountability measures. The program creates an environment to raise employee safety awareness and provides a forum for positive feedback that promotes more effective safety management processes.

“As part of this cooperative effort, all business teams will share knowledge and expertise to improve their company's safety culture and construction safety performance across the industry,” said Friis.

As part of a long-range campus plan, Missouri Baptist Medical Center will add a six-story, 227,000-square-foot West Pavilion patient tower to its Town & Country campus. The hospital expansion project will increase the quality of patient care and allow Missouri Baptist to remain one of the top-tier hospitals in the St. Louis area. The facility will feature 96 additional private hospital rooms and the necessary space for future expansions at Missouri Baptist Medical Center . In addition, a new 160,000-square-foot, 460-car parking garage will be constructed of structural steel and slab on deck construction.

The partnership is also supported by Missouri Baptist Medical Center, HOK, KJWW Engineering Consultants, the Associated General Contractors of St Louis, the Carpenters District Council of Greater St Louis and Vicinity, the St Louis Building & Construction Trades Council, the Eastern Missouri Laborers" District Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local One, the Plumbers" and Pipefitters" Local 562, and the Sheet Metal Workers" Local 36.

Clayco Inc. is a full-service real estate development, design and construction firm with annual revenues of $755 million, specializing in “the art and science of building.” With offices in St. Louis , Chicago , Detroit and Washington D.C. , Clayco provides design-build project delivery on a nationwide basis for the corporate, financial, industrial, institutional, government and residential markets. For more information, visit www.claycorp.com