This week, an article by Matt Dunning in Business Insurance lists some of the numbers which reveal the enormity of the combined projects currently under construction at the World Trade Center site in New York. The article states that “there are 13 integrated megaprojects” in progress at the site. When the projects were initiated, details of risk management such as safety inspections and incident reports were maintained separately for each individual project, but in 2008, risk managers for the developers and their insurers implemented a system which integrates relevant information from all of the projects into one database.
The two main developers, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Silverstein Properties Inc., have utilized their Safety Management Systems Tracking Tool to combine data on “workers’ compensation, property claims, injury and on-site medical reports, site safety observations and payroll.”
Michael Castelli of Chartis Inc., the main insurer for the projects, was interviewed for the article, which reports:
“Mr. Castelli said combining payroll figures with incident reports, safety observations and insurance claims gives the Port Authority a much more thorough view of the projects' overall performance by tracking construction progress against workforce safety and spending trends.”
The results have been positive. The article quotes Castelli as saying:
“In the real world, as production goes up, safety goes down. What we've tried to do is find the point at which those two lines intersect, so that we're operating at peak efficiency while maintaining our safety performance. That's a challenge not only at this site, but across the industry on the whole.”
Look for this trend to continue, especially on major projects, as owners realize improved safety records while maximizing production.
Photo courtesy the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
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