Spring 2007 Newsletter
“We’re no longer content with improving just our own workforce’s safety performance. We’ve increased our focus on Total Project safety.”
— Gary Amsinger, vice president, safety, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
It was 1987. And McCarthy’s recordable incident rate was 34. Yes, you read that right. We believed, as did most of the industry, that you couldn’t afford to be safe.
The advent of employee ownership brought a new attitude to McCarthy. “The people getting hurt on our jobs weren’t just coworkers anymore. They were our partners,” explains McCarthy’s Gary Amsinger.
“Nothing we do is more important than helping to ensure that our employees and team members return home safely to their loved ones each night. It’s simply the right thing to do.”
That attitude toward safety has become a critical part of McCarthy’s culture. “I think it’s safe to say that our folks are now very focused on safety. It’s a part of everyone’s core values,” continues Amsinger.
The results speak volumes. In 2006, McCarthy’s self-performing workforce totaled 5.6 million manhours of exposure. The company’s OSHA recordable incident rate was 1.54, and its OSHA lost-time case incident rate was 0.21 (the industry averages are 6.3 and 2.4, respectively).
One of the company’s operating divisions recently went 15 months without a recordable. Two divisions have gone 3 years (and still counting) without a lost-time incident. In the last five years, 5 projects have gone their entire construction duration without a recordable incident. And McCarthy recently learned that it is one of three finalists for the national AGC’s annual Construction Safety Excellence Award.
Hoping for and thinking about creating a safe work environment doesn’t make it happen. It takes commitment – both mentally and financially. At McCarthy it revolves around four basic tenets: communication, training, motivation and monitoring. Each and every employee that steps foot on a McCarthy project, including subcontractors understands our safety expectations via a McCarthy safety orientation. Our 31 full-time safety professionals set the tone. And every manager, superintendent and engineer ensures the message gets translated on site. “The skill sets our project teams employ to bring a project in on time and within budget are the same ones used to provide a safe environment for all workers.”
McCarthy’s approach avoids a set of safety “rules.” Instead, our approach centers around safety “guidelines” – thereby providing each manager with the tools needed to plan for safety on their jobsite. Developing partnerships with local/regional organizations is also a part of McCarthy’s approach. Six OSHA partnerships are currently active, covering 80% of the company’s projects.
In the last year, McCarthy’s approach has broadened to include a focus on Total Project safety. “We’ve always tried to influence our subcontractor’s safety practices on our sites, but we never had a way of really measuring their performance,” says Amsinger. McCarthy now tracks ALL safety incidents on every jobsite. Very few other, major construction companies do. In 2006, total hours of exposure amounted to 23.2 million manhours – with a Total recordable rate of 3.02 and a Total lost-time rate of 0.40.
“Few companies measure Total Project safety. Even fewer, are putting measures in place to proactively impact the subcontractors’ safety on their sites. While we’ve had success, our real goal remains clear … ZERO injuries,” reminds Amsinger.
“12 months into construction, the project is on schedule and under budget. We have a great team on this project, and the joint venture with local contractors could not be working better.”
— Timothy J. McDonnell, AIA, chief design and construction officer,
University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina
It wasn’t long after groundbreaking that McCarthy and joint venture partner T.A. Loving began setting steel for the state-of-the-art, 6-story, 375,000-square-foot East Carolina Heart Institute at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. In November 2006, less than one year and 100,000 manhours since construction began, the $109 million tower topped out and work began in earnest on the building enclosure. Right now there are 200 tradespeople working on site. As work moves inside, the workforce will steadily increase until it finally reaches 350. The facility is scheduled for completion in September 2008. The Institute, the first in North Carolina devoted specifically and exclusively to the research, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, will provide 168 beds for patients undergoing procedures for cardiac medicine, cardiac surgery and vascular surgery. Architect: HDR, Inc., Dallas.
“The facility’s containment requirements presented the need for a comprehensive commissioning process to ensure the proper function of the structure and systems. The success of this process depended on dedicated teamwork from everyone involved.”
— Donald Jones, chief, Ames Modernization Branch, USDA
The $70 million, 158,000-square-foot High Containment Large Animal Research Facility is the largest BSL-3Ag facility in the world. Known as Building 9, it is the USDA’s main center for research, diagnostics and biologics and contains 22 Biosafety Level-3Ag animal rooms used for the study of animal diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis, and animal diseases that are foreign to the United States such as heartwater and African horse sickness. The facility presented extraordinary construction challenges. In addition to building an airtight facility in which infectious microorganisms must be contained, systems to contain animals weighing nearly a ton had to be built as well. After extensive mock ups, McCarthy installed a penning and gating system able to withstand a 1,500-pound hit at 35 miles-per-hour so large animals could be moved from one area to another. The system required embeds weighing hundreds of pounds into high-containment concrete without breaching its integrity. From start to finish, the facility was built in 18 months and will soon open its doors to scientists. Architect: Merrick & Company, Aurora, Colo.
“My analogy is that McCarthy built the parking structure like a Swiss clock.”
— Stanley Westfall, project manager, University of Southern California
Significant (and largely unforeseen) utility relocations, close proximity to an operational hotel, plus the careful coordination of all embed locations for architectural pre-cast components were among the challenges facing McCarthy’s USC project team. The $20 million, 8-level, 1,193-space structure included a cast-in-place, post-tensioned long span concrete moment frame. “What struck me immediately was that McCarthy didn’t approach the project like it was ‘just a parking structure’ – their process was identical to the approach they’d take on a large healthcare project. Our punchlist at the end was very minimal and was completed with zero delay,” said the university’s Stan Westfall. An extensive brick façade also was included. McCarthy currently has 24 parking structures in preconstruction or construction in Southern California. Architects: AC Martin Partners, Inc., Los Angeles; Parkitects, Inc., Irvine, Calif.
“Our ER expansion was right up McCarthy’s alley – it was very complicated.”
— Jim Jeppson, administrative director, Presbyterian Health Services
While small in square footage, the $12 million renovation of Presbyterian’s emergency department was exceedingly complex in scope. 60,000 patients visit the ER annually as Presbyterian is the largest acute care hospital in the state. So, it was critical the facility remained open 24/7 throughout McCarthy’s work. 10,000 square feet of new space was built and 15,000 square feet of the existing ER was renovated, nearly doubling the treatment spaces to 50 while also adding a radiological imaging room. “Cleanliness and communication were absolutely critical throughout. Our staff was impressed with the process and even more impressed with their new facilities,” commented the hospital’s Jim Jeppson. The multi-phased project required the movement of the department’s main entrance 10 times. Phase II and III of the renovation continue.
Architect: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, Albuquerque, N.M.
“McCarthy’s attention to detail, spirit of collaboration, and plain old simple teamwork made a dream come true for residents of San Mateo County.”
— José D. Nuñez, vice chancellor, facilities planning, maintenance & operations,
San Mateo County Community College District
The College of San Mateo (CSM) Science Building and Planetarium recently celebrated its completion with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The first project to be built on the campus in more than 40 years, it is also the first to be constructed pursuant to California Assembly Bill 1000, which provides guidelines for implementing design-build projects for community college districts. The more than 62,000-square-foot, 3-story science building houses lecture halls, faculty offices and laboratories. The facility also features a planetarium and an observatory with a retractable roof for several fixed telescopes. To accommodate CSM’s aggressive completion schedule, McCarthy used a multi-stage, fast-track process. The first stage included mass excavation, earthwork, site pad preparation and the relocation of the main campus utility lines. The second stage was the completion of the science building. The third stage involved the construction of the planetarium. Design/Build Architect:
LPA Inc., Roseville, Calif.
“McCarthy lived up to its reputation in building parking garages. They are a good, responsive contractor who met our schedule needs.”
— Ron Richardson, associate vice president for facility services, CSU Sacramento
Parking is much easier this semester at CSU, Sacramento with the opening of the largest parking structure built in the CSU system. The 6-level structure includes 3,100 parking spaces and marks the fifth project to be constructed by McCarthy on the campus. The new structure accommodates current student growth projections, as well as extracurricular events held in the adjacent campus stadium. The structure also will provide parking space for CSU’s new Recreation and Wellness Center, which McCarthy was recently awarded. As a focal point on campus, the project required widening roads leading to the structure and installing a traffic signal. To maximize the allocated space, the project is comprised of two independent structures separated by a seismic gap including a light well down the middle to reduce the number of students and pedestrians crossing adjacent busy streets. The structure features seven elevators and includes space for an additional three for future use. McCarthy self-performed the project’s concrete work, including the foundations. Architect: International Parking Design, Inc., Alameda, Calif.
“Dallas County is delighted to have McCarthy on board for this project. It’s a large project that needs to be completed on time, and McCarthy is off to a great start.”
— Dan Savage, assistant administrator for operations, Dallas County
McCarthy recently broke ground on the new
$61.7 million Dallas County Detention Center South Tower, a 335,000-square-foot expansion of the Lew Sterrett complex replacing two older facilities. The project’s key challenges relate to underground construction. A 4-level, concrete frame structure with brick exterior and masonry interior walls, the tower will be located adjacent to the Trinity River basin and above a decades-old landfill, requiring drilling 285 cased piers ranging from 100 to 160 feet in depth. In addition, McCarthy will construct complex underground tunnels to facilitate transport of prisoners from the sally port, or receiving area, to the secure facility via elevators. Finally, an underground elevator and single-level parking garage will provide additional parking for law enforcement vehicles. The project is scheduled to complete in fall 2008. Architect: HKS Inc., Dallas.
“I like to see what’s going on real time. Having instant access to McCarthy’s Prolog project management system allowed me to do this.”
— Candy Cooley, director of school construction, Florence Unified School District
In the last five years, the school population for Florence’s district has more than tripled, necessitating more construction in those years than had occurred in the previous five decades. Given the massive Anthem at Merrill Ranch master planned community’s location in the far southeastern part of the Phoenix metro area, the new $11 million, K-8 facility’s major obstacle was securing qualified tradespeople. “McCarthy’s subcontractor relationships overcame those challenges, and their on-site personnel’s ability to be patient and quickly react to ever-changing developer utility relocations made my job considerably easier,” said Florence’s Candy Cooley. McCarthy is currently working on two additional facilities for the Florence USD. Architect: Emc2 Group Architects Planners, PC, Mesa, Ariz.
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