Monthly Archives: September 2017

Rescue Team Prepares Emergency Response Drill for Acushnet Plant

September 26, 2017Latest News, SafetyPJK_Russell

We are pleased to welcome the Bristol County Technical Rescue Team (BCTRT) to the Acushnet plant, as they prepare an overall emergency response plan.

Funded by Homeland Security, the BCTRT includes local firefighters and other first response professionals who train for advanced life-saving rescue skills on-call across the region. The rescue team recently toured the Acushnet plant with site manager, Jeff Olejniczak and safety lead, Lauri Conner.

The rescue team has planned an emergency response drill at the screen tower in order to prepare for a fall from heights scenario. The date of the drill has been postponed due to the recent thunderstorms, and will be re-scheduled weather permitting. Plans to work with regional rescue teams in the Lunenburg, Cranston, and Dracut areas are to be announced.

Safety Committee Takes Action to resolve Paving Crew’s Concerns

September 26, 2017Latest News, SafetyPJK_Russell

The committee recently focused on the ergonomic concerns raised by Carlos Rebello’s crew. By installing a side body rack for jackhammers, the strain of lifting and lowering hand tools throughout the work day has been minimized. Because ascending and descending into the tailgate was identified as a slip and fall hazard, a step and handrail has been installed as a solution to enable the 3-points of contact safety method.

Health & Safety Experts Evaluate Noise & Dust at Quarry & Stone Plants

September 26, 2017Latest News, SafetyPJK_Russell

A selection of employees will don monitors which measure the levels of exposure of noise and dust on site to ensure that it is compliant and within a safe range. An Industrial Hygiene consultant is making the rounds to each site, and will provide expert analyses. Monitoring is scheduled to take place at the Acushnet plant in the upcoming days, weather permitting. Testing has been completed at the Cranston and Lunenburg plants, with lab results and recommendations to follow.

September Safety Awards

September 26, 2017All-Out Day, Latest News, Safety, UncategorizedPJK_Russell

Welcome to our Safety Award roundup for the month of September! Our crews were hard at work keeping P. J. Keating employees, crews and sites safe so we have many people to thank!

First we have Mandy Denio, our staff accountant, who was recognized with a Safety Award for her quick thinking in the Lunenburg office by reorganizing a large delivery all by herself which had posed a trip/fall hazard in our entrance way!

Dave DelGenio was awarded a Safety Award this month for his safe and effective Route 38 Water Pipe repair outside of our Dracut plant! He coordinated with Dracut DPW and had the repair finished with zero incidents.

Next up is Brian Quin and Eric Ward, who were both recognized with a Safety Award for their emergency repair on a safety belt at the Lunenburg Stone Plant. Emergency repairs on safety equipment is crucial for keeping the rest of the crews safe now and in the future, so we’re very thankful for their work and especially that they completed it with zero incidents!

Last but not certainly not least we have our first place Safety Award Winner, who we are happy to announce is Craig Thibault this month! He helped prevent an MSHA citation by assisting the operator of a haul truck with the proper operation of the emergency steering system when he was unable to activate it. Way to go Buzzy!

CORE Award:
The CORE award is team or project-based award and the trophy is actually made in house with cores of HMA and aggregate from our QC lab to further reinforce the commitment to our business, how cool!

For their safety performance on the Weston Toll Plaza Project, our CORE award was awarded to Fernando Estrela and Ed Peterson! They were responsible for mobilizing equipment and crews across a 6 lane highway with multiple ramps and many obstacles and did so successfully and incident free over 45 shifts.

We are thankful for all our Safety and CORE Award Winners and all P. J. Keating employees who put safety first. Congratulations to all and lets hope for another safe month in this upcoming October.

September All Out Day

September 22, 2017All-Out Day, Latest NewsPJK_Russell

Yesterday, September 21, 2017 was our monthly All-Out Day!

If you’re not familiar with P. J. Keating’s All-Out Day, let us introduce you to this great event we hold every month.

It’s everyone’s favorite day of the month here at P. J. Keating and for good reason! It’s very important to us that staff in the office stay connected and updated with our workers and crews throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. All-Out Day provides a great opportunity for our employees to get out of the office, into the field and see the process and progress of our crew’s work. It’s a fantastic way to develop good communication and relationships between all P. J. Keating employees as well as help bridge the gap between what’s going on in the office and how it relates to what our crews are doing out on the roads. In turn, it gives crews a good look into what goes on in the office and a chance to meet and speak one on one with Safety and Operations Managers, or even the President!

It’s also a great time for us to recognize our Safety Winners of the month with their awards and congratulate them for the great work they’re doing! We’ll bring you details on the winners and their photos in the next post.

This September we have a great bunch of photos to share with you from our All-Out Day teams visiting crews all across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.